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Psychological evaluation of holden caulfield
Psychological evaluation of holden caulfield
Character analysis of holden caulfield
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Psychological Profile of Holden Caulfield
Part One:
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 and innocent sister, Phoebe. Holden has been to many schools and has been kicked out of many schools. Holden is an intellectual teenager, who refuses to apply himself, and thus goes from school to school.
Some of the important and affecting moments in Holden?s life are death of Allie, suicide of a close friend, D.B. ?selling out?, and his summer with Jane Gallagher. Allie, Holden?s younger brother died of leukemia recently and has caused stress upon the patient. Also witnessing the death of once close friend traumatized the patient. The fact that Holden?s friend committed suicide wearing some of his clothing, placed even more strain on the patient. Another factor surround Holden is his brother D.B. leaving him and his family to ?sell out to Hollywood? disturbed Holden. Lastly, the summer he had spent with a close and intimate friend, Jane Gallagher had added fuel to fire, which drove Mr. Caulfield to this institution and require professional help from our clinic.
Part Two:
The patient, Holden Caulfield, perceives himself a ?madman?. Holden proclaims he is a madman for his actions and thoughts. With the analysis of Holden Caulfield?s description of the weekend leading up to his enlistment of professional care for chronic depression, Holden reveals his thoughts on being convinced he was a madman. One incident from Holden?s description explicitly gives Holden?s view of himself. The incident in reference is his date with Sally Hayes. Holden proposed to Sally to run away to Massachusetts and live together away from the world. In actuality Holden could not tolerate Sally and her ?phoniness?, but he still made the sug...
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...hem. Holden Caulfield is capable of recovery, but will require intense work and help. A timeline for his recovery could be anywhere from three months to as long three years. Currently, I believe it will take approximately six months for Holden to fully recover based on his interactions with the staff here at Bergen Pines. When asked by a psychoanalyst about applying himself in school next year, his response was, ?It?s such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you know what you?re going to do till you do it?? (Salinger 213). In this response, there are remnants of hostility and anger remaining him Holden, which would make me believe it would take a full year in order for him to recover. However, in Holden?s account it states, ?I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley, for instance. I think I even miss that goddam Maurice? (Salinger 214). In this statement, it makes me believe that Holden is already working to return back on the path of sanity, because he lets go of the phony business and outright states he is beginning to miss his friends and the people he met. This is a sign that shows me he is bound to recover as soon as six months.
As Eugene McNamara stated in his essay “Holden Caulfield as Novelist”, Holden, of J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, had met with long strand of betrayals since he left Pencey Prep. These disappointments led him through the adult world with increasing feelings of depression and self-doubt, leading, finally to his mental breakdown.
Holden experiences both alienation and disillusionment when meeting with people like Sally Hayes, Sunny and Ackley. Holden is so desperate to have human connection yet, when he starts to talk to them, he experiences them as ‘phonies’. This makes him more depressed, continuing his downward spiral. Holden is caught in a trap of his own making.
... is apparent that he is a troubled young man through not only what is said and done, but what is also left as unspoken thoughts inside his mind. Holden Caulfield is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, mentally unstable. He is not classified as a "crazy person" or a "loon" but he is a young man who, as a child, had innocence and purity ripped away with no warning or mercy. Instead of reacting more positively and growing older at a young age, the tragedies caused him to year for the innocence of childhood that he knew in some dark corner of his mind had been long gone and was never returning regardless of how much faith and stubbornness he had.
In summary, Holden Caulfield is a troubled adolescent whose personality, improper feelings and habit of running from his problems prevent him from receiving sympathy. Since his personality includes being lazy and insincere, it is difficult to feel sympathy for him when he fails to try or tells lies. His improper feelings depress him over nothing or leave him lonely and isolated. His habit of running away from his problems make it difficult for him to receive sympathy because he chooses not to face his problems. Holden is a character that causes his own sadness. His actions prevent sympathy from being felt for him because most circumstances are all avoidable. Sympathy will be felt for the distraught protagonist when he fixes his personality or makes better decisions. Until then, Holden Caulfield is a character that it will be difficult to feel sympathy for.
