Hogwarts = Mental Institution

[Pilgrim]

I know almost nothing about Harry Potter, but the references to the wizard of oz - I have recently come to describe my dissociative states as being like going back and forth between kansas and oz.. in describing flashbacks, I feel like I am whisked away back into the events that traumatized me - and am stuck there and have to fight to find my wayback 'home' - to the 'real' world. The trouble is, those flashbacks (aka, oz) feels just SO much more real to me, and in screaming technicolor. As opposed to being grounded back into my current reality.. I feel f a r less connected and attached to the real world - my experience I'm in, right now - than I do to the ME that I am, in the far more sensory-enriched flashbacks. If that makes any sense. It makes perfect sense to me, to describe it that way, bc my emotional investment is all tied up in 'way back when.' Even when those experiences were, and still are, traumatic. And, when oz intrudes, it's not at all like the drab grayness of 'right now', as I experience it. I hope that doesn't sound TOO crazy.

 

[Fadeaway]

I don't think you can compare Harry potter to the Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland. In both of those books it is implied that the other worlds were all a "dream" that intentionally leaves the reader with the possibility that may or may not have been the product of the characters imagination.

The author of Harry Potter did not do that. The author intended that for the sake of the story , the wizarding world was indeed real.

Now if the author of the article was saying that Twilight was the the product of a mental institution... well I would love to say yes, but I don't think Stephanie Meyer put that much thought into her books if any *ducks from flying objects thrown by twilight fans* Unlike J.K. Rowling who thought her books through on a deeper level than what the article suggests.

 

[Deleted member 29920]

@Pilgrim, you described that perfectly, it doesn't sound crazy at all. In Harry Potter the characters enter a magical world by stepping through a wall on a train platform, similarly, alice falls down a rabbit hole and ends up in a bizarre world, Dorothy is whisked off to oz via tornado(?) and the kids in lion witch and wardrobe enter another world through the back of the wardrobe. I am intrigued by the symbolism in these stories and I think yes, they could be representing dissociative states too. But my main thought is that they represent our asleep /awake states. I'm fascinated by all these things :)

 

[Deleted member 28403]

Quite interesting, and just remembered an interesting reference, not dirrectly at the point of separate world, but interesting in terms of dissociative indentities, with which I can relate a lot. A reference from Hulk, where a man asks Bruce Banner: "Are you a big guy that gets all little, or a little guy that sometimes blows up large", which I find interesting, as it puts in the question which personality, if any is, would be the main one (for example, for me, my main one is the one that is constantly aware of the other ones)