Holden expresses his thoughts with aggressive acts and leaves the readers with no other choice than to question his mental state. Through Freudian perspective, Holden's thoughts and acts can be understood by the "Pleasure Principle." The principle consists of avoiding things that are unpleasant or painful, while we pursue something pleasurable. The pleasure principle has a great impact on Holden’s Borderline Personality Disorder. The numerous actions Holden expresses reveals his Borderline Personality Disorder. The National Institute of Mental Health states that the disorder portrays, “marked by a pattern of ongoing instability in moods, behavior, self-image, and functioning. These experiences often result in impulsive actions and unstable …show more content…
When Holden's roommate, Stradlater takes Jane, whom he has genuine feelings for on a date Holden decides to interrogate Stradlater about his date with Jane trying to discover if he had any sexual interaction with Jane. Stradlater refuses to speak about the date. Holden acts out by physically assaulting his roommate for no apparent reason. This quote is significant because it shows Holden’s inability to control his anger, along with his impulses and longing for company. He let his emotions dominate his behavior. Attacking Stradlater was Holden's way of avoiding a disturbing thought; causing him to feel satisfied in that …show more content…
In the book, Holden often revealed his substance abuse which gave insight on how he resolves his emptiness. Psychologist Paul Susic states, “Substance abuse would be described according to psychodynamic (Freudian) theory from a developmental perspective. Psychodynamic theorists believe that people vulnerable to substance abuse have powerful dependency needs that can be traced to their early years. They claim that when parents fail to satisfy a young child’s need for nurturance, the child is likely to grow up depending excessively on others for help and comfort, trying to find the nurturance that was lacking during their early years.” Freud’s theory states that one often dwells on substance abuse to fill their pain. Holden, for example, often drank because unconsciously it removed his pain as long as the alcohol lasted in his system. Holden drank to fill his loneliness to get away from the feel of missing his brother and abandonment of his mother. Freud explains the theory that an infant’s pleasure is first fixated through oral stimulation. Since, the bottle of alcoholic beverages seems like the urriola of a women, the bottle reminds Holden of his mother’s closeness. After, the death of Allie, their mother became very distant towards Holden because she was depressed. Meanwhile the distance, Holden became fixated on the need to drink his pain away and fixate on the closeness of his mother.
Erick Erickson,
“I went over and pulled it right out of his goddam hand…” (Salinger 23). [see mla formatting packet to check document] see things to leave out of your paper handout this quote ,from chapter 5 of the book, shows Holden’s anger towards Stradlater after he
Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood. Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child.
more mature for his age then he should have been. This is the basis of
Holden and his roommate Stradlater are in the bathroom, as Stradlater is preparing to go on a date. Originally, Holden assumes that Stradlater’s date is a girl named Fitzgerald, however, he is informed that there has been a change in the “arrangements” and that he is going with Jane Gallagher instead. This information takes Holden by surprise, as Jane and Holden were neighbours, thus growing very close, and the thought of Stradlater possibly using a girl he is close to for his personal gain aggravates Holden.
...ality in the narrative is having to deal with alienation and how he deals with it, with the world. One of his other psychological features is having depression, which elucidate to Sigmund Freud. Holden’s last trait has to do with having immature relationships with women and focuses on both the author and Holden. Holden Caulfield could also be known as a wallflower. He is shy, always excluded to the world, and is always focusing in his own mind, which somewhat makes him have a normal trait. But that doesn’t cover his mental disorders.
Holden has a respect for women that he views as unnatural. He feels that his sexual desires should be similar to those of his roommate Stradlater and peer, Luce. Holden shows his confusion by saying, "The thing is, most of the time when you're coming close to doing it with a girl, a girl that isn't ...
