第231页 The Mirror of Erised

It shows us nothing more or less than our deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your familym see them standing around you. Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them. Howver, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it. entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible. 
The most astounding thing about JK Rowling's writing is that you can always find the real world equivalence of the conflicts in her books. The Mirror of the Erised can be read as the modern day addictions -- be it shopaholics, workaholics, alcoholics or seriel adulterers. These people are just like what Dumbledore describes here: wasted, entranced, driven mad. They all have problems that could only be solved if they don't hide from the truth -- they have unfulfilled lives, uncontrolable tempers that drove families away, or sextual incompetence. If they focused on the real issue, then they would have go make more out of their lives, treat their tempers, or see a doctor. But they find it too difficult to deal with these problems, and they found easier ways to hide from the reality: the mirror in the book, and the addictions in real life. Shopping all the time, working until the ungodly hour, drinking until passed  out or cheating until death by STD are not going to tell these addicts anything about how to fix their lives, their problems, or their emotional trauma but only take their time away from properly fixing them. They will gain no knowledge or truth about life but drive those close to them further away from them.