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Examples Of Ptsd In Catcher In The Rye

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Finding PTSD in The Catcher in the Rye The world-wide famous book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger can be argued to contain a character that goes about his life with many symptoms of PTSD. The main character, Holden Caulfield, goes through a truly tough time in his life after he loses his little brother, Allie, to leukemia. The article “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” from the National Institute of Mental Health helped me better understand the mental illness of PTSD. Both the book and the Article have taught me that PTSD is a mental health disorder that usually occurs after a stressful or terrifying event in someone's life. Numerous amounts of symptoms come with this condition. Holden Caulfield displays all symptoms such as sleep deprivation, forgetfulness, angriness, startled easily, unable to concentrate, and avoidance of places, events, or objects that may remind him of his brother’s death throughout the entire novel. (“PTSD” 1-2). Evaluating The Catcher in the Rye and “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”, I can conclude that Holden Caulfield is struggling with the anxiety disorder of PTSD by possessing the many corresponding symptoms portrayed. Holden's disorder most likely began the day of his brother’s death. He reveals the …show more content…

Readers can conclude from what they are told that until his brother passed away he was a normal student. Holden once mentioned that, “They gave me frequent warning to start applying myself but I didn’t do it.” He was talking about the things his administrators told him before each expulsion. The administrators knew that Holden is an intelligent boy and realized the experiences he has gone through but knew he does not have the desire to learn anymore. The PTSD packet states that avoidance is a symptom of PTSD. This one specific symptom is described as, “Losing interest in activities that were enjoyable in the past.” (“PTSD”

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Throughout the book holden gives off a vibe of being depressed, which might have started when his brother passed away. It’s seems like after that happened he lost all enthusiasm and energy to really try and also to really plan out his future. Most

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Learning and Impressions. Throughout my research and interviews for this paper I have learned so much. I never understood the history of PTSD and how it became a part of the DSM V. It scares me a bit that it wasn’t a diagnosis is written off as a norm until the 80’s. When reading about PTSD in The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell by John Crawford, I learned that sometimes you couldn’t trust everything being told to you from someone who just left a war zone.

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One of the major aspects that shape one’s character, are their past encounters. Within the novel, The Catcher In the Rye, J.D. Salinger tells the story through the first person protagonist Holden Caulfield, allowing the audience a glimpse into this seventeen year old’s chaotic mind. It can be implied that as Holden tells his story, he is in a psychiatric facility due to the toll his past has taken on his mental stability. As the story unfolds, Holden seems to reveal he is just a lost boy struggling to find acceptance in an insensitive world of “phonies.” Throughout Holden Caufield’s teenage years, while the loss of his brother Allie has shone a negative light on his life, Holden’s experience with the carousel helps to impact his life in a positive way.

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Based on the National Institution of Mental Health and examples from the novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main protagonist Holden Caufield displays multiple signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Throughout the novel, Holden shows many of the symptoms such as avoidance, and hyperarousal. Those who experience symptoms such as the ones mentioned, they most likely have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD much like Holden did. J.D Salinger portrayed PTSD through Holden and how he, and like so many others suffer from this mental disorder.

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The Red Hat Holden Caulfield is the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, a novel written by J.D. Salinger. The novel is a flashback of Holden’s life when he was seventeen years old, when he was kicked out of Pency Prep. Holden tells his story from a rest home in California where he is seeking the help he needs after his mental deterioration caused by his younger brother Allie’s death. After reading The Catcher in the Rye and having an understanding of Holden’s deterioration, the conjecture that Holden has PTSD can easily be argued. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, can be acquired at any age, by anyone.

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PTSD is an anxiety disorder that develops after a person is exposed to a traumatic event such as warfare, traffic wrecks, sexual assault, or any other life-threatening situation (Iribarren, Prolo, Neagos, and Chiappelli 1). Symptoms of PTSD often

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is known by a failure to recover after experiencing or witnessing a horrifying event. There are triggers that affect people, causing them to re-live the memories of the trauma resulting in intense emotional and physical reactions. Distancing oneself from society is a common occurrence by those affected, as “Loneliness is typically defined as having a subjective sense of being emotionally or socially isolated or disconnected” (Psychology Today). People diagnosed with PTSD often feel they can no longer be apart of society. This feeling of isolation creates an obstacle of getting back involved in society and resuming personal life.

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You don't need water to feel like you're drowning do you ? That is a question that many people ask when they are going through many obstacles and can not seem to overcome their problems. The water is used to represent isolation, loneliness, and alienation. To be isolated, alienated, and lonely you can either push yourself away from people or someone is making you be alone. Suffering from these things you may have some issues that make you feel that way.

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He is constantly in denial and thinks that everything else is to blame for his own problems. Holden always has an excuse to justify his action. When he left his old school he said, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That’s all” (17). Holden is basically saying here that he left his old school not because he is not smart but it was because he could not stand the people there.

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Holden has a very different way of showing his depression in the novel. His depression is present when he tries to keep his innocence and stray away from adult hood all while trying to keep his relationship with his brother Allie. Holden wants to be the “catcher in the rye “. He wants to be that person who catches those kids who are falling off the cliff into adulthood. Holden wants to protect those who are close to him and those that he loves.

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It 's feeling everything at once than feeling paralysingly numb,” writes Maria Henriksson. Mental illness refers to many conditions that individuals could go through. For example depression, addictive behaviors, and eating disorder have effects that could indicate whether or not an individual has a mental illness. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, Holden faces many hardships after his brother 's death. Holden 's mental illness is inferred through his lack of control, isolating himself from others, and relieving the past which caused him to not move

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Holden Caulfield, the main protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, embodies the classic teenager in the process of discovering himself, and how the world works. But, regardless of Holden 's rich, prep school lifestyle, the series of events that have mapped out his life up to this point have utterly affected his emotional well being and perception of the world. Many traumatic events such as the death of holds brother Allie, the death of a class mate, and countless numbers of awkward incidents with adults have all added up to affects Holden 's well-being and detach him from reality. The death of Holden 's younger brother Allie has caused him to confuse his perception of reality and to alienate himself.

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“I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall. But I don’t honestly know what kind…It may be kind where, at the age of thirty, you sit in some bar hating everybody who comes in looking as if he might have played football in college. Then again, you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, “It’s a between he and I. ‘ Or you may end up in some business office, throwing paper clips at the nearest stenographer. I just don’t know…

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Sickness comes in many forms, but perhaps the most misunderstood form happens mentally. All of the events that happen to the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, are caused in some way or another by his mental illness. Holden Caulfield is a boy who drops out of school and travels to New York City. Holden makes irresponsible decisions like when he travels to New York City by himself without permission which affects him mentally. Holden’s mental illnesses affects his decision making,specifically his decision to stay in school and his inability to connect with people.

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