Holden Caulfield PTSD

908 Words2 Pages

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, takes place in the 1950s and is narrated by the main character, Holden Caulfield. In the book, Holden is a seventeen year old boy who tells his story of how he struggles with the disorder known as PTSD. PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is an anxiety disorder that people can get after facing an upsetting or traumatic experience. The article “PTSD” displays the symptoms of the disease, what the options are to treat it, and what to do if you know someone who has PTSD. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden struggles to deal with the symptoms of PTSD in relation to experiences he has suffered through in his past. Given that Holden suffers with PTSD, it is very noticeable that …show more content…

There are treatment options that Holden qualifies for, like psychotherapy, medications, or both. One type of therapy that can help Holden is Cognitive Restructuring, which can help him make sense of when his brother died. Instead of himself feeling guilty about it, the therapist would give him a different outlook of when his brother died. Holden could also take antidepressant medication to treat his depression struggles and it would make it easier for him to go through psychotherapy treatment. Some antidepressants include sertraline and paroxetine. These medications can control the symptoms of feeling sad, depressed, anxiousness, anger, and feeling distressed (“PTSD”5-6). If he sticks to therapy, then it will definitely lead him to the road to recovery, but if Holden does not stick to it, he can get worse over the years that are to come. Knowing Holden has been told by his former friend Carl Luce to see a psychoanalyst, he does not seem too interested to go and see one, “‘You mean go to a psychoanalyst and all?’ I said. That’s what he’d told me I ought to do. His father was a psychoanalyst and all… ‘You’re a real friendly bastard, you know that?’” (Salinger 148). Holden will have a better life if he went to psychotherapy and then he could figure out what he would want to do when he grows up to be an adult. Disaster could strike if he is trapped in this traumatic state of depression. One can only hope that Holden Caulfield recovers in the near future from his PTSD, so he can grow up to be successful and happy, like any seventeen year old should

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