A Slightly Disturbed but yet a Troubled Teen. (Holden Caulfield)

 I feel as if Holden falls on the line between troubled and disturbed because he showed mostly the qualities of a troubled teen, but then again showed many qualities of a slightly disturbed teen. Holden is the typical troubled teen because he is a smartass to adults, fails classes, and he wanders aimlessly. He shows qualities of a disturbed teen by hiring a prostitute, getting drunk frequently, and smokes cigarettes way too often, and he uses very vulgar language. Some questions I would ask Holden would be…  “Would you imply yourself and give your up most and best effort when returning to school?” I believe Holden would reply with somewhat of a smartass at first but then he would think about it and realize he would need to and it would make his family proud, another question I would as is “What are some things you would change in your life, to be more positive?” Holden would probably have a response saying “I would try and quit smoking, quit drinking, and quit messing around in school and try.” The last question id would like to ask is “If you’re released, what will you do differently?” At last Holden would respond, maybe saying “I would change my view on society, think of things more positively, and imply myself in school and work if I get a job."       

                          

The AWKWARD Emotional Evaluation

Today I am evaluating the emotional state of Holden Caulfield; he is a very indecisive kid when it comes to his emotional state of mind. Holden can go from a typical immature teen, to a depressed and very un-happy teen within minutes. At time Holden is relaxed and talking to me with a smirk on his face when he’s talking about his little brother Allie and his crush Jane, but he gets serious and somewhat depressed and angry when he talks about his ex-roommate Stradlater and neighbor Ackley and oddly he keeps bringing up these ducks. I feel as if he refers his emotional instability to these ducks

                                                  

Some examples of his emotional variations are when Holden talks about Allie, there is a mixture of emotions because Holden usually only speaks of the good times he had with his brother before Allie passed away. Holden told me how his little brother was two years younger, smarter, and nicer and went on to become more depressed. Holden also talked about how he has been kicked out of many schools and now Pencey Prep and he is scared his perents will be dissapointed in him and he justbecomes more depressed. Im trying to squeez the positives out but he seems to be pessimistic. 

The Judgment of Society or no Society

Now my meeting with Holden is complete and I have to determine whether he stays in the facility or if he’s ready to return out to society. I’m not completely sure on which way to go with my decision because not only does he seem a little unstable still, he also shows tremendous amounts of improvement.

As a therapist I feel it was not only one thing that’s caused this downfall to occur in young Holden’s life, there were a couple of significant incidents that could have played a role in his Mental Unstableness and Deep Depression. The most significant incident that had a part in this would be the passing of his younger brother Allie, because not only was he Holden’s brother they were like best friends and they did almost everything together. For instance they went to the park and museums and they both would take their little sister Phoebe out.  This passing of Allie could have sparked the Mental Unstableness and Depression because he meant so much to Holden and he lost Allie at such a young age. The second reason I feel is Holden being kicked out of many other schools and now Pencey Prep, this could have a huge factor in this because he knows that he’s being kicked out and has been kicked out by many other schools and his parents have been very, very upset with him about it. Holden would have a rough time with this because he feels like a disappointment to his parents and his little sister Phoebe and he feels worthless to them.  I feel Holden is still a little Mentally Unstable but he has shown such drastic improvement that I think he is ready for a chance to go back out into society get back in school and imply himself and he will be fine, but he should come back frequently to do follow up meetings to check the progression and se if he reaches the point where he needs no more doctor visits.    

This would conclude my session with  Holden Caulfield,

Dr J.J Ext. 2581

Meaningful Exsitence and Fulfillment

We are coming to an end to our meeting today and I had one last question for Holden. I asked him what were some of his motivations, reasons, and some of his fulfillments from the things that have happened, I could tell Holden was antsy and wanted to leave so I just asked him to tell me a couple things.

