Holden Caulfield Psychoanalysis

According to Romanian Association for Psychoanalysis Promotion, psychoanalysis is a method of mind investigation, specifically of the unconscious mind. Many forms of literature have been known to have applied to psychoanalytic theories and principles. These theories, founded by Sigmund Freud, have had a grand impact on literary criticism along with other fields. The novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is one of the many that are able to be interpreted through Freudian theory. Salinger exemplifies psychoanalytic theory and principles through his protagonist Holden Caulfield. Who is seen as a troubled and secluded teen. Using psychoanalytic literary theory one can see Salinger's use of flashbacks in the whole novel. Holden is revealed to be in a rest home at

He suffers through middle child syndrome in which Elizabeth Danish writer of the article, Middle Child Syndrome writes that, “...some think that the middle child simply gets forgotten for no reason…”(Danish). Holden states, “My brother D.B’s a writer and all, and my brother Allie, the one that died… was a wizard”(Salinger 67). Although his younger brother died, Holden still feels like he has to live up to him along with his older brother who has so far been very successful. He adds more when he says, “I’m the only really dumb one”(Salinger 67). Holden although very bright, he seems to feel left in the shadow of his siblings. Because of Holden’s low self esteem he gets pleasure from standing out. Holden explains, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was…Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you”(Salinger 121). Here we see that Holden gets comfort from standing out. This is probably because he has not been able to stand out because of his siblings always surpassing him and the lack of attention he received from both