Citation

Subkowski P. Prax. Kinderpsychol. Kinderpsychiatr. 2004; 53(10): 738-753.

Vernacular Title

Harry Potter--das Trauma als Motor der psychischen Entwicklung.

Affiliation

drpsubkowski@t-online.de

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Verlag Fur Medizinische Psychologie)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

15646020

Abstract

The Harry Potter books are centered around the psychic development of a traumatised young boy starting from his internalised early experience of being loved by his mother to the sudden loss of both of his parents at the anal stage and the later cumulative traumatisation by being negleced and mistreated by his relatives up to the present times. By identifying with his father and other father replacements Harry Potter finally acquires self-assurance and wins new friends. Harry goes through different stages of initiation into the adult world with all its conflicts and rivalries but also friendships. He stands up to his fears and symptoms resulting from his early childhood traumata and thereby helps to encourage readers of all ages to handle their own conflicts. On the oedipal level Harry Potter finally has to deidealize his father and Dumbledore, but also their opponent the dark Lord Voldemort, who thereby becomes more human, understandable and in the long run probably defeatable. The reader can identify himself with Harry and/ or a wide range of other characters. He can recognize his own experiences in life and conflicts in the story and argue internally with the demonstrated conflict solving patterns on different levels. It is the skillfully displayed and logically constructed story of the psychic development of a child that is traumatised at an early age and the possibilities the reader has to identify selectively with the different characters that constitutes the attractiveness of the Harry Potter novels.

Language: de