Symptomatic of those affected by mental illness, Holden lacks the ability to have solid relationships with others. He has attended numerous boarding schools and seldom lives at home. This has created a distant relationship between him and his parents. Holden never explicitly reveals whether or not he wishes to have a closer bond with his parents, but it is implied. He sneaks into his house while on his New York excursion to visit his younger sister Phoebe. As he is about to leave his parents’ house, “all of a sudden, [he starts] to cry. [He] couldn’t help it” (Salinger 179). His abrupt outburst of emotion indicates his need to have his parents’ help. He realizes that when he leaves, it may be his last time in the house, so he is not able to control holding in his emotions any longer. Holden also does not maintain a good relationship with his brother, D.B. He cannot stand that D.B. is “out in Hollywood… being a prostitute” (Salinger 2). Holden refers to him as a prostitute because he believes that D.B. is wasting his creative talents on screenwriting, a field that does not allow one to exercise his or her creativity. This causes the relationship that the two have to be frail. Holden’s relationship with his family is not ideal, and results from his mental
Holden Caulfield is a teenager growing up in New York in the 1950s. He has been expelled from school for poor achievement and “was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all.” He decides to leave school a few days than what he is supposed to in an attempt to deal with his current situation. “Besides, I sort of needed a little vacation. My nerves were shot. They really were.” Caulfield goes to New York to take a vacation before having to face his parents’ inevitable wrath. During this time, he experiences a nervous breakdown that was characterized by his sudden unexplained depressions. “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide.” “I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden.” Before his eventual nervous collapse he experienced impulsive spending and generally odd, erratic behavior. “All I had was three singles and five quarters and a nickel left – boy, I spent a fortune since I left Pencey. Then what I did, I went down near the lagoon and I sort of skipped the quarters and the nickel across it, where it wasn’t frozen.” “About halfway to the bathroom, I sort of started pretending I had a bullet in my guts.”
Holden Caulfield is the main character in the story. The entire story is a reflection by Holden while he is staying in a mental hospital. His story begins at a private school, called Pencey. Holden has been recently kicked out of the school for lack of effort and for poor grades. Holden dislikes everybody at the school, mainly because they are ignorant and conceded. Christmas break is coming up and Holden has to wait until then to permanently leave the school. Then one night, Holden gets into a fight with his roommate. He gets so upset that he can't stand staying there anymore. In the middle of the night, Holden packs all of his belongings and heads for his hometown, New York.
The Song Hurt is a promotional single featured on the album The Downward Spiral By Nine Inch Nails, released in 1994. The Downward Spiral tells the story of a man who psychologically breaks and begins a journey on a downward path to suicide, Hurt, the final song on the album, is his suicide note. Ultimately, feelings of worthlessness and the self destructive nature that Hold Caufield exhibits in the novel the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger are akin to those Trent Reznor(lead singer of Nine Inch Nails) put into Hurt.
Holden is quite an interesting character because his attitude toward life in general is very complex. He pretends to be an adult by drinking heavily, yet he complains like a child. You can clearly see the struggle Holden is going through in finding himself. Holden's thoughts aren't what the average sixteen year old boy thinks about. He describes death in a weird sense and he pretends to be injured often yet he hasn’t been in that position before. He is a bit violently and sexual for a kid. Holden feels misunderstood by others because the way they perceive him.
The Catcher in the Rye revolves around Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the novel, and his disillusionment. Holden’s disillusionment illustrates that he has a problem accepting such. Aforesaid is based upon multiple factors, most which have brought Holden lasting traumas. A remedy is required for Holden to accept his disillusionment and enable an improvement of his situation. For Holden’s remedy, the consultation of psychologists, and additional specialized health professionals would be the core of an apt remedy for Holden’s psychological and physiological state based upon the numerous causes of such and the everlasting trauma of some of the determinants of aforesaid situation. The origins of Holden’s disillusionment revolved mainly around the death of his younger brother Allie three years ago, of which he still experiences the trauma to this day. His disillusionment is caused by both
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...
On the darker and more atypical side of Holden Caulfield's character is the alarming mental health issues. Holden Cauldfield sadly has a plethora of these types of internal conflicts. Holden Caulfield is a pathological liar, “ If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even if somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. “(16). Holden is also constantly changing his name throughout the novel. Holden is sel...
Holden did eventually go home and clearly went into therapy because he was “sick”. (213) He also wished he hadn’t told us, the reader, his story because he just ended up missing Stradlater, the nuns and even Maurice. His final words to us were “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody”. (214)
I recommend that Holden remain under my care at Happy Loons Hospital for the time being. I believe that participation in regular psychotherapy sessions will greatly benefit him as he negotiates his fears about adulthood. I also suggest that Holden initiate a course of Zylonconoff to stimulate the chemical production of his maturity gland. I believe that this combination of therapy and medication will result in Holden's acceptance of adulthood. Should he be able to do this, I believe the patient shall be able to attend the public high school his parents have chosen for him, as well as be able to make more mature relationships. The future looks bright for this patient.
President Barack Obama has said, “Too many Americans who struggle with mental health illnesses are still suffering in silence, rather than seeking help”. While many mental disorders can easily be treated, they are extremely taxing on the victim and are challenging to diagnose. In final analysis, Holden Caulfield suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder (manic depression) and psychosis. From a psychiatric point of view, there is hope for Holden in the future, but only if he is genuinely avid in getting back to a state of normalcy.