Essay On Post Traumatic Stress Disorder In Holden Caulfield

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a mental health condition that makes a person act unusual because of a significant, terrifying event that happened in their past, leaving them mentally scarred. In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield suffers from a form of PTSD because his little brother died when he was younger. This event sends Holden through a psychological journey of alienation and isolation shown through six steps. War veterans are most commonly affected by PTSD because of the gruesome and horrendous things they witness on the battlefield. These tremendous horrors are incomparable to any experience a civilian might describe as terrifying. Much like war veterans, Holden Caulfield suffers from the many effects of Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder shown through his behavior of alienation and does not properly handle the situation. The six steps of Holden’s psychological journey in order include; alienation, initiation, journey, suffering, reconciliation, and finally, communication. As the novel begins, so does Holden’s story of his journey as he is standing on the top of Thomsen hill while all of his schoolmates are down at the football …show more content…

Similar to Holden, war vets ordinarily avoid reminders of the significant event or events that they have endured. Excessive smoking and drinking to numb the brain of the pain that comes along with PTSD are exercised by both veterans and Holden. Another correlation between most war veterans with PTSD and Holden is that they both suffer from the disorder mainly because they lost a beloved companion that they deeply cared for. Unlike Holden, the main stressors for war veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder entail; the sight of dead bodies, being shot at and ambushed, receiving heavy artillery fire, and most commonly, knowing someone killed in battle (U.S. Department of Veteran

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