1On June 26th, 997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was rejected by 18 Press, was finally published. At this point, the Harry Potter series has been published for 20 years.
As a result, Mr. Potter in the cupboard received the admission notice from the owl; On platform nine and three quarters, the steam train sounded a long flute; In the candlelight-flickering Hogwarts Auditorium, sorting hat grinned and sang its first song in 20 years ... Since then, we have always believed that Hogwarts exists somewhere in the world, and we have been wondering when we can send the admission notice, the lost owl.
For many readers, Harry Potter has been like a silent friend for 20 years. It is full of courage, responsibility and friendship, and these qualities are so real. At the same time, Harry's occasional arbitrariness, recklessness and fragility make him like a real person, and he will be miserable and at a loss around us. It is Rowling who has provided us with such a rich and real world with all her writing. Rowling turned her experience of depression into a symbolic dementor. In the book, she gave Harry Potter a spell: calling God to guard; In life, the world of Harry Potter is like her patron saint. This unique experience and writing has enabled countless readers to gain the strength of growth and self-redemption.
Readers familiar with the Harry Potter series should remember Harry's arch-enemy Voldemort, who did not appear in the book Prisoner of Azkaban. In this book, Harry's greatest enemy is dementors.
Dementors are the guards of Azkaban prison, "a monster in a cloak, reaching to the ceiling." Its face is completely hidden under the headscarf ... A hand sticks out from the cloak, shining, gray, thin and scabbed, as if something had died and soaked in water and rotted ... "
Professor Lu Bang once explained to Harry: "Dementors are one of the most hateful creatures on earth. They swarmed in the darkest and dirtiest places, cheering for corruption and despair, and sucking peace, hope and joy from the surrounding air. Even muggles can feel their presence, although they can't see these guys. If you are too close to dementors, any good feelings and happy memories will be sucked away by them. If you can, it will live on you for a long time, and finally make you like it-soulless and evil. All that is left for you is the worst memory of your life. "
Speaking of which, does anyone already think dementors are similar to another word in our muggle world?
Yes, it is depression.
As a "magic baby", Harry is a child who can resist Voldemort, but has no resistance to dementors.
Whenever dementors approach him, Harry will drown in the biting cold, hear his mother's screams before she dies, and be tortured by dementors.
Since the first experience on the train, when Harry meets dementors again, he will feel that "a familiar and terrible cold current is coming at him again".
In fact, this sentence is a perfect description of depression experience. Most cases of depression tend to recur, because the way of thinking that leads to psychological obstacles appears automatically. When people haven't realized this kind of automatic thinking, no matter what situation they are in, their emotions will emerge a familiar sense of depression and fall into the "dark abyss" at an extremely fast speed. This almost familiar experience is irresistible and cannot be interrupted.
Some doctors point out that "depression ... usually lasts for several days or even months at a time. Generally, it will relieve itself after an attack period, and it will completely return to normal during the remission period. I can fully know that the attack is abnormal. I also hope that it will not recur, but I often have multiple seizures, which is beyond the patient's control. "
The cunning dementors felt Harry's fragile constitution and often appeared beside him.
Finally, in Quidditch, Harry was attacked by a group of dementors. He fell off Nimbus 2000 and fell from the sky.
This helplessness and hopelessness of falling from the clouds, the automatic thinking mode of falling into the "emotional abyss" and the fear of not stepping on the abyss, as well as the psychological fear of recurring situations and preset scenes, all imply that Harry's dementors are "depression".
In fact, the novel J.K. Rowling revealed in her own interview that the setting of "dementors" is actually a literary embodiment of her personal life experience.
199 1 year, 26-year-old Rowling went to Portugal to teach English to her children. Before that, she worked as a secretary for a while. 19921June16th, she married Portuguese TV reporter George Alanti. Unfortunately, this marriage came and went quickly. Separated in June of the same year 165438+ 10.
The biographer wrote that Rowling had suffered from domestic violence at that time, but others still could not know all the details of the marriage. In an interview with the Daily Express, George Alanti mentioned that on their last night, he dragged Rowling out of the house and hit her on the head. It was still 5 am.
In February 65438, Rowling returned to England with her 3-month-old daughter Jessica. At that time, Rowling was unemployed, and her unemployment benefit had just been able to pay the rent. A friend of Rowling paid a 600-pound rental deposit for her. In despair, Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter in that small bungalow.
Rowling's hand-painted illustrations for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Because of poverty, single mother Rowling fell into extreme depression, and Rowling's condition worsened when her ex-husband visited their mother and daughter in Britain. She applied to the court for a protection order, forcing Alanti to return to Portugal alone. At that low tide, Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression and tried to commit suicide. The dark feeling in the depressed plot became the inspiration for Rowling to create dementors.
Rowling described this failure as liberation. She said: "Failure means getting rid of unnecessary things. I no longer deceive myself, but I am loyal to myself. I put all my energy into the only important job. If I have succeeded in other places before, then I may never have such determination to devote myself to this field that I am confident really belongs to me. I'm free! Because although my biggest fear has come, I am still alive. I have a lovely daughter, an old typewriter and great ideas. Once it falls to the bottom, it becomes a deep foundation for rebirth in the future. "
The mystery is solved. In Prisoner of Azkaban, the deity of the dementors who tortured Harry from beginning to end was depression.