It is made evident that Holden is enamored with Jane Gallagher, and this first manifests itself when Holden talks about her to Stradlater. “I used to play checkers with her,” Holden recounts. “ ‘She’d get [her kings] all lined up in the back row. Then she’d never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row.’ Stradlater didn’t say anything. That kind of stuff doesn’t interest most people” (41). In a world where almost everything is so “goddam depressing,” thinking about Jane’s minor traits actually makes Holden happy, even if it is the kind of stuff that does not interest most people. It allows him to channel his childhood, where he was oblivious to the phoniness around him. However, this silly nostalgia cannot get across to Stradlater, who is more interested in Jane as a sexual being than trivialities such as her checker tactics or struggles with ballet. This physical interest eventually becomes the root of their brawl in their dorm. Although Holden’s interrogative mood agitates Stradlater, Holden is only showing his genuine care for Jane. Unlike Stradlaer, Holden has enough sense to know that Jane, being the humble, intelligent girl she is, deserves to be treated right. So, even though Holden lets his anger get the better of him and eventually start a fight, he has reason to do
Holden really listens to women and he pays attention to what they have to say or do. When Holden found out that Stradlater was going on a date with Jane, he kept talking about her. He was telling Stradlater about the things they did as kids. Holden was telling Stradlater about the time they were playing checkers. Holden
Ackley barges into Holden’s room and Holden thinks to himself: “He ha[s] a terrible personality. He [is] also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn’t to crazy about him, to tell you the truth” (26). The whole time Ackley is in Holden’s room, he talks about how mean, rude, dirty, etc. he is. He even tells him to his face what he thinks about him. When Stradlater comes to join them, Holden thinks to himself, “He was at least a pretty friendly guy, Stradlater. It was partly a phony kind of friendly, but at least he always said hello to Ackley and all” (34). Holden seems to have conflicted feelings about Stradlater. He thinks that he is nice although it may be phony, and that he is handsome and built, but he also thinks that he is a hot-shot, a secret slob, and thinks too highly of
In the book, “The Catcher in The Rye” by J.D. Salinger, the main character is very strange in numerous ways. His name is Holden Caulfield and boy has he got something wrong with him. He rambles on and on about nonsense for the first 20-something chapters of the book. He only likes 3-4 people in the book. He smokes and drinks heavily at the ripe age of seventeen. He has been expelled out of numerous prep schools, and feels abandoned and not wanted. He has some sort of mental illness and I think I know what it is. I believe that Holden Caulfield has a mental illness known as Borderline Personality Disorder, also known as BPD. The reasoning for my thinking is that Holden’s actions match up with the symptoms of this illness and the isolation he
In his fight with Stradlater, Holden’s character is shown as a defender of innocence. He defends the memory of his brother through the report he writes for Stradlater. Because of Stradlater’s criticism on his brother’s death, Holden destroys the essay and says “All right, give it back to me, then,’ I said. I went over and pulled it right out of his goddamn hand. Then I tore it up.” Holden is tormented by the memory of his brother throughout the novel, and in this fight he defends his brothers memory by protecting the baseball glove. Later in this scene Holden is upset with Stradlater’s relationship with Jane. Holden explains, “If you knew Stradlater, you 'd have been worried, too. I 'd double-dated with the bastard a couple of times, and I know what I 'm talking about. He was unscrupulous.” Holden tries to defend Jane’s innocence and the reader is able to see Holden’s ethical code to protect the innocence and memory of others. In Holden’s confrontation with Maurice, Holden displays his detestation of the evil phony. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I 'd give anything if I hadn 't, but I did. 'No, you 're no crooks, ' I said. 'You 're just steeling five ' 'Shut up, ' old Maurice said and gave me a shove.” The scene between Maurice and Holden over the prostitute Sunny shows his emotions when it comes to fake people. In this scene he
Holden goes through this continuous road of feeling like a failure, disappointing those he loves like Phoebe, and acting like a child instead of taking charge of his life, but it is time to stop. Depression is a major concern today and takes a harsh toll on everyone, not only the person who is diagnosed with it, but also their family. It is not always obvious when someone is depressed. Everyone handles depression differently in their own way, but depression is a medical problem which should be handled professionally. Unfortunately, Holden let his depression escalate out of proportion, leading him to live a life full of emptiness, guilt, and compulsive lying and this is his way of dealing with his problem.
Holden Caulfield suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder throughout the course of the novel. In fact, the root of all his problems come from Allie’s passing; he died from leukemia. Holden used to be extremely close with him and his imminent death changed his entire life and psyche. Holden seems to relive the event of his beloved little brother Allie’s death over and over. “What is clear, however, is that many of the symptoms Holden displays in the course of the novel mirror the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The death of his younger brother, Allie was a traumatic event in Holden Caulfield’s life and is perhaps at the root of the depression he battles in the novel. The death of a sibling can trigger post-traumati...
Holden's nervous impulse to protect women seems to have sprung up in his psyche from a very young age. After his brother, Allie, started to experience more severe symptoms of leukemia, Holden notes that his mother seemed "nervous as hell." His own mother's emotional problems (Lombardi) transfer to Holden on a very deep, psychological level because he feels partially responsible for his brother's fate in the first place. Seeing his mother in such a distraught state makes him feel even guiltier. The unintended consequence of this is that Holden grows up with a constant fear that he is going to hurt any woman that he grows close to. This manifests itself many times during his time in New York, with one of the earliest examples being his meeting with Sunny in the hotel room. Holden protects her innocence, but not for any particularly noble reason. He hangs her dress back up and insists that he just wants to talk, but Holden did not do this in an attempt to be some paragon of righteousness. Holden, on a deep, psychological lev...
At Pencey, Holden meets Robert Ackley. Ackely has horrible hygiene, and does not hide it. Although this is disgusting, Holden has more respect for him than for his roommate, Stradlater. Holden calls Stradlater a “secret slob”. Stradlater is like many adults, because he tries to hide his imperfections. Holden is the complete opposite, because doesn’t care what people think of him, just as long as he feels go...