Joanne Rowling and Mental Illness - Why is the world of magic so bleak for people with mental illness?

I have been thinking about this for a while, maybe since I read the Order of the Phoenix. Deathly Hallows gave me another reason to explore this subject.

To establish the frame of reference, let me quickly summarize the entire subject of media depiction of mental illness. Amongst all other disabilities, severe mental illness has been widely used in two polarizing ways in mainstream media - the reason for violence and cruelty, or the subject of pity and humiliation (the former more than the latter). People with mental illness are depicted as prime cases for institutionalization, as that will either keep society safe from them and families unburdened from the responsibility of caring for them. The stigma surrounding mental illness is reasonably aided (or even perpetuated) by characters in books, movies, television series, plays, etc. - and it shapes attitudes such as, "they are dangerous," "they are cuckoo," "they should be locked up," and of course "they are beyond help." It is this last one that I want to take up in this post.

Let me say something else from the onset. The subject of guardianship and institutionalization is very complicated and I do not wish to oversimplify it by merely saying it's Good or Bad (and it's not the focus here), but I do have issues with state-enforced mandatory institutionalizations on the mere prognosis of severe mental illness.

In the Harry Potter series, we come across three characters with severe mental disabilities, caused due to torture and trauma - Frank and Alice Longbottom, and Ariana Dumbledore. Although JKR does not come out and say mental illness for Ariana, the subtext is all there.

Case 1: The Longbottoms
Frank and Alice Longbottom are tortured by the Death Eaters to obtain information on Voldemort's whereabouts, after his first fall. They are tortured "into insanity" and driven "insane" (GoF, OotP). They no longer recognize anyone, not even their son Neville...and spend the rest of their life in the Wizard hospital St. Mungo's "closed ward for long-term residents with permanent spell damage." I'm not going to get into the "why can't magic solve this problem when clearly it can do everything else, like mend a broken skull" argument. There are other issues here.

The underlying message here is that there are some forms of magical damage that cannot be undone by any spell or charm. Hmm...plain medical model approach, no medicine can help them. Realistically speaking, not all forms of severe mental illness have identified medical cures or workable counseling solutions. I'll give her that, but I want to discuss the institutionalization inherent in this plot-line. Why are Frank and Alice in an institution permanently? She uses it as a scene to depict Neville's predicament, his loss, and an obvious tool to draw overwhelming pity towards him from the audience. It is mentioned time and again how Neville's loss is much greater as compared to Harry's - you see, dead parents are way better than insane living parents.

I will not deny that I felt, and still feel, extremely sad and sorry for Neville...and not because of his parents' insanity (I keep using that word because JKR keeps using that word...insane, insane, insane), but because apparently the magical world has no other solution to your problem but institutionalization!! This is very orthodox thinking. It was used in the perfect example of media exploitation, as the object of pity.

Ms. Rowling, you should have used this situation to show something. I am a fan of how you've used plot lines to expose racism and slavery to some extent. You could have had someone like Hermione or even Harry asking questions like, "Why isn't there anything more that the Ministry can do?" or "Why isn't there research being done to come up with solutions?" or "Why can't they live in a community setting?" You need not have come up with solutions, but at least got your readers to question such situations better...

Case 2: Ariana
Little six year old Ariana Dumbledore (THE Dumbledore's sister) is seen performing underage magic in her backyard by three Muggle boys. In their quest to make her show them her secret, they "get a bit carried away trying to stop her from doing it." While JKR does not specify what they actually did, it has been widely interpreted as sexual abuse/rape.

I am quoting from the book,
This destroyed her...she was never right again...she wouldn't use magic, but she couldn't get rid of it; it turned inward and drove her mad, it exploded out of her when she couldn't control it, and at times she was strange and dangerous. But mostly she was sweet and scared and harmless.

The problem here is that if anyone knew "what Ariana had become" (where she couldn't control dangerous bursts of magic) the Ministry would consider it a violation of their secrecy regulations (to keep muggles unaware) and forcibly shut her up in St. Mungo's. JKR takes a position against institutionalization here, through the mother Kendra who wants to keep her little girl with the family. She then takes measures to keep the girl hidden from the community just so that she is not "carted off" and is cared for by her family in her home.

Again this could have been used to highlight the underlying social issues here, but instead they are overshadowed by their effect on Albus and his future life (although I like how she describes his feeling of "resentment" and his brother's prioritizing their sister above his studies...but again not the topic here).

Why was Kendra bound by such a scarcity of options? Her choice was the dominant reality for parents whose children had severe mental disabilities for past decades, and unfortunately remains so for many today. However, it could have been used to make readers ask better questions. Why couldn't the Ministry allow Kendra to raise her child in her home if sufficient care was taken? Why was there no cure (for the lack of a better word) for Ariana's condition? Why were there no measures to counter the post traumatic psychological distress she underwent as a child? Why should we rely on spells (read medicine) alone? Were their no accommodations that could be made to encourage Ariana to study?

It almost seems like Kendra should have taken her daughter to the nearest Muggle counseling and therapeutic facility.

Why is the world of magic so bleak for people with mental illness? We are living in a period where people are trying to fight the notion that there are limited options for psychological impairments. We are trying to encourage people to seek counseling, to create awareness about the options and opportunities, to demand better mental health care and coverage.

When JKR uses Hermione and Dumbledore repeatedly to raise pointed questions about the inherent injustices perpetuated by Wizarding dominance and regulations, why does she ignore this topic? She uses Lupin well to characterize physical disability, she raises the right questions. But alas, mental illness is still considered different, and differently.