Holden Psychoanalysis

Holdens World: J.D. Salinger “ The Catcher in the Rye” and Psychoanalytic Criticism
The study of human behavior and perception is an endless study that affects every single person living, and is differentiated between individuals depending on their experiences throughout life. Constantly creating personal Schemas of situations an individual has encountered. Going back in history to a time period where psychoanalysis in patients was beginning a new era of mental health. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger paints a story of a young man facing issues in the world about the situations and people around him, as well as his struggles transitioning into a young man. The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most controversial novels in literature and

Our narrator Holden is a teenage boy who starts the novel off introducing his current situation, where we can assume he's in a mental hospital receiving treatment or something of the sort. Quickly holden beings his story of what had happened to put himself in this mysterious institution. Throughout the novel we can argue three main points of our narrator holdens psyche: Fear of intimacy and Oedipal Fixation, the meaning of death, and low self-esteem/ Insecure or unstable sense of self. All three points shape our narrator's actions and thoughts throughout the book, showing the effects of psychoanalytic criticism.
Psychoanalytic criticism supports many studies that have the potential to alter an individual psyche, one of these points are fear of intimacy stating that the overbearing feeling of being too emotionally close to others will hurt or destroy us giving a false illusion that the only way to be safe is to distance ourselves away from others. Going alongside Fear of intimacy I wanted to pair it with another important term Oedipal Fixation, it's the dysfunctional relationship with a parent or guardian of the opposite sex that could carry on through adulthood potentially harming potential relationships with others. I feel both of these terms seriously

The meaning of death can cause a huge effect on our psychoanalytic criticism toward others and situation causing us to react differently than usual. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye we can see the psychological impact of the death of Holden's sibling plays in the creation of our narrator in the novel. We can constantly spot parts of the novel where Holden brings up memories of his brother Allie, inferring that the passing away of his brother has scared him in someway, later revealing that importance of Allie's death in the main idea of the story. Reiterating my point, Robert Bennett analyzes the psychological development and psychological breakdown death does to our character stating, “One way to uncover the hidden layers of Holden's mind is to look back on his childhood in order to find some significant or traumatic event that might explain his current state of being”(galeliteracysources). A traumatic experience, as the death of a close sibling can tear the mind to bits causing issues especially in a child still developing that haven't dealt with such harsh situations. We see throughout the novel Holden expresses his protective nature of the idea innocence especially in young children, stating that he wishes he had the power to protect all of them. Allie is represented as innocence in youth and having that taken from Holden has impacted him and his