Examples Of Ptsd In Catcher In The Rye

Post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a known mental health condition triggered after experiencing or seeing a life threatening event. It is very common around the world, and my new patient, Holden Caulfield, has this kind of disorder. A friend of mine recommended him, knowing that I will probably help him. Throughout our session, I could tell that Holden doesn’t really have a normal mind. The death of his brother Allie and witnessing another death, his friend who committed suicide, may have caused his PTSD. The outcome of experiencing all these tragic events, changed his life. His relationship with his parents is vile, and he also does an appalling job in school. Relieving the past, detachment, and agitation, are the main symptoms of

Holden has shown many signs of having post traumatic stress. Some of the signs Holden had was as stated “triggers that can bring back memories of the trauma accompanied by intense emotional and physical reactions.” Holden always bring up Allie his brother, even when he wrote compositions for Stradlater, “So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie’s baseball mitt,”(Salinger,38) Holden always tends to bring up the past. This is one of the many signs that Holden shows as the book progress. In the text, “All of a sudden, on my way out to the lobby, I got old Jane Gallagher on the brain again,” (Salinger, 76). Holden continuously brings up many people that has made him feel this way about people. Holden also demonstrates a lack of control when it comes to talking to people. When Holden brother Allie died when Holden was just 13, he punched out all the windows out of the garage saying, “It was just for the hell of it,” (Salinger, 39). This indicates that Holden is not a healthy psychologically adolescent, as he can’t articulate the thoughts of his actions. Holden’s lack of control and ability not to let go of the past shows how Holden is not mentally

In J.D. Salinger's fictional novel, "The Catcher in the Rye", the main character Holden Caufield is experiencing troubled times from being kicked out of three prestigious schools. As a result, he is constantly wondering what obstacle is coming his way next. Following his lack of intuition and drunken mind, he travels to New York City and aimlessly walks the faded streets looking for help. Many trips to city bars and rundown hotels lead him to meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones, some encounters pleasant, while others disappointing. However, no matter how hard Holden tried to push through his terrible experiences, his health kept holding him back.

Nineteen million American adults suffer from a major case of depression (Web MD). That is a staggering one in every fifteen people (2 in our classroom alone). Holden Caulfield is clearly one of those people. Depression is a disease that leads to death but is also preventable. Psychology, stressful events, and prescription drugs are causes of depression. Stressful events brought on Holden’s depression. Holden has been trying to withstand losing a brother, living with careless parents, and not having many friends. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that takes us through the frazzled life of Holden Caulfield, who appears to be just a regular teen. But by hearing his thoughts and through heart-wrenching events in the book, the reader learns that

Holden has experienced clusters of severe trauma throughout his entire life. His brother Allie died of Leukemia a few years ago and Holden was so upset that he punched all of the windows out in his garage that night. Neither Holden, nor his family have yet to deal with the loss of Allie, which clearly affected Holden very much. Also Holden was a witness to James Castle’s suicide at a private school that he once attended. James Castle had been bullied and could no longer handle the situation, so he resorted to suicide by hurling himself out of a building window and falling to his death. Although Holden was not incredibly close with James Castle, he was still affected deeply by the sight of the incident.

I felt so depressed, you can't imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed. I keep telling him to go home and get his bike and meet me in front of Bobby Fallon's house.”(Salinger) This quote clearly shows Holden isn’t over the death of his brother. He loved Allie and still, when he gets very depressed, talks to him. If Holden had received proper treatment earlier for his depression and was able to talk with someone about the death of his brother, he would most likely not failed out of numerous schools. He wasn’t failing; he was trying to cope.

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).

