Analysis Of ' Holden Uses Defense Mechanisms

The novel, “The Catcher in the Rye” involves an older teenager named Holden who surrounds himself with his pessimistic emotions, gradually affecting him in tense situations. Often, he refuses to comprehend situations which ends miserably for him. A major role for his reckless actions are caused by his fearful feelings that he has not suppressed, “Contaminated he is, of course, by vulgarity, lust, lies, temptations, recklessness, and cynicism” (Peterson 1). Throughout the novel, his unfavorable emotions were represented as well as the negative outcome of his situations. In that moment of time, his thoughts affect his actions as a result of becoming further depressed than he already happens to be. If he was able to analyze the situation and think logically, he would avoid multiple situations without feeling pessimistic about his choices.

Like when he was going to go home to see Phoebe but he wanted to make sure and avoid his parents. This is a strong example of avoidance in Holden, which is one of the most common traits in someone who has PTSD.Throughout the book Holden portrays many instances where he shows the strong PTSD symptom of avoidance. First off, he obviously avoids school, as he is failing every class except english. This would be demonstrated when his history teacher is reading Holden’s final paper for the class and it says, “It is all right with me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything else except english”(12). This shows us early on in the book that Holden tries to avoid school and detach himself from responsibilities. The avoidance of school is a good indicator that something from his past is holding him back, which shows that he has PTSD. When Holden is in the taxi, he asks the driver, “Would you care to stop on the way and join me for a cocktail?”(60). This is very unlike Holden, he goes from trying to avoid all confrontation, to trying to hang out with anybody that would be willing to. This is a critical sign that his emotions and mood are changing drastically. As shown above, changes of emotional reactions and mood is a symptom of PTSD. Another symptom that Holden obtains often throughout the book is the intrusive memories. The whole book is a build up

Holden's constantly telling that he is different from everyone else, who he defines as "phonies", wearing his hunting cap to make him standout in society, and inability to make a social contact with a Jane Gallagher, who he constantly brings up, are just a few lucid examples of his self-alienation of society. Holden feels and uses this alienation to protect himself from the harshness of society is this constant defense mechanism eventually leads to his

Holden is unable to accept realities of life because of his negative personality. He claims that many people are phony and that they try to do things to make them look better than they are. Holden also thinks of many things as depressing. “It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them” (p. 123). Holden always finds a down side to a situation. He fails to recognize the good sides of life, and this prevents him from seeing advantages in adulthood that are not present in his life.

In Chapters V and VI, Holden’s feelings of anguish and anger are expressed in his actions. Holden describes the death of his younger brother, Allie. As a result of his overwhelming emotions, he broke all the windows in his garage with his fist. “It was a very stupid thing to do, I’ll admit, but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie.” (page 39) Holden couldn’t control his actions and acted recklessly. He does acknowledge that it was dumb to take out his anger by punching windows, but he did it on impulse.

Allie Caulfield is an important person to Holden and his death affects him greatly. In response to his brother 's passing, Holden attempts to recover by using defense mechanisms as a shield against reality. The concept of defense mechanisms strategies for avoiding or reducing threatening feelings such as fear and anxiety" (Strickland 182). While

To start off with, Holden has symptoms of Post traumatic stress disorder, such as flashbacks and mistrust. He often has flashbacks about his disesaed brother Allie. One example from the novel says,”[Allie] got lukemia and died when we were up in maine, july 18th, 1946”. That is a very specific thing for somebody to remember, considering he doesnt do well in school, proving thatthis event still remains clear in his head. As does his brother. He describes him as” He

As a neurotic person, Holden exhibits Self-Hatred for himself through his tendency to deal with problems through childish impulses. Self-Hatred occurs when one attempts to cope with their existential anxiety by allowing it to manifest into mental illnesses. Holden shows this when he allows his innocence to make adult decisions. For example, he hires a prostitute and plans to have sex with her, which is something that signifies the loss of innocence and transitions into adulthood. When she arrives, he changes his mind and asks “‘Don’t you feel like talking for a while?’” (Salinger 95). This shows that Holden is unable to make adult decisions, and instead, relies on his childish impulses. Holden’s childish impulses also lead to violent outcomes, such as with

