Psychoanalysis of the Harry Potter SeriesThe 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 6th 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.