I am particularly sensitive to Harry's feelings because I have experienced depression.
I was shocked when I confirmed that Rowling really injected such a dark side into Harry.
I can't understand how Harry, as the protagonist of a growing fairy tale, suffers from depression.
Because deep down, I feel that suffering from depression is a shame and should not tell outsiders.
In youth, I don't know how many people experienced depression, but in the social environment at that time, psychotherapy and psychological counseling were still a rare word. As a result, most people are struggling with different degrees of depression, accompanied by different life experiences. Some people heal themselves, while others are more unfortunate. It was not until adulthood, even after working for several years, that this problem was put on the bright side.
We are ashamed to tell outsiders about our predicament, because we don't want to be regarded as weak by others, and we don't want to be said to have poor psychological quality, because "everyone else is fine, why should I do this?" Because "others will think I am sentimental, cowardly and hate me."
When Harry first told people about his predicament and asked Professor Lupin why he was influenced by dementors, Professor Lupin's first sentence turned out to be pointedly that "it has nothing to do with weakness". Then, "a ray of winter sunshine shone into the classroom, illuminating Lubang's gray hair and wrinkles on his young face."
Although I can control my negative emotions now, when I saw this sentence, I was still illuminated by a ray of winter sunshine.
Our understanding of depression has never been accurate, but it is actually just the difficulties and problems we may encounter on our way to adulthood. All fears stem from ignorance. When we give things their original names, we gain the power to stare at them calmly.
When a habitual automatic negative emotion opens, we will fall into a cobweb of depression and it is difficult to break free.
This uncontrollable loss will make us complain and make us distrust ourselves, so we hope to be saved by someone we can trust.
This person may be a parent, a friend, a lover, or someone who will never be like me in our minds.
This man is strong and selfless, and has good qualities that we don't have. In short, he is "God".
When Harry met the biggest crisis in this book, he saw someone calling for a powerful guard on the other side of the lake. He firmly believes that the wizard is his dead father.
Hermione and Ron, as outsiders, can easily say that "people can't be resurrected after death".
But looking at Harry's praying eyes, as an audience, do we even want all this to be true?
Because, we prayed like this.
However, no matter how powerful the prayer is, Harry's father can never appear in this world again.
People who have experienced depression will feel stinging when they hear the phrase "no one can save you", because dependence is rejected and they are desperate because they are worried that they will never save you.
In the cobweb of emotions, we can also clearly perceive that this is not the person I like and this is not the life I want.
But even if the savior takes you to another dimension, you are still you.
What we really long for is not to escape to another dimension, but to feel the world like a "savior".
No one can wake a person who pretends to sleep, just as no one can taste the sweetness of strawberries for us.
What we really want is to be a "savior".
How did Harry single-handedly defeat dementors?
By consulting Professor Lu Bang, Harry learned a very profound magic, that is, the patron saint spell.
The spell of the patron saint spell is to summon the guardian of God, which is a free translation of Latin Expecto Patronum. The Latin word literally means "waiting for an escort". When the patron saint spell works correctly, you can summon a patron saint.
The patron saint is something that resists dementors, a kind of guard, and acts as a shield between the caster and dementors. It is a positive force, which advocates the food of dementors-hope, happiness and desire to live-but it can't feel desperate like a real person, so dementors can't hurt it. When working, the silver gas is ejected from the end of the wand, and finally a shaped silver animal is formed. Each patron saint has a different appearance, which is related to the wizard who summoned it.
To make this spell work, people need to try their best to remember some happy things when they say "call God to guard".
Harry's choice of happy memories is interesting. He chose not any experience at Hogwarts, but the memory of escaping from the Dursleys during menstruation.
When Harry first calls for the formed patron saint, he chooses to remember that he is a wizard and is leaving the Dursleys to study at Hogwarts. Harry felt a strong sense of happiness when he tried to recall how he felt when he knew he was leaving the Dursleys' home.
After Harry and Sirius met, Sirius expressed his hope to be godfather with Harry. Harry is ecstatic, and having a normal family has always been his heartfelt wish. So, when hundreds of dementors finally besieged him, Harry tried to fantasize about living with Sirius in order to protect himself and Sirius. He kept repeating, "I want to live with the godfather, and I want to leave the Dursleys!" "
Nietzsche once said:
People who fight dragons for too long will become dragons themselves.
If you fight the dragon for too long, you will become a dragon yourself;
If you stare at the abyss for too long, the abyss will stare at you.
If you stare at the abyss for too long, the abyss will stare back at you.
If people live in a distorted environment for too long, they may lose their desire for a normal life, because their beliefs will be destroyed. But in the same way, people's beliefs can be rebuilt.
After Harry's parents were killed, the Dursleys were the only family. But this muggle family is hopeless. They hated everything about Harry and even attacked him. It is this inescapable family that has brought Harry endless depression and loneliness in the past eleven years. The darkest memory in Harry's mind is the night when his parents were killed by Voldemort, and his most painful experience was living in the Dursleys.
