Holden Caulfield Diagnostic
Holden Caulfield Medical Diagnosis Holden Caulfield Medical Diagnosis Dear Mister and Misses Caulfield, my name is Dr: Connor Grist and I have been mister Holden Caulfield’s psychologist over the past couple weeks. Asking him about his life story and what he has gone through. Through his explanation of his life story, I was able to uncover 3 key behavioral characteristics that I believe he suffers from. Through my research, I believe that he suffers he uses profanity laced vocabulary and abusive language often. He is also depressed, sad and disturbed through his life story that he has told me.
Finally he is also withdrawn seclusive and friendless because of his inability to overlook flaws in people. This information has let me to diagnose him with Depression-Anxiety. For the time era in which Holden grew up (1970s) he has a very profanity laced vocabulary, which is most likely because of his anxiety and depression. Throughout the book he could have quite possibly said the phrase “God Dam” more than 100 times. Although this would be more accepted today, a generation or two ago this would have been very frowned upon for a teenager to talk like that.
Holden is also hypocritical in a way with his swearing because near the end of the book he begins to try and erase all of the profanity on the wall and while he thinks that he is ridding the world of evil, he often is the source of some of the evil with his swearing. Throughout the book, you can often notice and sense that Holden is quite depressed and sad all of the time. This is because near the end of the book, he is trying the play the role of the “Catcher” but he soon realizes that he can never rid the world of all the evil that he doesn’t want Phobe to see.
He tells Phoebe that he wants to prevent children from growing up. He blames the world’s corruption on adults and believes that when he stops the children from growing up he will preserve their innocence and save the world. Finally, he realizes that not only is there nothing that he can do, but there is nowhere he can go to hide from it. Ironically enough, it is one of the “innocent” children that he is trying to protect who helps him come to terms with this realization. It is Phoebe who challenges his plan to escape out west.
As he is telling Phoebe that she cannot run away, he discovers that he too cannot run away. “ You can’t ever find a place that is nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any. ” The final breakdown comes near the end of the book when he is watching Phoebe on the carousel. As all the kids on the carousel try to grab the golden rings, Holden hits the final breakdown. Being the “ catcher “ becomes obviously unrealistic. Finally Holden is usually withdrawn and friendless because of his inability to accept people for who they are and constantly pick out their flaws.
As you read and read through the book, you will get the sense the Holden has never really had a true friend. He is usually nice to most people but really he thinks that they are phonies. An example of this would be on page 77 where Holden Says, “ She was a funny girl, old Jane. I wouldn’t exactly describe her as strictly beautiful. She knocked me out though. She was sort of muckle-mouthed. When she was talking, her mouth sort of went in about 50 different directions her lips and all “.
This quote shows that even the people Holden likes a lot, such as Jane Gallagher he still has to be judgmental and find the flaws in them. This ultimately leads to Holden being forever alone in the book. In Conclusion, Holden Caulfield has been diagnosed with a anxiety-depression disorder because of his profanity laced vocabulary, his depressed sad and disturbed state, and his inability to accept people for who they are without being judgmental and picking out their flaws. A treatment recommendation for this would be to continue therapy sessions and anti-depressant medication.
