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Holden Caulfield Ptsd

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It is an accepted fact that growing up is a difficult task. Everyone reaches an age where they are no longer a child, but not yet an adult. Caught in between these two stages of life is a frightening place. People handle this transitional period in various ways. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel about a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield. Holden, who is in a mental hospital, told a nurse about the tough situations he has been through this past year. Throughout the book, the reader can observe that Holden struggles with psychological issues such as depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and suicidal thoughts. Although some may say that Holden exhibits behavior that could be written off as normal. Holden should be held …show more content…

To begin, early in the novel Holden tells the reader about his younger brother Allie that passed away due to leukemia. It is also made known to the reader that Holden has PTSD from this tragic situation. Holden has a hard time trusting people because of this, and has struggled with mental illness since Allies death. In addition to trust issues and PTSD, Holden tends to go into a fantasy world when he gets depressed. In that world, he “talks” to Allie out loud as if he was there. For instance, Holden was walking, and kept getting the feeling that he wouldn't make it to the other side of the street. In the book Holden says, “I thought I'd just go down, down, down and nobody would ever see me again. Boy did it scare me. then I started doing something else. Every time I’d get to the other end of the block, I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I'd say to him, Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear” (Salinger 256-257). Since Allie’s death, Holden struggles to express himself, and as a result “talks” to Allie. It is obvious to the reader that Holden struggles mentally based on his prior …show more content…

After leaving Pencey, Holden stays at a nearby hotel for a night. While he is at the hotel, he encounters a prostitute and makes her leave his room. After that, Holden couldn't sleep. He spoke about not even feeling sleepy, just feeling depressed. Holden states, “I wasn't sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all, I almost wished I was dead” (118). At this point in the book, the reader can predict that Holden often feels depressed and doesn't know how to express this feeling of depression. Furthermore, Holden frequently mentions suicide and fantasizes about being dead. Like most people, depression and suicidal thoughts correlate. When Holden gets depressed, he starts to have thoughts of dying. Before Holden left Pencey, he knew a guy named Ackley. Whose dorm room was right across from his. Days before Holden had to leave Pencey, he slept in Ackley’s room, even though they weren't really friends. During his stay with Ackley, Holden looked out of the window, and described the streets as depressing. There was not a person around, just the cold rain. Holden remembers thinking, “I felt so lonely all of a

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Throughout the story we see Holden that suffers from a lot of illnesses like Post traumatic stress disorder, detachment, agitation, depression, denial, acceptance, sleep deprivation, and loneliness. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder characterized by failure to recover after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. I believe Holden was diagnosed with this disorder after the death of his younger brother Allie. Like any other human being losing a younger sibling is a life changing event especially the way Holden lost his brother. After Holden found out his brother died he was so angry that he punched the windows out of his old summer home and broke his hand.

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Holden says it "drives [him] crazy if somebody gets killed...and it's somebody else's fault," referring to Mercutio in this instance. However, his statement also applies to Allie, who died from leukemia through no fault of his own. Holden expresses his frustration and disillusionment with the world in this situation. Holden has already informed us that his parents are apathetic to his situation: after he shows his frustration at his brother's death by punching out the windows, instead of addressing his grief sympathetically, Holden's parents attempt to send him to be "psychoanalyzed". Holden should be diagnosed with teen grief, rather be sent to a mental institution, an unhealthy, oppressive environment which would dramatically worsen his condition, because of a personality disorder that he does not have.

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Holden's admittance that he is "sad" at his parting with his professor also serves to show his emotional struggles. Another example is when Holden is asked by his friend Straudlater to write a paper for him. Holden decides to write about an object that was his younger brother’s, Allie, who passed away when Holden was 13. Holden was very distraught when he found out about his brother's death. He states, “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage” (38-9).

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One way holden has suicidal thoughts in the book states, ”Everybody was asleep or out or home for the weekend, and it was very,very quiet and depressing in the corridor. […] All of a sudden, I decided what I'd really do, I'd get the hell out of Pencey – right that same night and all. I mean not wait till Wednesday or anything. I just didn't want to hang around any more. It made me too sad and lonesome.

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These few lines from the book are a clear indication of Holdens loneliness. Holden didnt have a good explanation as to why he started crying out of blue, only to say himself that he was depressed and

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In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, the protagonist Holden Caulfield demonstrates his unusual behaviour. The narrator introduces the story of an emotionally damaged teenager whose suspicions and personal issues prevent him from being “normal” in a society full of phonies that he does not seem to get along with. It becomes clear that Holden has clouded judgement as he rides an emotional rollercoaster of mood swings with the people he likes, and dislikes. Therefore, it becomes obvious that some of his personal flaws include his distrust, depression, and unreasonable attitudes and thoughts are based on his underlying emotional problems. Holden Caulfield has a variety psychological problems, such as his skepticism, depressive behaviour, and

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After getting kicked out of yet another school, he starts to become depressed. Since he does not have anyone to talk to about how he really feels, he continues to lie. Holden’s feelings of deep loneliness drive his behavior throughout the novel. Holden has a negative outlook on people because people in his life continually

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It is as if he has no friends on facebook, showing an empty screen. When looking at empty screens we see nothing but ourselves, which shines the light on Holden’s self-isolation. A literary criticism article written upon the topic of Holden’s isolation agrees with the claim, Holden self-isolates. The article states,“The fleeting nature of his interactions is responsible for much of his loneliness,” continuing to add that it is “self imposed” (blooms literature 1). Holden’s state of mind is complex,

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Holden has experienced most of these symptoms in some way throughout the three-day period, on page 75 he indicates himself as the “dumb one in the family” this says about himself that he has low self-esteem, he doesn’t think of himself highly. Furthermore, Holden had made troubling decisions in these sessions, he got into a situation that leads him to get beaten up by a pimp who wanted five more dollars for the prostitute Holden got, he punched him in his stomach (115). After that, Holden got really depressed and thought about death, “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window” (116-117). The main factor I believe that caused this disorder is the loss of a loved one after Holden found out about the death of Allie, he went on a rampage by breaking all the windows in the garage the night he died, he broke the windows with his fist (44).

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Throughout the book, Holden is struggling to get by. The death of his brother Allie has left him in a tough spot. Holden doesn’t exactly know how to deal with this. The different stages of grief are represented through Holden. Holden shows denial and anger when he flashbacks to one of his memories after his brother’s death.

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Holden often feels lonely, but doesn’t seek out anyone who actually cares about him. He tries to interact more with strangers which can be weird sometimes. Like the time he asked his cab driver to have drinks with him or when he kept taking and giving money to the nuns. Holden says “I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome”(Salinger 169). He is experiencing normal things, most teens go through.

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In the quote, it’s shown that Holden is having severe issues with his mental health. He wants to jump out the window and basically cease to exist. Throughout the book, we see all of his issues continuously come up in all of his

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”[49] The sensation of loneliness and depression gets deeper. That is why when he all of a sudden meets a suspicious man in the elevator Holden agrees to spend a night with a call-girl. This is not something he was looking for, but having no better alternative Holden catches at that casual straw. The outcome of the encounter is a night talk with a girl called Sunny,another lie and getting beaten up and robbed by Maurice,the man from the elevator.

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Salinger explains Holden’s illusions that he creates for himself when he, “felt so depressed, you can’t imagine. What [he] did, [is he] started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. [he does] that sometimes when [he gets] very depressed” (Salinger 10). This quote indicates how Holden creates the illusion of him talking with his dead brother, Allie. Holden’s imaginations of his dead brother, Allie, is one of the ways he copes with his trauma of losing him.

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