Holden Caulfield's Bipolar Disorder?

Psychiatric disorders are serious illnesses that can often be misunderstood, It is difficult to diagnose something that is happening within a person’s own brain. One must analyze the thoughts, experiences, and actions of a person to give a correct diagnosis In J.D, Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a teenager who decides to spend his time after getting kicked out of school exploring New York Through his narrative, we see the thoughts and experiences of a troubled kid who is just trying to figure life out.

Holden’s narrative and characteristics indicate that he suffers from bipolar disorder, Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder where an individual suffers mood swings between depression and mania.

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A person who is depressed may have suicidal thoughts, suffer from insomnia, have either a decrease or increase in appetite, and lose pleasure in activities they previously enjoyed.

On the other hand, features of mania include a decreased need for sleep, with the individual being very talkative and having racing thoughts.

The individual can also be impulsive, promiscuous, and spend money recklessly. This disorder usually first presents in children or young adults. However, it can be hard to diagnose a child as the symptoms they exhibit can be different compared to an adult’s. While an adult’s mood swings usually shift over weeks, a child can shift between mania and depression in just hours Additionally, children are more likely than adults to experience a mixed state, in which they exhibit symptoms of both depression and mania. Further symptoms of the disorder in children is irritability and trouble in school, which can easily be written off as being a typical teenager, further delaying diagnosis.

The exact cause of bipolar disorder is unknown, however it appears to be a combination of brain chemicals, genetics, and environment, Chemicals in the brain like dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine can play a role in the development of bipolar disorder, but so can simply having a family member that also has a mental illness. An individual who has a family member with a mental illness — whether it be bipolar disorder, or something else like schizophrenia or anxiety – is more likely to have the disorder. Gender should be taken into consideration as well, as early onset bipolar disorder is more common in men, with the disorder usually being more severe. Additionally, environment can play a large role in triggering this disorder. A trauma or stressful event, combined with genetics and chemicals already preset for the disorder, can be what sparks bipolar disorder in an individual.

Considering this information, Holden Caulfield could be considered a perfect candidate for bipolar disorder, Holden exhibits many symptoms, and appears to go between mania and depression quickly, or have symptoms of both at the same time, common in young adults. Several times throughout the book, he refers to himself as depressed and even suicide; for example, he narrates, “I wasn‘t sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all. I almost wished I was dead” (Salinger 101). Conjointly, evident in that quote is Holden’s insomnia. Holden rarely sleeps throughout the novel, citing several times that he doesn’t feel tired, and if he does sleep it is only for a few hours. Holden appears to be impulsive as well, usually accompanied with him being very talkative and having racing thoughts.

When he decides to meet up with an old friend – a friend he says that he isn’t “too crazy about” — he says to her, “‘Here’s my idea. I know this guy down in Greenwich Village that we can borrow his car for a couple weeks , . . What we could do is, tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, all around there, see. It‘s beautiful as hell up there. It really is.” I was getting excited as hell, the more I thought about it , . t “I have about a hundred and eight bucks in the bank. I can take it out when it opens in the morning, and then I could go down and get this guy‘s car. No kidding. We’ll stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out Then, when the dough runs out, I could get a job somewhere and we could live somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or something. I could chop all our own wood in the wintertime and all. Honest to God, we could have a terrific time! Wuddaya say?

C’mon! Wuddaya say? Will you do it with me? Please!”‘ Holden also spends money recklessly, as after spending money on drinks, taxis, the movies, etc., he resorts to having to ask his little sister for her Christmas money as he has spent all of his own Furthermore, Holden struggles academically. He has been kicked out of several schools, and fails most of his classes at each school. Not only does Holden exhibit many symptoms, he further fits other criteria for the disorder. Holden is at the perfect age for early onset of this disorder, and as a male is more likely to have early onsett Holden has also had several traumatic experiences in his life that may have triggered the disorder. When Holden was only thirteen, his brother, Allie, died. Holden makes it apparent that they were close, and that his death hit Holden hard. Holden mentions in the narrative that he “slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it”

This is not the only trauma that Holden has suffered, as he also knew a classmate who committed suicide, and was there when it happened, Holden says that he was in the shower when it happened, but that he “could hear him land outside.” Holden sees him immediately after the death, and narrates that, “there was old James Castle laying right on the stone steps and allt He was dead, and his teeth, and blood, were all over the place, and nobody would even go near him. He had on this turtleneck sweater I’d lent him”. Not only this, but Holden implies that he may have been sexually abused before. Holden Visits one of his teachers, named Mr. Antolini, and spends the night at his and his wife‘s houset Holden wakes up to his teacher patting his head, which may or may not have been an innocent gesture, but Holden reacts negatively, stating that, “That kind of stuff’s happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid I can’t stand it”.

Not only could these traumas have easily been triggers for bipolar disorder in Holden, Holden’s parents could likewise be contributors. Holden’s parents are distant, sending him to boarding school after boarding schooli They send him away rather than dealing with him, which continues to be apparent when they send him to a mental health facility at the end of the novel.  While he is getting the help he needs at the facility, it is just another way of sending Holden away, When Holden writes from the facility, he does not mention his parents visiting, only mentioning that his brother D.B. visits, possibly implying that DtB may be the only visitori When a psychiatrist, Matthew Erlich, MD, was asked of his professional opinion of Holden Caulfield, he stated that Holden probably would have been diagnosed “as manic depressive at the time of the book” Holden displays a majority of the symptoms of the disorder and also is at the perfect age for it to onset. Coupled with events that could have easily triggered it, readers can infer that Holden suffers from bipolar disorder.