Holden Caulfield In The Catcher In The Rye

Post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a known mental health condition triggered after experiencing or seeing a life threatening event. It is very common around the world, and my new patient, Holden Caulfield, has this kind of disorder. A friend of mine recommended him, knowing that I will probably help him. Throughout our session, I could tell that Holden doesn’t really have a normal mind. The death of his brother Allie and witnessing another death, his friend who committed suicide, may have caused his PTSD. The outcome of experiencing all these tragic events, changed his life. His relationship with his parents is vile, and he also does an appalling job in school. Relieving the past, detachment, and agitation, are the main symptoms of

Holden reveals to the reader that he, “almost wished he was dead” how is the plight of his mental health shown?

Holden’s characterization takes place after Allie’s death and continues to mold him into the young boy he is today. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn with my fist, just for the hell of it. (Salinger, pg. 39). Allie’s death is the root of Holden’s emotional problems and creates the Holden as of today. Although Holden was young and naive and his actions and his actions may have meant nothing to him at the time, punching

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a known mental health condition triggered after experiencing or seeing a life-threatening event. It is very common around the world, and my new patient, Holden Caulfield, has this kind of disorder. A friend of mine recommended him, knowing that I will probably help him. Throughout our session, I could tell that Holden doesn’t have a normal mind. The death of his brother Allie and witnessing another death, his friend Jame Castle, who committed suicide, may have caused his PTSD. The outcome of experiencing all these tragic events changed his life. His relationship with his parents is vile, and he also does an appalling job in school. Reliving the past, detachment, and agitation, are the main symptoms of Holden’s PTSD.

     Throughout life, an individual may endure emotionally and physically straining moments causing the person to become downhearted, and or irate. These feelings are normal, but may however become a problem when these feelings prohibit someone from living a ‘normal’ life. An estimated 5.2 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or approximately 3.6 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have PTSD (Narrow, Rae, Regier). This purpose of this report is to prove whether or not Holden Caulfield, the main character of J.D. Salingers’s book The Catcher In The Rye, is depressed.

I believe that Holden Caulfield is mentally disturbed and shows many signs of it throughout the novel. Problems in Holden’s life that have led him to this rest home are the death of his brother Allie, his multiple failures throughout his academic career, and his distress about moving on in life. Holden deals with

The characters Holden Caulfield, from J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and Will Hunting, from Good Will Hunting, have very similar personalities; however, they live in completely different worlds. The Catcher in the Rye is narrated by Holden Caulfield. He is a seventeen year old from New York City, and in the book, he comes to terms with his past. The story is told from a psychiatric institution. The movie Good Will Hunting is about a very intelligent twenty year old, Will Hunting, who is a janitor at a school in south Boston. The major conflict with the both of them is within their own mind. Part of them wants to connect with other people on an adult level, while part of them wants to reject the world. The main difference between them has to do with socio-economics, and how different their childhoods were. A main similarity between the two is that they push things away, because they are afraid of getting attached to anything. Another similarity is that they are both very intelligent young men, but are not necessarily good in school. Even though Holden and Will grew up in almost opposite conditions, they have many similarities when it comes to their personalities.

Holden experiences extreme difficulty accepting his current realities and one of the main factors causing this is the lasting negative impact his brother Allies death had on his life. Firstly, when Holden decides to leave his school, he tells readers , “I don’t care if it’s a sad goodbye or a bad goodbye, but when I leave a place, I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse” (Salinger, 4). Holden’s need for closure is evident in this quote. When Allie died, it was very unexpected and he was not prepared to let him go, resulting in his denial that his brother is actually

Holden has several insecurities that are displayed throughout the book that hint at his condition.

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.

Are 50’s teens able to survive the hurtful but unavoidable transition of becoming a grown up as they struggle with the changes that come along with it?

From Holden’s testimony of the event that led to his enrollment in my program, I have concluded that Holden suffers from anxiety disorders. More specifically panic attacks, and more seriously, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the story that Holden I see many examples of these two disorders, along with a strong fear and resentment of impending adulthood. This Mixture of confusion and dread, led him to me. I do, though, believe that Holden can recover and be admitted back into society.

Holden mentions Allie in the book quite often when he is feeling down. Allie was everything that Holden’s not. “He was terrifically intelligent.” His teachers were always writing letters to my mother , telling her what a pleasure it was to have a

Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I

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.