Holden Caulfield Mental Illness

In J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caufield, describes in detail the parts of his life and his environment that bother him the most. He faces these problems with a kind of naivety that prevents him from fully understanding why it is that he is so depressed. His life revolves around his problems, and he seems helpless in evading them. Among others, Holden finds himself facing the issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and his own self-destructiveness.

He is afraid of his adulthood, and has no one to discuss the matter. He reaches out to people, but pushes them away. For example, Sally Hayes is a friend of Holden’s whom Holden takes out on a date. Holden purposes the idea of running away to an area where he doesn’t have to grow up. Sally refuses and tries to talk some sense into Holden, but Holden doesn’t listen because what she is saying scares him. He is scared because she is ready to taking on the next step in her life, but he is not. Holden’s time in New York is a constant cycle of this type of interaction. He calls many people and tries to talk to them but there are some that he can not call, like Jane Gallagher, or Phoebe his younger sister. Holden does not call them because they are symbols of innocents and his childhood. He is so afraid of his future, that he so desperately holds onto his

J.D. Salinger 's "The Catcher in the Rye" portrays a troubled teen in New York City. Over the few days the novel depicts, the boy displays his critical and unhealthy mindset. Eventually he has a mental breakdown. Through psychoanalysis of Holden Caulfield, one may suggest that Allie 's death, social development, and an identity crisis are large contributing factors in Holden 's mental breakdown.

The isolation Holden experiences from his parents and other adults takes a toll on Holden which explains Holden’s immature relationships with women. For example, Holden suddenly declares his love for Sally and his desire to run away with her although in actuality he does not (Salinger 124). He also shows interest in the “hat-check girl” (Salinger 153) when she shows characteristics of a nurturing mother which is a result of his own mother’s neglect. Regarding his parents’ neglect and the timing of when Allie passed away is important, because Allie died while Holden was going through puberty, a stage that is already complicated for most people was made even more burdensome due to the lack of parental affection and the loss of a loved one. According to Saul McLeod, a Psychology Tutor at the University of Manchester and has a decade of experience teaching psychology at Wigan and Leigh College, Freud’s psychosexual work, which has been widely criticized, explains that the “genital stage” ranging from puberty to adulthood “is a time of adolescent sexual experimentation…” which Holden exhibits in the book through his constant references to intercourse and the opposite gender. However, during this time he had also experienced a deeply traumatic loss which might have triggered some oral fixation, which Freud characterizes as finding satisfaction through oral stimulation, causing him to start smoking and drinking. Holden seeks pleasure by regressing back to his infantile habits

Adolescence, this is a time where you figure out who you truly are. This soul searching leads to self realization. Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Salinger, has trouble accepting himself. Throughout his days he would put on a cap just to be someone else. It is his get away place, a place of isolation. A way for him to seclude from the world and become someone he isn’t. This is relatable to numerous teens. Though Holden could be described using numerous adjectives, Holden's character can be perfectly described as ignorant, a liar, and a slacker. He is ignorant because he does not learn from his mistakes. He is a compulsive liar. Finally, he is a slacker because he avoids work. Holden is just like countless people out there who do not apply themselves. You see, Holden could be smart. He could be successful. He just doesn’t have the motivation or ambition to do so.

Everybody feels depressed at some time or another in their lives.  However, it becomes a problem when depression is so much a part of a person's life that he or she can no longer experience happiness.  This happens to the young boy, Holden Caulfield in J.D Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye.  Mr. Antolini accurately views the cause of Holden's depression as his lack of personal motivation, his inability to self-reflect and his stubbornness to overlook the obvious which collectively results in him giving up on life before he ever really has a chance to get it started.

Holden’s date with Sally Hayes exhibited his difficulty at cooperating with others. At first he gives us a dire impression of Sally, “I wasn’t too crazy about her, but I’d known her for years.” (p. 105) Later, he wants to marry Sally and says he is in love with her. The biggest mystery of all when it comes to women is with Jane Gallagher. Constantly mentioning Jane, Holden recalls playing checkers with her before he got sent to boarding school. When his roommate, Stradlater, has a date with Jane, Holden asks him a peculiar question, “Did you ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row?” (p. 42) Holden, jealous of Stradlater’s date with Jane, longs to see Jane but never has the courage to call her. Interactions with other people especially women perplex and overwhelm Holden. He therefore resorts to isolation, illustrating a characteristic of his mental state.

