Holden expresses his thoughts with aggressive acts and leaves the readers with no other choice than to question his mental state. Through Freudian perspective, Holden's thoughts and acts can be understood by the "Pleasure Principle." The principle consists of avoiding things that are unpleasant or painful, while we pursue something pleasurable. The pleasure principle has a great impact on Holden’s Borderline Personality Disorder. The numerous actions Holden expresses reveals his Borderline Personality Disorder. The National Institute of Mental Health states that the disorder portrays, “marked by a pattern of ongoing instability in moods, behavior, self-image, and functioning. These experiences often result in impulsive actions and unstable …show more content…
relationships. Salinger constructs Holden's desperation “ All I know is I got up from bed, like I was going down to the can or something, and then I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddam throat open" (Salinger 43).
When Holden's roommate, Stradlater takes Jane, whom he has genuine feelings for on a date Holden decides to interrogate Stradlater about his date with Jane trying to discover if he had any sexual interaction with Jane. Stradlater refuses to speak about the date. Holden acts out by physically assaulting his roommate for no apparent reason. This quote is significant because it shows Holden’s inability to control his anger, along with his impulses and longing for company. He let his emotions dominate his behavior. Attacking Stradlater was Holden's way of avoiding a disturbing thought; causing him to feel satisfied in that …show more content…
way. Holden’s troubled relationships with both abandonment of his parents and social relationships with women leads in with the justification of his actions. Dr. R. Y. Langham from Relationship Counseling Center states, “It is common for adults who were abused, abandoned or neglected, during childhood, to develop real or irrational fears of abandonment. In other words, these negative and/or traumatic experiences follow the child well into adulthood – affecting every aspect of his or her life (i.e. romantic relationships, friendships, family dynamics, work relationships, self-esteem, academic and career success, etc.).” Holden’s abandonment from his parents during his childhood leads to prolong inefficient behavior in needing some relationship. Holden states “IF YOU REALLY want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me…” In the starting of the book he adds the abandonment from his parents which causes him to repress relationships. “Sometimes I act older than I am- I really do- but people never notice it. People never notice anything.”(Salinger 9). The abandonment of his parents, Holden feels that he isn’t noticed since his parents weren’t loving. Holden’s lack of attention makes him repress over wanting some sort of relationship. “That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them. And then you never know where the hell you are”(Salinger 73). Holden’s repression with falling in love with girls deals with his needing of companionship. The slang Salinger uses in his text helps deliver Holden’s thought without confusing his reader or digressing from his main message. Holden uses the friendship he has with women as a defense mechanism against the depression and anxiety he has. He uses women in order to distract himself and fill in the attention that was never given to him as a child. Caulfield over values love because of the mother role he grew up without. That has had a profound impact on his life. He mistrusts women and falls in love with them only ‘in the moment’ but cannot truly commit because he keeps returning to Jane. Holden expresses, “She was a funny girl, old Jane. I wouldn’t exactly describe her as strictly beautiful… I mean when she was talking and she got excited about something, her mouth sort of went in fifty directions, her lips and all. That killed me.”(Salinger 77) Holden regresses over the relationship with Jane because their relationship reminds him of the good times in his childhood, when life was good and his brother was alive. Karen Horney, a German psychoanalyst had many opposing views to Sigmund Freud, but has many theories that apply to The Catcher in the Rye and the protagonist, Holden. Karen Horney believes, “These people have an intense need to be liked, involved, important, and appreciated. So much so, that they will often fall in love quickly or feel an artificial but very strong attachment to people they may not know well. Their attempts to make that person love them create a clinginess and neediness that much more often than not results in the other person leaving the relationship” (Heffner). Holden Caulfield experiences many occasional meetings with women that reveal his desire for female companionship. Although Holden’s love for women is based on an impulse for being loved, he finds that he seeks the affection from women in order to feel better about himself. “‘Don’t you feel like talking for a while?’ I asked her. It was a childish thing to say, but I was feeling so damn peculiar. ‘Are you in a very big hurry?’ She looked at me like I was a madman. ‘What the heck ya wanna talk about?’ she said. ‘I don’t know. Nothing special. I just thought perhaps you might care to chat for a while.’”(Salinger 95) Holden self-justifies his actions with the wrong things because unconsciously he thinks it’s okay. Since he had a troubled relationship with his parents he tries to have a relationship with the wrong people. Throughout adolescence Holden becomes adapted to the feel of needing to drink.
