Austin Fontaine 
Megan Novelli I am a Harry Potter fanatic and finally had the chance to see the movie this weekend. It killed me to not go to the midnight showing, but being the procrastinator I am, I hadn’t finished my research paper. Anyway, as I was watching it, I began to think of how many characters in the movie are said to be “mad” which prompted me to do some browsing on connections between Harry Potter and mental illness. In doing so, I found a website that states that Harry Potter is not just a magical fairytale, but rather an extended metaphor about mental illness and the institutionalization of children. While I don’t agree with the blogger’s theory, he presented many interesting ways that Freud’s ideas could be applied to Harry’s life.
The central idea is that Hogwarts is a mental institution and that “every major event in the books is a fantasy/delusional version of the experiences that a child would encounter in the course of being institutionalized and forcibly treated for mental illness.” The real world is the world with the Dursely’s and the wizarding world is simply part of Harry’s imagination. His violent encounters with Dudley are what got Harry sent to the mental instition/Hogwarts rather than his magical talents.
To me, his strongest and most interesting point was about Freud’s family romance. Family romance is a fantasy in which a child imagines that their birth parents are not actual, but adoptive parents. Typically, the fantasy parents are noble, or a higher social class than the real parents. Harry fits the mold exactly. He believes that the Dursely’s are not his real parents, but adopted parents and that his real parents are well-known wizards, famous for their great bravery and love in protecting him. Interesting, isn’t it?
I’ll post the link so that ya’ll can read the original blog for yourselves. He presents loose, but interesting ideas about the series. What do ya’ll make of his ideas?
http://freedomainradio.com/BOARD/forums/t/27506.aspx?PageIndex=1
Michael Bartholomew
11:28 am, 11.22.10
I’ll have to take a closer look at this site; I like the idea and it seems to fit pretty well. Children are often known to embrace delusions of better parents and fantastic thinking, and as you said, Harry Potter seems to fit this stereotype very well. Could this be expanded even more though? Could these imaginary tales be part of the author’s subconscious speaking through her writing? I’m curious, but that may be taking it too far. It’s very likely this is just creative writing being over-analyzed by somebody with too much time, but interesting thoughts.
Bradley Campbell
11:31 am, 11.22.10
Amy……My wife and I are also large Harry Potter fans. I really enjoyed your post, it is interesting how often we watch and read something and can easily fall into the fantasy as the reality. I never gave any thought that this could all just be a delusional coping fantasy that harry needed to survive. I have to say that I prefer the fantasy….and not the possible reality of Harry’s plight.
Rachel Jinkerson
11:45 am, 11.22.10
This is so interesting. Yet, I do not take this guy to be very credible in Harry Potter knowledge because he refers to Cedric Diggory as Derek… Yes, I am a HP nerd too.
I have also heard people claim that Harry suffers from PTSD because has flashbacks and nightmares of the traumatic events and it certain movies is tense, anxious and feels guilt for the pain he has caused.
Anne Weaver
12:01 pm, 11.22.10
I thought this was very insightful. I’ve never considered this before, but it does make some sense. It reminded me of the scene in the last movie when Valdemort was a little boy. He thought Dumbledore was coming to take him away to some mental institution due to the strange things he did. I’m not a huge fan, so I’m not coming up with any other parallels. But very interesting theory.
Courtney Price
12:12 pm, 11.22.10
This really grabbed my attention because I have yet to see the movie, however this is an interesting idea. I have also thought about this when reading the books, there are a lot of characters who just do not seem “right”. I plan on looking into the link later, but I, like you, have procrastinated and am now trying to get my blof posts completed.
Jonathan Sanders
2:03 pm, 11.22.10
This is more entertaining than anything else, just goes to show that you can analyze just about anything given the right theory. I agree that this guys perspective is not 100% accurate, but give him credit for his interpretation. Young minds are malleable and very conducive to fantasy-like delusions. My favorite response was the one stating that Harry had PTSD, which would be an interesting study given his age.
Hannah Hendrix
1:26 pm, 11.29.10
I am a huge HP fanatic as well, and was disappointed in his referral of Cedric as Derek too, Rachel. I particularly was intrigued by the family romance theory. Harry fits this so well, its almost creepy. I can remember being very angry at my parents when I was a little child, and I would run off to my room and wish that one day my “real” parents would come save me from the psychos I lived with. Usually, they were royalty, and I would of course go live in their legit European castle and vacation at our many chateaus. Oh, childhood.
Megan Novelli
3:28 pm, 11.29.10
This is interesting in the correlations but if you are just looking at the harry potter books point blank, you are reading too much into it. Take it for what it is a work of fiction for entertainment purposes. You could easily say the same for the movie avatar and how it correlates to the US invading the middle east. I just take these for point blank entertainment values.