Holden Caulfield Mental Illness

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Ms.Krauss Alex Penfold 4/30/14 Holden Essay Many people today suffer from a very serious mental disorder known as PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the novel The Catcher in The Rye, Holden Caulfield, or Holden as we call him, suffers from the mental disorder PTSD. Even though many people say he is a “normal” teenager going through regular teenage emotions, there is an ample amount of evidence to prove that he does in fact suffer from a mental disorder. In order to be diagnosed with PTSD, a person must have three different types of symptoms: relieving symptoms, avoidance symptoms, and arousal symptoms. In the novel The Catcher in The Rye the main character holden suffers from PTSD. One condition …show more content…

According to http://www.pchtreatment.com “Persons with PTSD can have feelings of detachment from family and friends, isolation, and loss of social interactions” This social problem is due to the feeling of security he achieves when he is emotionally detached from others. Holden has a lack of good relationships because he always distances himself from others through his comments and lies, and this is a sign of mental instability. Even in a school filled with people, Holden refuses to make friends and experiences a total lack of interest in his school work. This can be seen in his everyday comments of roommate Stradlater and Ackley. Holden feels that schoolwork is unnecessary and usually does not even make an effort to keep from failing. For example, in his P.S. letter to Mr. Spencer, his history teacher, he writes "It is alright with me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything else except English anyway.” With this quote we can see that Holden has no interest in school and doesn’t even care if he is flunking his classes. Although Holden himself does not mention it, he believes he has no future. Due to him failing all his classes and getting kicked out of school, we can see that Holden doesn’t want a future and doesn’t want to form friendships in school, therefore he detaches himself from school and …show more content…

In the novel The Catcher in The Rye, Holden Caulfield, or Holden as we call him, suffers from the mental disorder PTSD. Even though many people say he is a “normal” teenager going through regular teenage emotions, there is an ample amount of evidence to prove that he does in fact suffer from a mental disorder. In order to be diagnosed with PTSD, a person must have three different types of symptoms: relieving symptoms, avoidance symptoms, and arousal symptoms. In the novel The Catcher in The Rye the main character holden suffers from PTSD. One condition that comes with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is always wanting to relive the past and holding onto past memories. According to: http://www.ptsd.ne.gov, “Re-experiencing symptoms are symptoms that involve reliving the traumatic event. There are a number of ways in which people may re-live a trauma. Allie was Holden’s younger brother who died of leukemia on July 18, 1946, when he was eleven and Holden was thirteen. For Holden, the death of his eleven year old brother was a very tragic and emotional experience for him to go threw. Having PTSD, Holden uses Allie as a mean of support, or a comforting thought. “ Every time I'd get to the end of a 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. Please, Allie. And then when I'd reach

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