Therefore, Harry's happiest memory is to get rid of this past nightmare, get rid of his family's control and live a normal life. Recalling these moments, Harry immediately gained powerful energy and repelled the dementors who tried to drag him back to the abyss.
The guard summoned by this memory can stop dementors because it advocates hope, happiness and the desire to live like a human being; And because it is an immortal belief, it will not feel desperate like a real person when facing dementors.
Harry's patron saint is his belief in pursuing another life.
Just like in the cobweb of emotions, we can clearly perceive that this is not the person I like and this is not the life I want. And once we find the gap into another life, strength will gush out of our gloomy heart like a guard, and drill this gap one by one.
When Harry traveled back to the previous time, hoping to meet his rescuer and his father, he suddenly realized that what he saw at that time was actually himself.
Harry decisively pulled out his wand and shouted "Call the guards of God" to save himself.
A shining stag rushed to a large group of dementors, and the dementors retreated, disintegrated and disappeared into the darkness. ......
When Harry realized that he had been saving himself, he finally completed the reconstruction of his trust, established his new bottom line and established the belief of continuing to pursue the life in his mind.
Rowling used cognitive behavioral therapy to treat depression.
This psychotherapy method was developed by A.T.Beck in the 1960s. It holds that people's emotions come from their beliefs, evaluations, explanations or philosophical views on things they encounter, not from the things themselves. At present, the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy on depressive episode has been recognized.
Cognitive therapy often uses cognitive reconstruction, psychological coping, problem solving and other techniques for psychological counseling and treatment, in which cognitive reconstruction is the most critical. Ellis believes that the explanation and evaluation, cognition and belief of an individual who has experienced an event are the fundamental reasons for his emotions and behaviors. Unreasonable cognition and belief cause bad emotional and behavioral reactions. Only through persuasion and talk can we change and rebuild unreasonable cognition and belief and achieve the purpose of treatment. Baker also pointed out that the root of psychological difficulties and obstacles comes from abnormal or distorted ways of thinking. By discovering and excavating these ways of thinking, analyzing and criticizing them, and replacing them with reasonable and realistic ways of thinking, the pain of patients can be alleviated and they can better adapt to the environment.
As we mentioned earlier, all patients with depression have an automatic negative thinking mode and core beliefs (similar to world outlook and values, etc. ) is the core part of supporting every automatic thinking, and it is also the driving force to guide and promote life. These beliefs will be recognized as absolute truth by people, thinking that this is the way things should be. Most people will maintain positive core beliefs, such as "I am valuable". However, people who have experienced depression often have negative core beliefs. When a person's core belief is "I am incompetent", then he will tend to pay attention to some information related to this core belief selectively in his life. Even if there is positive information, he will tend to interpret it negatively and will continue to believe and maintain this belief.
I can't retell the process of cognitive reconstruction professionally here, but I can only discuss it with my own experience.
I know that when people break the wrong core beliefs and establish new beliefs, people can have new emotions and behavior patterns.
Faith comes from our desire for a different self and a different life. This desire and every small step forward, everything that makes us feel good, will help us accumulate the power of transformation.
In the battles between Harry and dementors again and again, he broke the tragedy and rebuilt himself on it.
Harry understands that his patron saint is himself, that is, his belief in getting rid of past tragedies and pursuing a new life.
Lewis once wrote in the opening inscription of The Legend of Narnia
My dear Lucy:
I wrote this story for you, but when I started writing it, I didn't realize that girls grow faster than books.
This story is for you, but at the beginning of writing, I didn't realize that girls grow faster than books.
Therefore, you are too old to listen to fairy tales, and you are too old to read fairy tales.
When it is printed and bound, you will stay still. When this book was published in Fu Zi, you were old.
But one day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.
But one day, you will be mature enough to start reading fairy tales again.
Then you can take it off from a senior student, dust it off and tell me what you think of it.
Then you can take it off the top of the shelf, dust it off and tell me what you think.
I may be deaf and too old to understand what you say,
I may be too deaf to hear and too old to understand,
But I will still be your dear godfather,
But I'm still your dear godfather.
The works read in childhood will convince naive children that everything will be fine and there will be various miracles in the future. Thus, children full of fantasy and hope are as full of strength as Popeye who ate spinach.
Ten years later, looking back at Harry Potter, I didn't feel disappointed or cheated, because Rowling was telling the truth. All this is not just a story. Rowling put her personal experience into the story and buried a cool spell.
Anyone who discovers and recites this spell will become an adult wizard hidden in the Muggle world like Harry. This mantra is: everything will really get better, even if it is faced with a seemingly invincible dementor, even if it has fallen to the bottom.
Rowling said: I have never been ashamed of depression, never. What is there to be ashamed of? I had a very difficult time, and I am proud that I can get out of that life.
Get rid of the life we don't like, and don't lose faith in the face of setbacks in life.
Now, as Professor Lu Ping said, close your eyes, find your happiest memory and summon your patron saint.