Did author Janina Scarlet run at the wall of Platform 9¾ a little too hard? She seems a little dazed.

This book is an attempt to use Harry Potter-related themes to supply psychological help. It's an interesting idea, but the implementation has difficulties which perhaps make it less effective.

For starters, it suffers from a deficiency that is almost universal in Potter-themed books: Too much forced Potter content. This ranges from the slightly imperfect comparison to the flat-out goof. As an example of the former, p. 124 compares psychoactive medications with healing potions, which is invalid -- the Potter potions heal you, so that you're done with them, but the psychoactive medications, almost without exception, only treat you, and must be continued indefinitely. More extreme is page 119, which offers us the Marauders' Map as a life plan -- but it isn't a life plan, it's a source of information. There are many more, some more irritating than others.

I'm more picky than most, but this sort of bogus parallel makes it nearly impossible for me to really use the lessons in the book.

There is also a confusion of values and desires. Pages 102-103 suggest that being a Harry Potter fan is a value -- something to be striven for to make the world better. It isn't; it's just something that people desire and enjoy. There is nothing wrong with pursuing things you enjoy -- but once you start confusing them with values, you're sure to have problems. We don't all have the same values -- but, surely, going to Potter conventions is not something that will solve the world's problems! On which point -- why do all the personal stories Scarlet invokes have to involve being excessively Potter-headed? In particular, why are the first two examples both Slytherins? My ambition is not to be excessively ambitious! And, again, Harry Potter fandom is not a value!

The book isn't all bad. There is some very nice material on page 64 about natural versus manufactured emotions -- and, there, her Potter examples work. It's too bad Scarlet didn't take this part of her own work as a model for the rest.

One other warning: The book really only addresses two psychological conditions, anxiety and depression. There are plenty of characters whose conditions this book cannot help. Gilderoy Lockhart has classic symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder (he cares only for himself, he doesn't realize his own defects, he ignores others' needs). Voldemort surely has antisocial personality disorder. Ron has a phobia of spiders. Even Hermione... if she were real, I'd interview her for autism. She has significant anxiety, but in addition she is a perfectionist, she has splinter skills and an exceptional memory, she likes routines, she is emotionally fragile, and she sometimes has trouble with people. Even Harry and Ron think she's strange in her interests. (And, for the record, all those things make her my favorite character, by far, in the Potter books. I don't want to change Hermione. I just want her to realize that that slacker Ron isn't her type.😉) For that matter, there is nothing here for bipolar disorder -- the condition many suspect J. K. Rowling herself experiences.

There is nothing really wrong with that. Most self-help books are directed at anxiety and depression, because, first, they are the most common psychological conditions, and, second, they are among the most straightforward to treat. (It's very hard to treat narcissistic personality disorder, for instance, because the people who suffer it refuse to admit there is anything wrong with them.) But it would be better if this book made it clearer what it is and is not for.

You can't clear psychological conditions with a magic wand. Therapy (possibly combined with medication, depending on the condition) is the best option. But sometimes that's not possible. This book is better than nothing. A lot better. I just wish it didn't grate so much. ( )