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Holden Caulfield Psychological Analysis

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I n this world, there are many cases in which a person may have a mental disorder that is undetected by the person itself . In the case of Holden Caulfield, the main protagonist in “ The Catcher in The Rye” by J.D Salinger, he suffers from an anxiety disorder that is commonly know as PTSD. This stands for post-traumatic stress disorder in which an individual gets after the result of a traumatic event that occurred to them by either experiencing it or witnessing it themselves. Throughout the book you being to notice that there are many indications of Holden experiencing symptoms in relation to PTSD like hyper arousal and avoidance (“PTSD 1“). Hyper arousal is one the symptoms in which a person can feel stressed and angry, which results in them having an outburst. There was an incident involving Sally Hayes, who was a girl that he went out with that was very attractive but not very intelligent. At the beginning of the date he was already thinking that he loved her and as the date continued he got a crazy idea in which he proposed to her. He stated that they could borrow a car from a guy he knows and how they could go out and spend their time in a cabin . Then they could waste the money that he …show more content…

After Sunny had left , Holden got depressed and started talking to his dead brother Allie. He was feeling guilty for the times he didn't let his brother come with him and Bobby to the lake a shoot items with their BB guns. He then starts imagining himself actually saying yes to him, which makes him even more depressed ( Salinger 98 ).This is showing how Holden gets very strong feeling of depression of his dead brother and how he feels guilt about not paying more attention to his brother when he was still around. Even if talking to his brother gets him more depressed he is still talking and remembering very insignificant but heartbreaking memories to

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