Holden Caulfield Psychological Analysis

Within the past year of having Holden Caulfield in my care, I have heard his story from when his troubles started. Starting off with him flunking out of his third school and ending with him seeking help here. Where one might see a whiny adolescent boy, I see a young boy going through events that have finally been overwhelming for his body to handle. From my findings, I have concluded that Holden Caulfield suffers from major depressive disorder. Holden’s disease was affected by deaths with family and friends, relationships with those he has met, and on occasion, his own personality. First off, the deaths with people surrounding him took a toll on his mental state. The first death being mentioned was his brother’s, Allie, death. He holds a physical …show more content…
As Mr. Antolini has said, he has too much stubbornness and inability to reflect his actions as well as lacking personal motivation leading him to give up on life before it has started. An example with this is school, he has flunked out of three schools now due to carelessness, which is a toxic behavioral trait to have. This leads him to be worried about confronting his parents and even his siblings. Another example of this is his drinking and smoking issues. Instead of dealing with his own issues, Holden Caulfield drinks and smokes his pain away on multiple occasions, sometimes when he is bored as well. Holden Caulfield has trouble making decisions when it comes to getting sexual with a women. On many occasions, Holden refuses or diverts from having a sexual event with a women when presented the opportunity. Holden has a habit of isolating himself from society in many ways. One of the more prominent ways is his bright red hunting hat, which is a way to seem off-putting to someone, so he’s left alone. At the beginning of his story, he mentions watching a game from a hill alone while watching people rather than being with them and connecting. At the very end of this all he says that “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody”, it’s a sign of him pushing people away to be all alone by himself. Both, having trouble making decisions and isolating oneself are signs of

Show More