Did Harry Potter have a severe mental illness?

My sons agree with Nicole Borland who writes,

The entire Harry Potter series is an extended metaphor about a boy with severe mental illness, suffering from delusions. Everything depicted in the movie can be interpreted as an attempt to cope with the harsh realities of his confinement in a mental institution. Every major event in the books is a fantasy/delusional version of the experiences that a child would encounter in the course of being institutionalized and forcibly treated for mental illness.

...The Harry Potter series, then, was written about the kind of experiences that institutionalized children encounter, the kind that J.K. Rowling (actively through her charities) is working to eradicate, but most people simply see it as an adventure story about magic. It's not about magic. It's about mental trauma and the delusion that results from it.

The final reinforcement of this idea comes towards the very end, when Harry appears in his imagined version of King's Cross with Dumbledore.

"Tell me one last thing," said Harry. "Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?"

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

Read more here.

Thanks to Jon Agard

New Harry Potter book coming out on Halloween

Abbey Stone reports:

J.K. Rowling has a very special treat in store for Harry Potter fans this Halloween. A series of games and riddles posted to Rowling’s website Pottermore.com this week culminated in Friday’s big reveal that the Rowling will release a new Harry Potter story on October 31.

According to a statement obtained by Time, Rowling’s new story will feature one of the most terrifying characters in Potter’s world (no, not Nagini): Professor Umbridge.

“Umbridge is not only one of the most malicious Potter characters, she is the only person other than Lord Voldemort to leave a permanent physical scar on Harry,” Time reports Pottermore.com of saying. “The new exclusive J.K. Rowling content provides a rich, 1700-word back story about Umbridge’s life filled with many new details, as well as Rowling’s revealing first-person thoughts and reflections about the character.”

Dolores Umbridge, the pink-clad, giggly sadist, enters Harry’s life in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as Hogwarts's new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She finds immense pleasure in torturing her students, most notably with her blood quill—a piece of dark magic that etches all words written with the quill into the skin of the writer.

Read more here.