It is never really stated what is the cause of this, but most readers have their guesses. Many people believe that Holden is either depressed or suffers from PTSD- post traumatic stress disorder. Both mental illnesses are most likely stemming from the death of his older brother, Allie. For example, Holden is always in some sort of detached state- he rarely ever eats, sleeps, or takes part in any social activities. He even mentions how he feels as if he is going to pass out from lack of eating. And as readers, we can truly see that Holden is lost and feels as if he has no place to go. He wanders around aimlessly through the city, barely communicating with anyone throughout the whole novel. He does not know who he wants to become, but he knows that he does not want to end up like all of those ‘phonies’ out there in the world. You can also assume that Holden is still in the grieving process over Allie, which could be why he is still in his depressed state. The whole novel is written about Holden wandering through New York City by himself. He is trying to make connections with other people and relate to them, but he can’t quite seem to communicate correctly. He’s always criticizing others actions, calling them ‘phonies’, isolating himself even farther away from others. Anger is one of the soul emotions that Holden portrays throughout the story. He mentions how he punched out all the windows in his garage when he found out about his brother’s

He is not intensely preoccupied with academic achievement like many more modern teenagers, having failed out of several prestigious preparatory schools, but he is clearly intelligent and tends to dwell on“heavy” topics like death and loss of innocence. His cynicism and sensitivity, in addition to the trauma he experiences from losing his brother Allie, suggest that he has depression or another untreated mental illness, an interpretation which is common among readers and supported by Holden’s visit with a psychotherapist at the end of the novel. Despite the risks he faces through having an untreated mental illness, shown when he is warned that he is “riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall” through self-destructive behavior, the conformist culture and social niceties of the 1950s prevented him from being able to discuss his thoughts for a large portion of the novel. (186) This culture, specifically the “phony” prep schools, is clearly toxic for Holden and likely contributed heavily towards his negative mental state, and therefore the negative image he often has of

To start off with, Holden has symptoms of Post traumatic stress disorder, such as flashbacks and mistrust. He often has flashbacks about his disesaed brother Allie. One example from the novel says,”[Allie] got lukemia and died when we were up in maine, july 18th, 1946”. That is a very specific thing for somebody to remember, considering he doesnt do well in school, proving thatthis event still remains clear in his head. As does his brother. He describes him as” He

Trauma is inflicted in many ways, but to Holden, his trauma was losing his brother. Allie’s death can be used to mark the start of the deterioration of Holden’s mental

A common symptom of depression is lack of concentration which Holden mentions multiple times throughout the novel (NAMI). “The trouble was, I couldn’t concentrate too hot - sometimes it’s hard to concentrate” (169). Another common symptom could be change in movement, referring to pacing, awkward movements, or in Holden’s case, running for no apparent reason. “I don’t even know what I was running for- I guess I just felt like it” (3). A more general view of Holden’s personality reveals that he is extremely pessimistic about life, which is a general checkbox under “depression”. Even though depression may seem likely for young Holden, there may be a more suitable option: PTSD. Symptoms of this mental disorder may include dissociation, which is a disconnection from reality, and avoidance, which could include physically or mentally avoiding the subject (NAMI). An example of dissociation from Holden comes from, once again, feeling like he’s going to disappear into the street, “Then all of a sudden, something very spooky started happening. Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I’d never get to the other side of the street. I thought I’d just go down, down,down and nobody’d ever see me again” (204). Holden is definitely separated from reality as he is in his own world of illusions and fantasies. An example from avoidance, other than

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

Like when he was going to go home to see Phoebe but he wanted to make sure and avoid his parents. This is a strong example of avoidance in Holden, which is one of the most common traits in someone who has PTSD.Throughout the book Holden portrays many instances where he shows the strong PTSD symptom of avoidance. First off, he obviously avoids school, as he is failing every class except english. This would be demonstrated when his history teacher is reading Holden’s final paper for the class and it says, “It is all right with me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything else except english”(12). This shows us early on in the book that Holden tries to avoid school and detach himself from responsibilities. The avoidance of school is a good indicator that something from his past is holding him back, which shows that he has PTSD. When Holden is in the taxi, he asks the driver, “Would you care to stop on the way and join me for a cocktail?”(60). This is very unlike Holden, he goes from trying to avoid all confrontation, to trying to hang out with anybody that would be willing to. This is a critical sign that his emotions and mood are changing drastically. As shown above, changes of emotional reactions and mood is a symptom of PTSD. Another symptom that Holden obtains often throughout the book is the intrusive memories. The whole book is a build up

Holden seems to struggle with depression. In many places throughout the novel, Holden describes to us his deep sadness. A lot of times his depression is unpredictable and triggered by tense situations. In one situation while he was explaining his feelings about the Elkton Hills headmaster’s phony and rather boring conversations with well-built and