The Catcher in the Rye: Holden Caulfield's Mental Breakdown

Erikson theorizes that in such a period, adolescents have certain tasks, one of which is identifying who they are. An individual successfully completes the task by staying true to his or her self, whereas when a person fails that stage, it leads to role confusion; consequently creating a weak sense of self. (Block 2011). The stage also entails a variety of personal challenges and limitations faced as well as a series of needs to be met, including: attention, guidance, independence, stability, and acceptance, among other needs. Meeting an adolescent’s needs is fundamental to their healthy development and personal growth. Nevertheless, adolescence remains as puzzling of a period in time for both the teens experiencing it, as well as for the individuals surrounding them, watching them as they navigate through the trials that adolescence brings them.

One of the hardships Holden must cope with is his inability to come to terms with death, in particular that of his younger brother, Allie. Holden seems to have experienced a

Holden mentions Allie in the book quite often when he is feeling down. Allie was everything that Holden’s not. “He was terrifically intelligent.” His teachers were always writing letters to my mother , telling her what a pleasure it was to have a

The Catcher in the Rye has been described, analyzed, rebuffed, and critiqued over the years.  Each writer expresses a different point of view:  It is a story reflecting teen-ager's talk--thoughts-emotions--actions; or angst.  I believe it is an adult's reflection of his own unresolved grief and bereavements.  That adult is the author, J.D. Salinger.  He uses his main character, Holden, as the voice to vent the psychological misery he will not expose -or admit to.

It 's obvious Holden doesn’t like the fact that he feels inferior to his peers. His feelings of inferiority are in contrast to his high goals of superiority. Whether it is with his younger siblings, or with his peers, it seems that Holden will take advantage of any moment that allows him to feel less inferior inside to cope with his inferiority complex. Holden 's figuratively and literally looks down on people in order to feel superior to them. Joanne Irving explains this concept:

Holden Caulfield is a very, very troubled young boy in a grown up filled world. In J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher In The Rye, 16 year old Holden Caulfield is stuck in a rut. He has been expelled from numerous schools, including his current one, Pencey Prep. Holden has been a troubled kid since the death of his older brother, Allie. Allie has played a big role in Holden’s life, and was completely traumatized by his death. Along with those family struggles relating to Allie’s death, Holden has a hard time accepting his adulthood. He wrestles with mental illness and growing up with all of those “phonies”. Even more so, he struggles with the idea of the person he is going to grow into. The environment of The

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield suffers from depression due to the death of his younger brother, Allie. Allie’s premature passing elicits Holden’s cynical views of the world and the “phonies” around him.  Holden isolates himself from those around him in order to shy away from the complexities of life. Salinger uses a hat, a museum, and a merry-go-round to illuminate Holden’s inner turmoil with people, the notion of adulthood, and growing up. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and the studies of Ego, Superego, and Id are used to show the significance of Holden’s behavior in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

Holden never made peace with the death of Allie, instead of talking about it openly he thinks he can just forget the death. Instead however he etched Allies death in his head by in a way making him his spiritual guardian because he believes that no one's going to protect him the way the catcher in the rye would protect kids falling of the cliff. Holden pushes away people because they don’t provide things that can help them. Holden throughout the book more specifically after the death on Allie he hasn’t been the same he’s been constantly flunking out of school.

Holden never going to Allie’s funeral gives us insight into why Holden is still holding onto Allie. After Allie’s death, Holden still went through experiences that caused his BPD, neglect and separation. During the time following Allie’s death, Holden’s family was in great grieving, making Holden feel isolated and not getting the attention he needed to fully grow mentally as a child (“National Allegiance on Mental Health”). Holden also expresses twice, that his mother is still grieving over Allie’s death by stating his mother, “still isn’t over my brother Allie yet” (Salinger 155). Holden is also never close to anyone. He meets with his family a limited amount of time throughout the year, and is kicked out of schools, giving him no permanent guidance in his life. Holden constantly describes his expulsion as, getting “the ax” (107). He shows a continuous changing in guardians, because of his attachment to both Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini, both old school teachers from schools he flunked out of. He also dealt with the separation from D.B. his other brother, who moved to Hollywood, Holden seems to be very inspired by him throughout the novel, but is mad that he left (1).

This relates to the novel because Holden is depressed. Throughout the book Holden's depression gets worse. He shows lack of responsibility throughout the book showing that he feels unwanted. He frequently blames himself for Allie's death, and this makes him think that he had to save other people's innocence instead of his own.

When Allie dies, Holden is filled with grief and has no idea how to deal with it. Holden is only thirteen when faced with this new struggle, and his parents don’t help him deal with his emotions. He punches through a window and messes up his

The author has put in plenty of themes, messages, ideas, issues, and motifs. The character, Holden Caulfield is alienated from society, is experiencing the painfulness of growing up, thinks that the adult world is full of phoniness, and is sick of hearing about the American Dream from his teachers. JD Salinger has created a book that has raised plenty of questions and controversy towards the readers. The Catcher in the Rye shows how a teenage mind works. JD Salinger has used a stream of consciousness writing style where the character (Holden Caulfield) talks in first person as he presents his thoughts and feelings to the readers. The setting has taken place in the early fifties and the book uses a lot of profane words. The New York

When the mind protects itself from outside pain it uses multiple defense mechanisms according to Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytical Theory.In J.D.Salinger’s novel, The Catcher and the Rye, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, is shielding himself from all outside experiences that cause pain to his inner psyche. Holden has many repressed memories, and as a result, he shields himself using the mechanics which are in the Psychodynamic Theory also written by Sigmund Freud.When the book begins Holden does not introduce himself like most typical Novels about people's life, instead, he knows what the reader wants. According to him the reader “...will probably want to know

Erikson tells us that there are eight stages of development and that each implies a difficulty or emotional crisis. These stages influence the psychosocial development of young people between these stages are; Community dimensions, which is to find a connection between what the young man understood within their cultural norms. (Study, work, ethical values, friendships, sex). The dynamics of conflict, where the teenager often have contradictory feelings, from feelings of vulnerability exacerbated to have large individual perspectives. Personal evolutionary periods, because each individual has their own evolutionary period will depend both on biological, psychological, and social. Young expresses these changes depending on the models received, and that no young person is formed in isolation. First you receive the support of parental models, and later of Community designs. After passing the historical aspects. Different stressful personal situations can have a negative influence on the construction of identity, as could be the loss of a loved one, financial difficulties, abuse or

I chose Erik Erikson's Personality Theory of Life-Span Identity and Identity Crises to explain my personality development because I believe that a person never stops changing in all aspects, until death, and according to Erikson, it takes a life-span to develop an identity as well as personality. People pass eight stages during the course of their lives, in which segments or certain aspects of one's personality are formed, revised or discarded.