Holden also has an abnormal perception of reality. This is demonstrated when Holden states, “Which always kills me. I’m always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not glad at all I’ve met . If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff though” (Salinger 87) Holden lives in conformity doing things not because he wants to but because they’re the socially accepted. According to Freud’s theory this is because of Holden’s ego, stating, “ The ego operates according to the reality principle, the basis for operating in the world by taking into account what is practical and acceptable. The ego seeks to ways to satisfy the demands of the id without incurring social disapproval” (Nevid 470) Holden’s action do not represent his his true …show more content…
According to Freud, “Repression permits the people to remain outwardly calm and controlled, even though they harbor hateful or lustful urges underneath the surface of awareness. Yet repressed desires or memories may become revealed in disguised forms ..such as slips of the tongue” (Nevid 471) An example of Holden’s repression being demonstrated is when he tells Sally Hayes “You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth” (Salinger 133) and the later stating, “ If you want to know the truth I don’t know why i even started all that stuff with her” (Salinger 134) . This illustrates that Holden cannot always control what he says no matter how much he repressed his true desires. Harboring such hateful thoughts can also lead to violent outbursts which is demonstrated in the first couple of chapters where Holden starts a fight with his roommate Stradlater. According to Richard Nisbett, a Social Psychology professor at the University of Michigan “The key issue is the balance of power between these control mechanisms that we call top-down—because they are all like executives that control from the top down to the employees—and bottom-up mechanisms, in the opposite direction, like mirror