Holden Caulfield Mental Institute
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Dear Mr. and Mrs. Caulfield,
Hello, my name is Dr. S. Philips from the Thalians Mental Health Center located on 8700 Beverly Blvd, West Hollywood, California. You recently enrolled your son Holden Caulfield in our mental facility so that he could undergo testing to determine what exactly caused him to act out in a mad manner. I have made many incredible discoveries and improvements regarding Holdens irrational behavior that I would like to share with you.
When Holden arrived at our facility last week, the first thing we all noticed was that he has an extremely judgmental personality. The moment he walked through the doors his penetrating gaze made everyone feel as if he was judging their characters! He constantly made remarks claiming that everyone around him is a phony and explained that he wants to go somewhere where it is”sunny as hell all the time” (page 199) and where no phonies existed to depress him. We believe that this resentment towards phonies is the result of your older son D.B and his occupation as a screen writer in Hollywood. Holden explained that he loved his older brother a lot, but ever since he began to prostitute his writing talents in Hollywood their relationship has not been the same. This attitude towards everybodys phoniness most likely derived from Holdens attitude toward D.Bs new “phony” occupation.
Resentment towards phonies is not the only hatred Holden had towards people. In our studies we have noticed that Holden lacks social skills and the capability to trust and keep a close relationship with anybody. We believe this is because Holden has still not come into terms and acceptance with Allies death. Holdens behavior and social skills underwent a detrimental change following his death as he was extremely close with Allie. The death of Allie was, in a way, the climax or turning point of Holdens life as he began to change and his life, attitude and academics began to fall downhill. Holden explained that he was extremely close with Allie and does not understand why such a good, innocent kid had to die and that after the death he felt lonely and abandoned. Now the reason Holden can no longer keep a close relationship with anybody is because he is afraid that he will loose them too. He believes that as long as he has no close relationships with anybody he is not setting himself up for disappointment and pain. There is no doubt that the death of your son Allie was the root of most problems and issues displayed by your son Holden.
As stated before, Holden feels extremely lonely and as if he has no one to turn to. He has major trust issues and is incapable of fully opening up to anybody anymore. I believe these trust issues were caused by sexual harassment. During our interview with Holden he explained that he is incapable of trusting others because when he does, they always turn