The Pschoanylisis Of Holden Caulfield

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The Psychoanalysis of Holden Caulfield

My name is John Johnson and I am Holden Caulfield’s psychoanalyst. I have a PhD from Stanford University and have been working with teenagers for ten years. However, Holden Caulfield has been different then any other patient I have ever had. Even though Holden and I have had a pretty good relationship it still has taken more than a year for me to get him to open up and tell me anything about his life. Just recently I was able to convince him to do a little free association with me. Once he did open up through the free association activity I found out some interesting things.

I think that the Id dominates the ego with Holden. He does things without really contemplating what the consequences will be. For example he doesn’t apply himself in school because he does not think he needs school. If his ego could contain his id then he would realize that if he ever wants to do anything with his life then he needs to get through school. He also acts impulsively around women like when he is on the train with Mrs. Morrow, the mother of one of his classmates, he begins to act strangely, he said, “’Would you care for a cocktail?’ I asked her. I was feeling in the mood for one myself. ‘We can go in the club car. All right?’”(57). He tries to pick up a lady who is almost thirty years older than him and if he had thought about it logically before he attempted to pick her up he would have realized that it was not going to happen. Another example is when he gets really drunk and calls Sally late at night. Even though he is drunk he is still acting on impulses. He said, “I had to dial about twenty numbers before I got the right one. Boy, I was blind”(150). If he’s so drunk then he knows he should not be calling Sally or anybody, but he still does because his ego cannot separate the urges from the id and the expectations from the superego. Those are a few of the main r...