Much later in the book, Holden meets up with an old friend, Carl Luce, to catch up on each other’s lives. Holden attempts to talk with him about sex because it’s the only thing they did talk about when they both went to Whooton, which Holden flunked out of a few years back. Holden tries to connect with Luce by talking about their sex lives and how Holden wants it to be like anything Luce is talking about, but he ends up disappointing Luce into the expectation that he has grown. He reminds him of what Holden needed last time they saw each other, and Holden remembers: “‘You mean go to a psychoanalyst and all?’ I said … ‘What would he do to me? I mean that would he do to me?’ ‘He wouldn’t do a goddam thing to you He’d simply talk to you, and you’d talk to him, for God’s sake. For one thing, he’d help recognize the patterns of your mind.’ … Old Luce. He was strictly a pain in the ass …” (Salinger 192-193). Holden once again shows a lack of wanting to accept and listen to people who are trying to give him advice. He doesn’t want to go to a psychoanalyst and be told what is wrong with him because he cannot accept the painful truth that he is not able to grow up and change how he is, which Luce did do. When Holden says to himself “He was strictly a pain in the ass”, he shows that he doesn’t care what Luce had to say to help Holden. He only cared about staying the way he is and

Although defense mechanisms can help put off a certain problem for some time, relying on defense mechanisms is not always beneficial because it gives people reasons to act irrationally. This clarification of Freud’s theory is strongly portrayed in Holden’s exaggerated view of reality. His denial triggers delusional fantasies in Holden’s mind that he doesn’t seem to think deeply about. For example, when one rash thought entered into Holden’s mind, he delivers an ultimatum to Sally, saying, “...Tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont...We’ll stay in cabin camps until the dough runs out. Then, when the dough runs out, I could get a job somewhere, and we could live somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or something,” (Salinger 132). At the age of sixteen, as if it’s not unrealistic enough, he tries to persuade Sally. When Sally gives him a reality check, he practically rages at her. Holden is so blinded by the fantasy world he created for himself and his defense mechanisms were giving Holden an excuse to acting abnormally. As a result, he blames Sally for the unreasonable idea he proposed, calling her “a royal pain in the ass,” (133). This irrational behavior of Holden is exactly what Freud is illustrating in his theory of personality that depending on defense mechanisms for relieving stressful

I believe that Holden’s response to these traumatic events is understandable because he had seen and been through so many horrid ordeals in his life, and he did not have the ability to cope with these issues. Holden Caulfield does not know how to handle himself now because he has not previously dealt with his feelings.

Throughout the novel, Holden is shown to be protecting over those he truly loves. Although a common symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is turning away from loved ones, with that, survivors may also be prone to be more protective over loved ones in fear. According to ‘Everyday Health’ and ‘The U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, the National Center for PTSD’, it is common that those affected feel guilty about not being able to protect their ones. “I was there for about half hour… bastard Stradlater was,” (Salinger 34). Holden has experienced so much trauma throughout his life, that he does not want Jane, someone of whom he is very close with, to experience what he has gone through. Holden fears that if Stradlater, Holden’s “secret slob”

These thoughts, paired with his actions, reveal that he is not emotionally sound. Holden lacks self-control and often acts impulsively. He is also a terrible liar, lying freely and often for no reason at all. This tendency among others results in a void of healthy relationships in his life. Holden Caulfield consistently demonstrates a severe lack of control over his actions, through how he reacted to his brothers death (Overwhelmed with emotion, Holden punches out all the windows in the garage, and says he wanted to do the same to the car.

Lastly, Holden shows avoidance in his measures. Holden is afraid to grow up, because he feels that when someone is rushed into maturity, bad things happen. Holden was forced to grow up when he lost Allie, and this makes his believe that “ignorance is bliss”, and that it is better to lie to yourself and to be a child forever than to grow up and experience pain. “It is only in Holden Caulfield’s unique world that ducks brave the winter or are hauled in trucks to zoos. It should strike the most casual observer that Holden Caulfield frequently exhibits naiveté” (Foran 977). Holden likes to believe that a perfect, idealistic life can be achieved. He is scarred psychiatrically by his traumatic childhood, and he just wants to be normal. “You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?” I realized it was only one chance in a million” (Salinger 60). In this prominent passage, Holden is asking the strange taxi driver about the ducks in

Through Holden's life he is a mess and never really cares about his life as he is repressing all is memories with his parents as he has not been with them for any long period of time as he attends many prestigious schools which are supposed to help him become a better student but he does improve on his subsequent attempts. As a result of his parents neglecting him, he is repressing his memories of his parents. Using the mechanics of Freud's Psychodynamic Theory. In Freud's Psychodynamic theory, there are many layers towards the mind and one of them is the Super-ego.Holden's superego is what helps him repress these memories such as his impulsiveness when fighting another person. Freud compares one's superego as an Iceberg. The superego consists of the unconscious mind which is the “ the things that the child feels mom or dad will disapprove of or punish.”(Freud). Holden, having failed at many prestigious schools, knows his parents would disapprove of him and as a result, he continues to fail knowing how his parents’