POTTER AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT

The enormous popularity of the Harry Potter books points to the deep resonance readers feel with the psychological issues they bring to life. Three developmental issues provide central themes: the necessity for partial disenchantment and increasing attunement to reality, while retain-ing a capacity for wonder; repudiation or endorsement of the narcissistic solution to life’s difficulties; and aggression and castration fantasies while growing into adult power. These developmental issues are particularly acute during adolescence but start earlier and continue to be reworked throughout the life span, accounting for the books ’ appeal to a wide age-range of readers despite their apparent focus on adolescence. These developmental themes are explored in order to better understand the Harry Potter books, as, conversely, the books are explored in order to better understand these themes. F irst, a warning: I am going to give away how it all ends; stop now if you do not want to know. I first heard of Harry Potter from a friend who had rejected her con-servative religious upbringing but continued to seek “spiritual ” meaning. Soon after I finished the final volume, a saleslady asked me if I was “at peace ” with how it ended. I do not think it accidental that my acquain-tance with Harry Potter was bookended by spirituality. People love and are concerned about the series to an extraordinary extent. Sales were so enormous that after the first volumes the New York Times changed the way it listed bestsellers to remove Harry Potter books from the regula