Nico and his brothers

[Lesley]

Peter and Jack got depressed later on in their lives and Peter even killed himself in jumping in front of a train. What do you think happened to disturb them so deeply? Does it have anything to do with Barrie? Why wasn't Nico "affected"?
Dudgeon claims that everything is to blame Barrie and Nico wasn't affected because he didn't have the gift of a "dreamer "- hypnosis, which was initially what drew Barrie to the Davies boys. (RUBBISH!). and yes, i actually read the book. I still can't believe I spent money on that thing!!
Just wanted to hear what other people think.

[ecb]

I do believe that depression is not always exactly linked to experiences in life.  Some people seem to get depressed even if they have the most outwardly happy of lives - others may have plenty of reasons to be sad and yet they are sunny individuals.  It always seems if having a tendency to depression and then having sad events in one's early life can really lead to terrible depression - which often gets worse as one gets older.  Older people are often exaggerated versions of their younger selves.  And life tends to pile on woes as one gets older anyway.  Still the "sunny" types tend to stay that way.  My own grandmother lived to 100 - she had plenty of sadness in her life, but never in her attitude - she always was full of cheer and greeted each day with a smile and hope.

There does seem to have been a tendency toward depression among the Du Maurier family - Peter and Daphne talked about this during their lunchtime meetings during the 1950s.  There is no particular reason to accuse Barrie of having anything to do with this tendency by the way - it was apparent in George Du Maurier, the boys' grandfather, who never met Barrie.  It is interesting that Gerrie, Jack's wife, remarked that Nico was different in every way from the others - physically as well.  He may simply have been lucky enough not to get that depressive tendency.  Certainly if Barrie was the cause of depression, Nico, who was primarily brought up by Barrie and Mary Hodgson and not his parents, would have been a prime suspect for such depression.

Peter himself seems to have agreed with  my musings here, as he wrote to Mary Hodgson:

Modern psychoanalysts maintain that the influences of early childhood are the strongest through life, but Nico seems to me to contradict this theory. He remembers very little of the summer of 1910, naturally. And his doesn't seem to have been affected, for his disposition and temperament are noticeably, in my opinion, happy and sanguine and optimistic. Jack and I, on the other hand, while not very closely resembling each other in general, are both clouded over a good deal, and among those whom "melancholy has marked for her own." I am dimly aware of a great many complexes in myself which are traceable to 1907-10. Yet I don't believe George would have been so much affected somehow, in later life. Michael of course yes. I suppose one has certain predispositions, innate and fixed from birth, which dictate to a large extent one's reaction to circumstances.

I might add that Nico is the most effective proof that Barrie was not a malignant force in the boys' lives.  Not only by his refutation of the charges people bring against Barrie, but also by simply being his own happy self. 

[ecb]

One  more thing - was the subject line here meant as a humorous reference to the Italian neorealist film "Rocco and his Brothers"?  Because that immediately came to my mind - and made me laugh!