Catcher in the Rye: Psychological Profile

Psychological Profile: Holden Caulfield

Part One:

The patient is Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old teenage boy. Caulfield's appearance is tall for his age and surprisingly has quite a few gray hairs at the age of sixteen. Holden comes from an upper-middle class family. His family has enough money to support Holden with many luxuries including skates and expensive suitcases. It appears that Mr. and Mrs. Caulfield aren't there to talk, care, and be there for Holden, which seems to drive Holden away from his family. However, he has an intimate bond with his younger siblings, who embody innocence and youth. The death of his brother Allie has left a large scar on Holden. He has a cherished and intimate relationship with his young and innocent sister, Phoebe. Holden has been to many schools and has been kicked out of many schools. Holden is an intellectual teenager, who refuses to apply himself, and thus goes from school to school.

Some of the important and affecting moments in Holden's life are death of Allie, suicide of a close friend, D.B. "selling out", and his summer with Jane Gallagher. Allie, Holden's younger brother died of leukemia recently and has caused stress upon the patient. Also witnessing the death of once close friend traumatized the patient. The fact that Holden's friend committed suicide wearing some of his clothing, placed even more strain on the patient. Another factor surround Holden is his brother D.B. leaving him and his family to "sell out to Hollywood" disturbed Holden. Lastly, the summer he had spent with a close and intimate friend, Jane Gallagher had added fuel to fire, which drove Mr. Caulfield to this institution and require professional help from our clinic.

Part Two:

The patient, Holden Caulfield, perceives himself a "madman". Holden proclaims he is a madman for his actions and thoughts. With the analysis of Holden Caulfield's description of the weekend leading up to his enlistment of professional care for chronic depression, Holden reveals his thoughts on being convinced he was a madman. One incident from Holden's description explicitly gives Holden's view of himself. The incident in reference is his date with Sally Hayes. Holden proposed to Sally to run away to Massachusetts and live together away from the world. In actuality Holden could not tolerate Sally and her "phoniness", but he still made the suggestion to her. Upon his own analysis, he thinks he is a complete lunatic for having mixed thoughts about people: "She (Sally) wouldn't have been anybody to go with. The terrible part, though, is that I meant it when I asked her. That's the terrible part. I swear to God, I'm a madman" (Salinger 134). Upon the analysis of Holden's quote, you can clearly see that he perceives himself to be different from the rest of the world and thinks because of that he is a madman. Holden's self-perception of being a madman is because he cannot relate with anybody else. Because he can't compare thoughts with them, he assumes that since nobody expresses these thoughts, he is a madman.

Holden recognizes and perceives to be alienated from the adult world thus causing himself to believe he is depressed. Holden believes he is depressed from viewing the adult world and thinking that it is phony. He believes that the world is phony, superficial, hypocritical, and shallow. He views this world everyday and realizes that one day he will have to step into it, but every time he thinks about the world surrounding him it causes him to become depressed. Holden becomes depressed because he desires to remain a child were innocence is preserved and not drastically taken away. In Holden's scenario, he feels that his innocence was taken away by witnessing the suicide of his close friend and the death of dear brother. Holden sees the world that he has to become a part of and desires more to not be a part of it. This hatred of stepping into the adult world causes Holden believe he is depressed and desires to prevent other children from having the step out in to the real world. Even when he thought about the nuns he donated money to, he becomes depressed because he realizes that they cannot afford many of the luxuries he could and becomes depressed about the adult world: "It made me so damn sad when I thought about it, their never going anywhere swanky for lunch or anything. I knew it wasn't too important, but it made me sad anyway" (Salinger 114). Holden constantly looks at world around him and becomes depressed by any hint of the real world and him stepping into it.

Part Three:

The general public and people that don't know Holden Caulfield perceive him to be a youth at heart, but also a consistent and chronic liar. Holden appears to be youthful and childish to people that are meeting Holden for the first time. However with his youthful appearance, he makes a habit of being a chronic liar. One example of his chronic lying is his encounter with the prostitute, Sunny. When he meets her, he immediately lies to her by telling her that he is Jim Steele and is twenty-two years old: "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jim Steele, I said. ... "How old are you, anyways?" "Me? Twenty-two." It was a funny thing to say. It sounded like a real kid" (Salinger 94). This incident shows both his immaturity and his habit of lying. First, his immaturity is shown when he seems like a child by saying he is actually twenty-two. Secondly, his habit of lying is seen explicitly when he immediately begins lying to the prostitute by stating his name as Jim Steele.

Secondly, when Holden encounters Ernest Morrow's mother, he appears to be a well-mannered and decent kid, but does show his chronic lying to everybody that he meets. When Holden Caulfield meets Mrs. Morrow, he appears to be a good-mannered and well-behaved teenager from Holden's written account of his days leading up to his enlisting of professional help. He is extremely nice and polite to Mrs. Morrow, but he is constantly lying even when he is being nice to Ernest's mother. Most obvious was his lying about Ernest being one of the most popular boys at the school. He told an untruth to his mother regarding Ernie refusing to be nominated for class president because he was too modest. Holden also lied to Mrs. Morrow about who he actually was and why his nose was bleeding. Holden always seems to have an excuse of reason for why he lies to a person ranging from humor to lack of time: "I probably would've told her what really happened but it would've taken too long.