Real child abuse/ Snape again

[festuco]

No: HPFGUIDX 145684

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Miles" <miles at m...> wrote:

> AFAIR I was the first one to ask for definitions of abuse and to
bring in a
> definition in order to structure the discussion. Later you introduced a
> definition of emotional abuse - which is similar to the English and
German
> definitions I found so far - and tried to show Snape's actions as
abuses of
> this kind.
> What you missed (and I neither think you intended to do nor that the
reason
> is a lack of personal expertise on your side) is to point out, that
the kind
> of relationship between abuser and abused when speaking of emotional
abuse
> has to meet special conditions, like trust, dependence, and
exclusiveness.
> These conditions, to speak of Harry, are met by Dumbledore, Sirius,
maybe
> Molly and Arthur - but never by Snape.

Actually, I don't think this definition is completely right. A teacher
can emotionally abuse a pupil, and I've seen the results of this. Was
there trust? No. Was there dependence: certainly, there is always
dependence in a teacher-child relationship. Was there exclusiveness:
up to a point. There are teachers who are certainly able to
emotionally abuse a child and who do so. Make the child the laughing
stock of the class, making constantly derogative remarks, giving
punishments far more severe than other children get, for lesser things
or for no reason at all, looking for the weak spot and going for it
again and again and again, every hour, every day. If the child is -
how do I say this - authority minded this will have a huge impact,
more than if they are able to shrug it off, get angry or have enough
of self to not start believing all that. The Nevilles are much easier
to intimidate by an authority figure than the Harrys, but it will take
a rarely resilient child to come out of a truly emotionally abusive
teacher-student relation unharmed. 

Yet I don't think Snape is abusive. He is nasty, but he never crosses
the line into true abuse. He simply does not enough for that. True
abuse would mean making derogatory remarks about Neville/Harry every
couple of minutes. Deliberately chipping away at his self-confidence
again and again every time they have potions. Giving random detentions
as horrid as possible. And so on, and so on. Now we see Snape doing a
little of that. And for Neville this is certainly not good. But true
abuse is much, much worse. Could Snape be able of emotional abuse?
Certainly. He knows how to wound and he has demonstrated he can be
cruel. Does he do it. No, he does not enough for that. 

Gerry