Psychoanalysis Of Holden Caulfield

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Psychoanalytic view on Holden Caulfield The way someone is influenced is by childhood experiences and their unconscious desires. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist in the story is a rebellious young man named Holden Caulfield who has a low self esteem and is an underachiever, which drives him into becoming depressed and trying to seek someone he can talk to. In the first few pages of the novel, you become familiar with the fact that something is wrong with Holden Caulfield. Salinger demonstrates that Holden isolates himself from the rest of society by stating, “…I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill… You could see the whole field from there… practically the whole school except me was there…” …show more content…
He is affected by his brother’s death because he was never given the opportunity to grieve over his death and instead was sent to boarding school where his parents would not have to deal with him. Like Holden, Salinger as well was sent to boarding school at a young age where he had a problematic experience. Holden’s lack of parental attention does a major impact on his id. Freud would suggest that Holden’s id is telling him that he is still a kid, which Holden demonstrates when he says, “Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I act quite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen… The one side of my head--the right side--is full of millions of gray hairs. I've had them ever since I was a kid. And yet I still act sometimes like I was only about twelve.” (Salinger 9). Half of Holden’s hair is grey as though half of him is an adult, while the other half is still a kid. He mainly focuses on the idea of being a kid, but acknowledges the fact that he says something an adult would say of acting young for his age. He is unconscious in the sense that he is not aware of the idea that he is a kid thinking of adult actions. Though Holden shows signs of his id, throughout the novel his ego is presented. His ego gives him the sense of feeling guilty. A situation where he …show more content…
Holden Caulfield see’s the stressors, particular to guys, as being sexually active and keeping their emotions hidden. He hints how he wants to live up to the stressors when he states, “Most guys at Pencey just talked about having sexual intercourse with girls all the time – like Ackley, for instance – but old Stradlater really did it. I was personally acquainted with at least two girls he gave the time to. That's the truth.” (Salinger 48-49). Holden is not confortable with his own sexuality and is fascinated by guys who are comfortable with the opposite sex. He demonstrates that he wants to be like them and act age appropriate. Throughout the book Holden is stuck in the oral sage, which is meant for infants in the sense they get pleasure from having something in their mouth. Holden’s pleasure is having a cigarette in his mouth. Throughout the novel, he is constantly smoking, which goes back to the idea of adulthood, and uses the cigarette as a relief, for instance when Holden states, “"That's all right. We can smoke till they start screaming at us," I said. She took a cigarette off me, and I gave her a light. She looked nice, smoking. She inhaled and all, but she didn't wolf the smoke down, the way most women around her age do. She had a lot of charm. She had quite a lot of sex appeal, too, if you really want to know.” (Salinger 55-56). Holden seems to want to have a connection

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