Holden Caulfield Diagnosis

Cara Lundgren Background and Analysis Holden Caulfield came to me via his parents. He is in the care of his older brother, D.B. They said that he had a nervous breakdown. Holden has had a trying time in life, his younger brother, Allie, died at age 11 and afterwards Holden was shipped off to many Private schools where he put forth no effort. In one of the private schools a child committed suicide. He had flunked out of many private schools. I personally believe that this is because of Allie’s death. A person suffering from depression has these symptoms. Miserable mood for more than two weeks. Guilt, anxiety and indecisiveness. Loss of Interest. Change in weight and appearance. Insomnia, Hypersomnia and Fatigue. Pains without cause. Retardation of regular occurrences. Thoughts of death. Anxiety, Indecisiveness. Feelings of Worthlessness. Holden experiences all of these symptoms, however in reading his journal I am also concerned with Holden’s consistent lying, failure in school and his inability to set long term realistic goals. These I believe point to Antisocial Personality tendencies. These are also known as Sociopathic tendencies. Depression can be caused by genetics, stress, and a negative home environment but in Holden’s case I believe that the death of his brother and the suicide the Castle child played the biggest part. Diagnosis In reading Holden’s Journal I found that he displays all signs of depression. The miserable mood was touched upon,”…I felt miserable, I felt so depressed you can’t even imagine”(98). It continued, “I just felt blue as all hell”(154). He cries for no reason at all, “I was crying and all. I don’t know why, I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome”(153). Holden is having a real breakdown at this moment caused by his feelings of ineptitude and isolation. Everything he does he seems to fail at, school, friendships, romantic relationships. He...