In the book, Holden often revealed his substance abuse which gave insight on how he resolves his emptiness. Psychologist Paul Susic states, “Substance abuse would be described according to psychodynamic (Freudian) theory from a developmental perspective. Psychodynamic theorists believe that people vulnerable to substance abuse have powerful dependency needs that can be traced to their early years. They claim that when parents fail to satisfy a young child’s need for nurturance, the child is likely to grow up depending excessively on others for help and comfort, trying to find the nurturance that was lacking during their early years.” Freud’s theory states that one often dwells on substance abuse to fill their pain. Holden, for example, often drank because unconsciously it removed his pain as long as the alcohol lasted in his system. Holden drank to fill his loneliness to get away from the feel of missing his brother and abandonment of his mother. Freud explains the theory that an infant’s pleasure is first fixated through oral stimulation. Since, the bottle of alcoholic beverages seems like the urriola of a women, the bottle reminds Holden of his mother’s closeness. After, the death of Allie, their mother became very distant towards Holden because she was depressed. Meanwhile the distance, Holden became fixated on the need to drink his pain away and fixate on the closeness of his mother.
Erick Erickson,
German psychoanalyst believes, “Studies have demonstrated that those with a poor sense of self tend to have less committed relationships and are more likely to suffer emotional isolation, loneliness, and depression” (Heffner 3). Holden Caulfield suffers from depression and isolation throughout the novel. Caulfield is depressed because he can't figure out who he is; he tries to find himself from the beginning to end of the novel. Holden’s traumatic experiences has driven him to want death and makes him emotionally unstable. Holden states, “What I really felt like though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window”(Salinger 101). Through a Freudian lens, the reader can infer that the loss of his brother, Allie, caused Holden to create the feeling of desire of death, anger and depression. Holden states while while having a conversation with his roommate Stradlater, he thought “All of a sudden-for no good reason, really, except that I was sort of in the mood for horsing around-- I felt like jumping off the washbowl and getting old Stradlater in a half nelson...where you get the other guy around the neck and choke him to death, if you feel like it. So I did it.”( Salinger 30) This shows how emotionally unstable Holden is that he feels the need to be aggressive for no apparent reason. Holden’s extreme actions or feelings are related to Id part through Freud's psychodynamic perspective. Holden has no regard for social rules and acts upon on however he desires. Post traumatic experiences during childhood leads into prolong inefficient behaviors. The protagonist, Holden often acted out with regression and repression throughout his stage of adolescence. The abandonment of his parents, especially his mother drove him to substance abuse, troubling relationships with the opposite sex and aggression. The death of his brother also caused his hate towards both society and change. Both had a huge impact on his behavior. These experiences also caused him hatred within himself that he desires death.
In his fight with Stradlater, Holden’s character is shown as a defender of innocence. He defends the memory of his brother through the report he writes for Stradlater. Because of Stradlater’s criticism on his brother’s death, Holden destroys the essay and says “All right, give it back to me, then,’ I said. I went over and pulled it right out of his goddamn hand. Then I tore it up.” Holden is tormented by the memory of his brother throughout the novel, and in this fight he defends his brothers memory by protecting the baseball glove. Later in this scene Holden is upset with Stradlater’s relationship with Jane. Holden explains, “If you knew Stradlater, you 'd have been worried, too. I 'd double-dated with the bastard a couple of times, and I know what I 'm talking about. He was unscrupulous.” Holden tries to defend Jane’s innocence and the reader is able to see Holden’s ethical code to protect the innocence and memory of others. In Holden’s confrontation with Maurice, Holden displays his detestation of the evil phony. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I 'd give anything if I hadn 't, but I did. 'No, you 're no crooks, ' I said. 'You 're just steeling five ' 'Shut up, ' old Maurice said and gave me a shove.” The scene between Maurice and Holden over the prostitute Sunny shows his emotions when it comes to fake people. In this scene he
The book in it’s entirety deals with multiple subjects ranging from depression to dealing with being an adult but an important subject that goes unnoticed is the subject of grief. Holden throughout the book deals with multiple stages of grief. The stages of grief he deals with are anger, denial, and finally acceptance bringing the book to a
Holden really listens to women and he pays attention to what they have to say or do. When Holden found out that Stradlater was going on a date with Jane, he kept talking about her. He was telling Stradlater about the things they did as kids. Holden was telling Stradlater about the time they were playing checkers. Holden
Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood. Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child.
Holden returns to school and goes to his bedroom in the dorm. In his room quietly reading, his neighbor Robert Ackley came in. Holden describes him as a pimply, insecure, annoying boy with a bad dental hygiene. When Holden’s roommate Stradlater who was “madly in love with himself” (27) arrived home after the football game, Ackley abruptly left. Stradlater tells him that he has a date with a friend of his, Jane Gallagher. Jane is someone that Holden really cares for and because he knows the way Stradlater is, Holden became worried for her. “It just drove me stark raving mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car”. (48) Holden became depressed and lonely, so out of the blue Holden decides to pack his things and leave for New York a few days earlier. On the train to New York, Holden meets the mother of one of his schoolmates. Not wanting to tell his whole life story, he told her his name was “Rudolf Schmidt”, the name of th...