Holden has shown many signs of having post traumatic stress. Some of the signs Holden had was as stated “triggers that can bring back memories of the trauma accompanied by intense emotional and physical reactions.” Holden always bring up Allie his brother, even when he wrote compositions for Stradlater, “So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie’s baseball mitt,”(Salinger,38) Holden always tends to bring up the past. This is one of the many signs that Holden shows as the book progress. In the text, “All of a sudden, on my way out to the lobby, I got old Jane Gallagher on the brain again,” (Salinger, 76). Holden continuously brings up many people that has made him feel this way about people. Holden also demonstrates a lack of control when it comes to talking to people. When Holden brother Allie died when Holden was just 13, he punched out all the windows out of the garage saying, “It was just for the hell of it,” (Salinger, 39). This indicates that Holden is not a healthy psychologically adolescent, as he can’t articulate the thoughts of his actions. Holden’s lack of control and ability not to let go of the past shows how Holden is not mentally

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist Holden Caulfield has peculiar behavioral tendencies. The author’s cynical narration presents the story of an emotionally damaged teenager whose cynicism and personal oddities prevent him from conforming to a post-World War II society full of phonies to whom he cannot relate. It becomes increasingly evident that Holden, far from being pragmatic, has clouded judgement as he rides an emotional rollercoaster of mood fluctuations. Thus, it is clear that his wide array of personal flaws including his cynical, depressive, and unreasonable attitudes and thoughts are rooted in underlying emotional problems. Holden Caulfield has extensive psychological problems that are revealed through his depressive

Holden is literally about to crash. Near the beginning and the end of the novel, Holden cant keep himself in the same school for very long, mostly because he never applies himself in his classes, for example holden says in the book: “they kicked me out. I wasn’t supposed to come back after Christmas vacation, on account I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself at all”,(4) holden is obviously aware of his flunking and still doing nothing about his failures within the classes he has taken. Many times in the novel we see Holden lie multiple times throughout the book. At one point in the book Holden even realizes he is a compulsive liar claiming "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life"(16) Holden almost seems proud of himself for being such a great liar.

Yet another issue Holden endures throughout this novel is loneliness . There are many reasons that he is very lonely all throughout the novel. The biggest reason he doesn't talk to anybody is because he is afraid he is going to get hurt emotionally. For example he is scared to call Jane and is scared to let her in his heart because he doesn't want to loose another person he loves, like his deceased brother Allie. Another example of his loneliness is when he meets the prostitute in the hotel. Holden knows that he can have the comfort of another human for a little while, but he doesn't want to do anything with her because he knows she will just leave after they are done having sex. In a way he is looking for something that will last longer, like a relationship, but he is too scared of being hurt . Although, “loneliness is difficult to fess up

    J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is the chronicle of a young man's metamorphosis from immaturity to unsure manhood. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, is a sixteen-year old boy who leaves the prep school he has been expelled from to escape the frightening reality of dealing with his parents. However, during his visit to New York City he is faced with the harsh reality that he cannot continue to hold onto his childhood. Holden is an extremely complex character and it is only by examining each layer of him that the reader is able to understand his painful metamorphosis.

The patient is Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old teenage boy. Caulfield's appearance is tall for his age and surprisingly has quite a few gray hairs at the age of sixteen. Holden comes from an upper-middle class family. His family has enough money to support Holden with many luxuries including skates and expensive suitcases. It appears that Mr. and Mrs. Caulfield aren?t there to talk, care, and be there for Holden, which seems to drive Holden away from his family. However, he has an intimate bond with his younger siblings, who embody innocence and youth. The death of his brother Allie has left a large scar on Holden. He has a cherished and intimate relationship with his young

However, he admits that while the couple’s actions are “crumby” (Salinger 81) and crude, he is still aroused and “wouldn’t mind” (Salinger 81) doing it, especially to a girl he is attracted to. While Holden wants to preserve his innocence by not thinking about sex at all, he agrees that he is a “sex maniac” (Salinger 81), and is a fiend about losing his virginity. Holden even goes as far as to make rules for himself. On page 82, he recounts, “I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it-the same night, as a matter of fact” (Salinger). He is slowly losing his innocence, and while he hates to admit it, Holden’s constant thoughts about sexuality is a sign of adulthood. To him, one should only have sex with someone they truly love. Holden is almost proud of himself for having such a morally correct view of sex. This is why he is so riled when he discovers that Stradlater had sex with Jane Gallagher. Holden realized that Jane barely knew Stradlater and felt that he, if anyone, should be dating Jane. His increasing thoughts on sexuality and loss of a conventional or shielded view of sex show that his loss of innocence is apparent.

When the reader looks back at Holden’s history they can make assumptions as to why Holden wants things to stay the way they are. The general assumption would be because Holden is very distant to people who are dear to him. He mentions his younger sister, Phoebe frequently but cannot connect with her in any way due to Holden’s enrollment in a relatively distant school. Holden also recalls his two brothers, Allie and D.B., whom he is exiled from in result of Allie’s tragic fate and D.B.’s migration to California. The death of Holden’s favorite person, Allie, results ultimately in the unstable mental condition that controls Holden. Holden’s fascination with children and their mentalities is driven from Holden’s mourning of Allie’s death. While Holden tries to resist changing, he is identifying himself with Allie. Critic, Hermit Vanderbilt, agrees that, “Obviously despairing at the cosmic injustice of such an early death, Holden falls into a schizophrenic disorder interested in keeping him from growing up and keeping the role of Allie alive.” (Vanderbilt 299). In addition to the laments of personal loss, Holden also desires a stagnancy of time because of his fear of losing his moral purity. This is shown when Holden speaks about how his older brother, D.B., has lost his moral standards in the pursuit of fame. Holden feels D.B. has strayed far from his truly respectable writing when D.B. “sold himself out” to the expectations of Hollywood. Holden refers to D.B. as a