The psychoanalytic criticism on "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".

The main character of psychoanalysis is consciousness. According to Freud, there are three ideas in relation to the human that are id, ego and superego. Id is the desire of the person. It is often being related to something that a person need. On the other hand, superego is the moral values of the person. It led the person to hold strong to something that is right. Ego is between the id and superego that work as to balance the id and ego. Ego is also referring to the preconscious structure of a human.

However, it is very difficult to achieve the balance between id and superego. That is where the Defense Mechanism comes into place. It is a tool that helps to achieve ego, a balance. The main feature is the denial. Human tends to deny the situation or things that one fear of. Besides that, the person probably will repress the situation to pretend that it did not happen at all. There is a strong sense of defense mechanism in the fantasy novel, "Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone" by J.K. Rowling (also known as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in United State of America).

Another term is 'talking cure' where the reality is reveals and the problems are being solved. Everything comes to the light and there is cease of the Defense Mechanism.

The analysis

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a famous fantasy novel by the author J.K. Rowling among the children around the world. It could be a study for psychoanalyst. The story begins with the murder of the wizard boy's parent by the Dark Lord of the Wizarding world. Consequently, the boy was sent to live with his Aunt and Uncle. His Aunt and Uncle loathe everything that related to magic and regards it as abnormal. Therefore, Harry's Aunt and Uncle try to repress everything to do with magic from him for fear that he might become a wizard as his mother and father.

Id appears here that Harry's Aunt and Uncle are trying to maintain what they desire that is a normal and neat world. It is as mention by Freud in an article "to minimize discomfort". There is also a superego here when his Aunt and Uncle decide that the magic is wrong and the boy should live an ordinary life. That fit the definition of "superego" which is "moral and good".

Along with that, there is a denial of the wizarding world by his Aunt and Uncle. That is because of the strong Defense Mechanism as a tool to maintain their ego. They told him that his parent died in an ordinary car accident instead of being murder by a Dark Wizard. They refuse to talk about his parent and treated his unusual behavior as some action of disobedient. They try to repress everything that to do with magic from Harry by reluctant him to get a hold of the owl post. However, at last, Harry knows the truth of his parent death and his real personality. This is a situation of what Freud call a "talking cure" to Harry and answer to his unanswered questions.