In the book, “The Catcher in The Rye” by J.D. Salinger, the main character is very strange in numerous ways. His name is Holden Caulfield and boy has he got something wrong with him. He rambles on and on about nonsense for the first 20-something chapters of the book. He only likes 3-4 people in the book. He smokes and drinks heavily at the ripe age of seventeen. He has been expelled out of numerous prep schools, and feels abandoned and not wanted. He has some sort of mental illness and I think I know what it is. I believe that Holden Caulfield has a mental illness known as Borderline Personality Disorder, also known as BPD. The reasoning for my thinking is that Holden’s actions match up with the symptoms of this illness and the isolation he
It is made evident that Holden is enamored with Jane Gallagher, and this first manifests itself when Holden talks about her to Stradlater. “I used to play checkers with her,” Holden recounts. “ ‘She’d get [her kings] all lined up in the back row. Then she’d never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row.’ Stradlater didn’t say anything. That kind of stuff doesn’t interest most people” (41). In a world where almost everything is so “goddam depressing,” thinking about Jane’s minor traits actually makes Holden happy, even if it is the kind of stuff that does not interest most people. It allows him to channel his childhood, where he was oblivious to the phoniness around him. However, this silly nostalgia cannot get across to Stradlater, who is more interested in Jane as a sexual being than trivialities such as her checker tactics or struggles with ballet. This physical interest eventually becomes the root of their brawl in their dorm. Although Holden’s interrogative mood agitates Stradlater, Holden is only showing his genuine care for Jane. Unlike Stradlaer, Holden has enough sense to know that Jane, being the humble, intelligent girl she is, deserves to be treated right. So, even though Holden lets his anger get the better of him and eventually start a fight, he has reason to do
more mature for his age then he should have been. This is the basis of
Ackley barges into Holden’s room and Holden thinks to himself: “He ha[s] a terrible personality. He [is] also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn’t to crazy about him, to tell you the truth” (26). The whole time Ackley is in Holden’s room, he talks about how mean, rude, dirty, etc. he is. He even tells him to his face what he thinks about him. When Stradlater comes to join them, Holden thinks to himself, “He was at least a pretty friendly guy, Stradlater. It was partly a phony kind of friendly, but at least he always said hello to Ackley and all” (34). Holden seems to have conflicted feelings about Stradlater. He thinks that he is nice although it may be phony, and that he is handsome and built, but he also thinks that he is a hot-shot, a secret slob, and thinks too highly of
Holden and his roommate Stradlater are in the bathroom, as Stradlater is preparing to go on a date. Originally, Holden assumes that Stradlater’s date is a girl named Fitzgerald, however, he is informed that there has been a change in the “arrangements” and that he is going with Jane Gallagher instead. This information takes Holden by surprise, as Jane and Holden were neighbours, thus growing very close, and the thought of Stradlater possibly using a girl he is close to for his personal gain aggravates Holden.
Holden Caulfield suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder throughout the course of the novel. In fact, the root of all his problems come from Allie’s passing; he died from leukemia. Holden used to be extremely close with him and his imminent death changed his entire life and psyche. Holden seems to relive the event of his beloved little brother Allie’s death over and over. “What is clear, however, is that many of the symptoms Holden displays in the course of the novel mirror the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The death of his younger brother, Allie was a traumatic event in Holden Caulfield’s life and is perhaps at the root of the depression he battles in the novel. The death of a sibling can trigger post-traumati...
Holden has a respect for women that he views as unnatural. He feels that his sexual desires should be similar to those of his roommate Stradlater and peer, Luce. Holden shows his confusion by saying, "The thing is, most of the time when you're coming close to doing it with a girl, a girl that isn't ...
Holden's nervous impulse to protect women seems to have sprung up in his psyche from a very young age. After his brother, Allie, started to experience more severe symptoms of leukemia, Holden notes that his mother seemed "nervous as hell." His own mother's emotional problems (Lombardi) transfer to Holden on a very deep, psychological level because he feels partially responsible for his brother's fate in the first place. Seeing his mother in such a distraught state makes him feel even guiltier. The unintended consequence of this is that Holden grows up with a constant fear that he is going to hurt any woman that he grows close to. This manifests itself many times during his time in New York, with one of the earliest examples being his meeting with Sunny in the hotel room. Holden protects her innocence, but not for any particularly noble reason. He hangs her dress back up and insists that he just wants to talk, but Holden did not do this in an attempt to be some paragon of righteousness. Holden, on a deep, psychological lev...
The narrative allows the reader to be exposed to Holden Caulfield’s mind to form a psychoanalytical perspective and emphasize how he goes through many experiences. An example of when Holden went through a violent outburst is when his brother, Allie passed away. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist just for the hell of it.” (Salinger 39). This citation is meaningful and clearly shows what kind of person Holden becomes. He was very close with his brother Allie and that mentally broke him. He had a very strong and sad mental breakdown in the moment that affected his futu...
At Pencey, Holden meets Robert Ackley. Ackely has horrible hygiene, and does not hide it. Although this is disgusting, Holden has more respect for him than for his roommate, Stradlater. Holden calls Stradlater a “secret slob”. Stradlater is like many adults, because he tries to hide his imperfections. Holden is the complete opposite, because doesn’t care what people think of him, just as long as he feels go...