Real child abuse/ Snape again

[lagattalucianese]

No: HPFGUIDX 145699

>
...
> 
> 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
>
La Gatta Lucianese:

I think you are right on the money, Gerry. It's a matter of focus. The 
abuser's main focus in the relationship with the child is *abusing*. 
That is the factor that defines the relationship. I can remember times 
when my mother couldn't wait for me to get home from school because 
she had thought up some new nastiness she wanted to try out on me. 
They *enjoy* what they're doing, in fact it's almost like a narcotic 
they need to get through the day.

Snape's main focus is teaching his students potions. His nastiness is 
*reactive*; that is, he doesn't, except for that first day in SS, take 
the initiative. He *reacts* to things the students say and do that 
irritate him--Harry's in-your-face antagonism, Neville's incompetence 
(in all fairness, I think I would find Neville a bit trying myself), 
Hermione's know-it-all self-promotion. He is easily irritated; he 
hates the world, and it doesn't take much to set him off, but he does 
need to be set off. His hostility beyond that seems to be based mainly 
on the house the student is in, not anything personal about the 
student; you can hear the relish in his voice when he says, "Ten 
points from Gryffindor." And I think his hatred of Gryffindor is based 
on very real experiences of extreme abuse in his own youth.