 He started off by talking about his main motivation in life was his kid sister Phoebe, and his deceased brother Allie. Holden said he believes this because he had his mind set on hitch hiking out west and start a new life but when his little sister packed a bag and asked to go with he got upset. “Can’t I go with you? Holden? Can’t I? Please.” (pg206). Then Holden told me he replied in a way he shouldn’t have “No. Shut up.” (pg206), He raised his voice at her and he said he hates doing that and it made him feel like he was going to pass out he felt so sore about it. Then Holden went on to tell me how when he feels like he’s meant to do something or be somewhere to help someone or something, that makes him happy and boosts his self esteem. Holden brought up a time when he was in a café and there were two nuns in there and they were school teachers but also helped to collect donations for the salvations army. He said he was sitting next to them and he sparked up a conversation and everything then he saw the basket and offered ten bucks but they refused and after insisting they should take it they did. “They let me give them the ten bucks as a contribution…” (pg110). I could tell this helped Holden’s self esteem and he had a reason to feel like he was meaningful.

Unwinding and reflecting on the past

Holden and I took a short break and I let him get some air and smoke a cigarette, he said that relaxed him a little and we returned to some more talking and I asked him how he felt about maybe talking about his past and he said it would be rough but it maybe would benefit our meeting in some way. With that statement I agreed with him.

Holden started out by telling me how his parents are emotional people, “They’re quite touchy…” (pg1). He also started telling me about his brother D.B. and all about him, he also goes on telling me about his younger siblings Allie and Phoebe. I could tell Holden was very emotional about this subject and he went on to reminisce about his little brother allies baseball glove and how he would re-read the poems on the inside of the mitt, “ The thing that was descriptive about it, though, was that he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green Ink. (pg38). Then he would go on to tell me about how he and Allie would take his youngest sibling Phoebe out to central park and go rollerblading and all kinds of things

The Gool Ol Relationships

Holden has now stepped outside of his negative bubble and is now starting to talk about a couple positive relationships he has had. He said he rarely has had any seriously positive relationships except for a couple, I asked him to tell me about them and I could tell it was emotionally hard for him.

                                     

Holden started talking about a few smaller relationships he had and I asked him to pick the two most meaningful ones and he said his little brother Allie who was dead and Jane Gallagher. He started out by talking about his little brother Allie and all the good times before he passed away, Holden told me it was of leukemia and even though Allie was two years younger than him he was smarter “but he was about fifty times smarter.” (pg39). Holden was telling me how Allie wasn’t only the smartest member of the family he was the nicest to, and I could tell Allie meant a lot to Holden. The second relationship he brought up was his old crush Jane Gallagher, he brought up nothing but good memories with her and had a smirk on his face and was telling me how they always played checkers together “she wouldn’t move any of her kings from the back row.” This seemed to fascinate Holden and he told me how Janes stepdad was an alcoholic and he would yell at her and Jane would start crying and he would be there to hold her and support her.

The Annoying and Hatefull repationsips

As I am still in my psychiatric evaluation with Holden we start to go over his relationships. Holden comes out and starts right away with negatives, and it seems as if all the relationships he has had were negative. I was intrigued by the negativity so I asked him to elaborate on two negative relationships and who they were with.

                                                            

The first person Holden brings up is his roommate at Pencey Prep, Stradlater. Holden goes into how they had a good relationship at first and everything seemed as if they would be good friends. One day Stradlater returns to their room and they start talking and Stradlater brings up a girl he’s going out with that night, Jane Gallagher, who Holden has known since he was young and has had a crush on. They get in a small argument about Stradlater giving Jane “the time” and this really upsets Holden because he wanted to know and Stradlater says “That’s a professional secret, buddy.” (pg43). Then the next you know the two of them get in a fight and Stradlater punches Holden ion the face making him bleed and then shortly after the fight Holden leaves Pencey.  Another negative relationship Holden talked about with me was Ackley, Holden goes on to tell me how Ackley was just a stubborn kid and you couldn’t really ask him to do anything you had to raise your voice at him “The only way he ever did anything was if you yelled at him.” Holden also said that he was annoying as hell and he would do the nastiest things like cut his fingernails in their room “Do you mind cutting your nails over the table, hey?”  “I’ve asked about fifty-” and he said Ackley would interrupt him.