Psychoanalysis of the Harry Potter Series

The Harry potter series brings out perspectives of displacement and projection
caused by sibling rivalry, and bullying, as well as demonstrating super ego , ego and
Id in the form of Harry, Hermione and Ron.
Harry lives with a family which sets very high standards of social acceptability. Harry
is not allowed to ask questions or ask for the fulfilment of any of his physical needs
such as food other than the little he is provided, clothes which fit or a space to live,
other than a cupboard. Harry must also responsibly complete his daily chores. He is
shrieked at by his aunt, threatened by his purple faced huge uncle and often
locked in a cupboard. He is never given love, affection or even sympathy. Hence
Harry expects adults to be apathetic to his problems and learns to become self
reliant. It is these traits that cause him to develop a super ego- the need to do the
right thing beyond the call of duty, as he knows firsthand the feeling of
mistreatment. Harry goes to get the philosophers stone, knowingly vying against a
mass murdered for he feels he must. Im going out of here tonight and Im going to
get the stone first! Similarly he goes to face a basilisk when he goes to rescue
Ginny, and feels overwhelming guilt when Cedric dies in his presence. His self
blame is a habit with roots in his family too. Harry is blamed from a young age for
all the problems at his Aunt and Uncles house. In fact complaining about is a
favourite past time of Uncle Vernon. This gives Harry the habit of blaming himself
for the tragedies in his environment, despite trying his level best to prevent them.
Hermione is symbolic of the ego. She is very particular about following social
convention and is judgmental of people who do not. She is the first person changed
into uniform on the train and encourages others to hurry up to. She has learnt all
her textbooks by heart for fear of not knowing enough because of her non magical
background. When she inadvertently gets pulled into breaking school rules by
having to accompany Ron and Harry to the out of bounds third floor corridor, she is
furious at the boys and herself. I hope you are pleased with yourself. We could all
have been killed or worse expelled. It is clear she tries very hard to gain social
acceptability and being an outcast from society is even greater than the threat of
death. Though her strictness against rule breaking relaxes in the following books
she remains a model of social convention.
Ronald Weasley is primal emotion with little higher thinking hence he is symbolic of
the Id. Ronald stuffs his food in his mouth till it is falling out. He is very easily
provoked into physical attack by Draco Malfoy often. Are you trying to earn some
extra money, Weasley? ... Ron dived at Malfoy . Ron and Malfoy have a physical
altercation in every book, as Ron fails to give verbal rejoinders to Malfoys taunts.
When Ron turns sixteen in the 6 th book, his desire is just as primal as his other
habits. His girlfriend, Lavender Brown, is someone with whom Ron has almost no
emotional attachment. Ginny comments on Ron kissing Lavender saying It looks

like hes eating her face. I suppose he will have to refine his technique, which
reflects on Ron being symbolic of the animal self .
Thanatos is also an important aspect of the Harry potter series. Freud believed that
the death drive is a biological phenomenon. The British Wizarding society, especially
the half supporting Voldemort seem to be heading to the destruction of the whole
society almost like commiting mass suicide. The Death Eaters kill not just muggles,
who outnumber them 10 to 1, and are the main population of the world, but also
people who have mixed heritage i.e people with muggle and magical bloodlines.
Considering that people of magical bloodlines are very few, and since Voldemort
does not hesitate to kill his own followers either there is literally no one in Britain
left who is safe from systematic genocide. Thanatos is also evident in the feelings
provoked in Harry after Cedric, Sirius and Dumbledores deaths and ultimately his
walk to his own death. Harry suffers guilt over all three deaths, and blames himself
for them. Cedric and Siriuss death especially cause Harry to feel inadequate.
Harrys upset emotional state in Book 5 reflects his feeling in that regard. Harry
does not feel fear of abandonment as he walks up to his own death as he is
accompanied by his dead parents and dead god father, but he does experience fear
of pain, as he asks Sirius Does it hurt?. The fear of Death is clearly evident in
Voldemort as he has gone to great lengths to avoid it. Voldemort makes Horcruxes
to enable him to live forever, which break his soul into pieces and make him
unstable. He is terrified when he realizes that Harry has destroyed a number of
them. Ironically when Harry meets the dead they tell him there is nothing to fear
from death and it is as easy as falling asleep.
Sibling Rivalry is an underlying theme in all the books. Petunia Dursley is displacing
and projecting her hurt and fear from her sibling rivalry with her sister onto Harry.
Petunia Dursley was horse faced and thin with plain brown hair and eyes, her sister
on the other hand was red haired and green eyed. Lilly Evans was also vivacious,
charming, smart and a witch. She automatically took her parents attention as well
as anyone she met. This created unconquerable jealousy in Petunia Evans. She
competed for attention with her sister from her parents. She hated her sisters
magic and school which made her something much more special then herself. She
projects all that hate onto Harry, Lillys only child, who is at her mercy. She neglects
Harry and screams at him. She tries her level best to prevent him doing magic and
lives in fear that Harry will outshine Dudley. She praises and cherishes Dudley
despite his slow learning ability and spoilt behaviour. When Hagrid comes to get
Harry, her jealousy burst out in a long vitriolic speech. my dratted sister being
what she was? Oh she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that school
There is also Sibling rivalry between the Weasley Children. Percy has become
pompously rule abiding and obsessively hard working to prove to his family his
superiority over his other siblings. In unconscious reaction to this, Fred and George
become pranksters to prove their difference and individuality from rule abiding
Percy and their elder brothers. Ron suffers from low self esteem because he is the

last brother, with no individual achievement of his own. Ginny gets attention for
being a girl, and his other brothers have all carved out their place for themselves,
except Ron. Then Ron becomes Harrys best friend, who gets everyones attention,
creating jealousy in Ron. This desire to make a name for himself comes to light
when Ron looks in the Mirror of Erised and sees himself as head boy and Quidditch
captain getting glamour and attention. Rons need subsides a little in Book 5 when
he becomes a prefect.
Freuds theory of Family romance is also applicable to Harry in a way. According to
Freud Family romance is when a child disassociates himself from his parents and
family pretending he is adopted and that his real parents are ideal. Harry, though
he really is adopted, associates with his parents ideal traits. When Snape disabuses
James Potter Harry could not believe him. Snapes worst memory is horrifying for
Harry because all his ideals are shattered as he sees his ideal father victimizing his
meanest teacher.
Severus Snape too displaces and projects his hatred of James potter on to Harry.
Snape, who is studious and a genius but not good looking is outshone by James
Potter. James is popular for his looks and Quiditch skills, accompanied by academic
skills. He also gets away with bullying Snape often because he is a favoured by the
teachers and students. He then wins the heart of Lilly Evans, Snapes only friend
and his secret love. This traumatizes Snape and creates in him a hatred for James
Potter which consumes him. He becomes disillusioned against the resistance
because James Potter is a part of it. It also colours his later life, as he projects his
anger at James Potter onto Harry Potter.
Harrys attraction to Ginny is to an extent oedipal. Harry has never known his
mother and only knows that which he is told. He knows that his mother had long red
hair and green eyes, was very good at charms and was vivacious and bold. Ginevra
Weasley is all these things hence Harry is attracted to her. As long a Ginevera
Weasley was shy and quite she held no interest for Harry. It is only when she
becomes bold and vivacious does he notice her. However it seems that Harrys
relationship to Ginevra is not destructive as is usually the case with relationships
based on oedipal issues, and the authors epilogue indicates that he is happily
married to her even many years later .
The Harry Potter series portrays the complexity of human relationships and brings
to light issues such as sibling rivalry, Projection, Thanatos, the id, ego and super ego
and oedipal attachments.