Thesis on "Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder"

Thesis 4 pages (1969 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

diagnosis of bipolar disorder in the main character and narrator of the JD Salinger's novel, the Catcher in the Rye. After considering, comparing and corroborating the symptoms indicated in medicine today and the story told by Holden Caulfield, the conclusion is that he is highly likely to have suffered of the illness, especially under the extraordinary circumstances of his younger brother's death, his parents', professors and peers unawareness of his medical problems and his own ability to hide for several years his aggravated state of mind.

Bipolar disorder

The key symptom of bipolar disorder is the swing in moods that has to be observed in an adolescent over a period of a few years and in a much more severe way than it happens to be characteristic of puberty. Holden Caulfield, the sixteen-year-old boy who is the narrator and the main character in the Catcher in the Rye is clearly presenting severe swings in moods passing from episodes of mania to episodes of depression rapidly and with no periods of normal behavior between them.

He is telling the story that led to his current state of being an in-patient in a hospice. It starts with him being expelled for the fifth time out of high school. The setting is that of Pencey Prep, a private school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania.

Medicine today is still searching for answers related to the causes and treatment of this mental illness. Its comorbidity with other juvenile disorders makes it even harder to set a reliable diagnose and decide upon the correct treatment. "Difficulties in diagnosing early, especially prepubertal onset, bipolar disorder are not specific to the past half century. As early as 1931, Kasanin reported that nearly 25% of childhood-onset cases were misdiagnosed" (Geller, DelBello, 2003). The time when Holden Caulfield is taken to a psychiatrist for an evaluation is exactly in his prepubertal years, following his auto-mutilation manifestations during the night his youngest brother died of leukemia.

Although he is mentioning being taken into a doctor's office and being evaluated, he never discloses the conclusions of the medical examination and the results of any kind of treatment the doctors might have chosen for him. The researches in the field of bipolar disorder in children and prepubertal stages were still in their incipient fazes by the middle of the twentieth century.

Today, researchers are still conducting studies to help them understand the causes that lead to the onset of the illness. There are three main factors that are taken into consideration, like: biochemical factors, genes and environmental factors. Environmental factors, although may be a key factor, they are not necessarily established as the main cause, but rather as contributors to the onset of an illness.

While telling his story, Holden Caulfield is repeatedly saying that people often do not pay attention to anything and he is specifically making reference to his own problems and manifestations no adult around him seemed bright enough to notice and treat appropriately. From the very beginning of his story he points out that his parents are not the kind of parents he would pick to talk to about his problems: "They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all -- I'm not saying that -- but they're also touchy as hell. Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything"(Salinger, Chapter 1).

His general tone is aimed at indicating that he does not care for much, but it is rather obvious that it is his way of composing a mask for protection. His own attempts to explain his frantic and sometimes irrational behavior, his dropping out of five schools are weak and he does not seem to believe them himself.

He is hiding his lack of capability to focus under the cloak of carelessness, but it is obvious that he is suffering from all the failures caused by his "forgetfulness." Being very distracted, although in charge of the fencing team, he gets the boys on the wrong metro line and ends up forgetting their things on the metro and arriving too late at school: I was the goddam manager of the fencing team. Very big deal. We'd gone in to New York that morning for this fencing meet with McBurney School. Only, we didn't have the meet. I left all the foils and equipment and stuff on the goddam subway. It wasn't all my fault. I had to keep getting up to look at this map, so we'd know where to get off. The whole team ostracized me the whole way back on the train. It was pretty funny, in a way (Salinger, Chapter 1).

Holden does not reveal to his audience his own reaction to his fifth expulsion from a school. He is recounting the facts in a deliberately indifferent tone: They kicked me out. I wasn't supposed to come back after Christmas vacation on account of I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all. They gave me frequent warning to start applying myself -- especially around midterms, when my parents came up for a conference with old Thurmer -- but I didn't do it. So I got the ax (Salinger, Chapter 2).

On the other hand, he acts as if he hates everyone and everything. He also acts as if he despises old professor Spencer, his history teacher at Pencey Prep, and the latter's capacity to get joy from a simple thing as that of buying a blanket from the Indians in the Yellowstone Park. Holden can however find some joy in things like reading, although he reads chaotically. He also enjoys the first snow, along with everybody else.

Answering professor Spencer about his parents' reaction to the news of him being expelled: "Well... they'll be pretty irritated about it," I said. "They really will. This is about the fourth school I've gone to." I shook my head. I shake my head quite a lot"(Ch2). At certain points in his narration, Holden indicates having some nervous habits that are impossible for him to control.

The manifestations characteristic to bipolar disorder in adolescents must not be confused with what normally is present in adolescents' behavior. On one hand, an energetic adolescent like Holden would try to get attention with every opportunity and that is why a close consideration of his motives must be undertaken before giving the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Is the fifteen-year-old boy yarning for attention or being sick?: And yet I still act sometimes like I was only about twelve. Everybody says that, especially my father. it's partly true, too, but it isn't all true. People always think something's all true. I don't give a damn, except that I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am -- I really do -- but people never notice it. People never notice anything (Salinger). or, it could be his only way of protecting himself against reacting at the most unfortunate event in his life: his younger brother death. This event could explain a lot of his behavior, but not everything. One is told that after he smashed all the windows in the garage with his own fists, the night his brother died, Holden was taken to a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist. That happened when he was thirteen and his behavior does not seem to have improved until the time he starts telling his story, three ears later. The conclusion might be that they misdiagnosed him, thus giving him the wrong treatment. He continues having poor academic achievements. When his history teacher is trying to solve the enigma of his student and pushes him to dig for some answers related to his failing four out of five exams, Holden answers: "I passed English all right," I said, "because I had all that Beowulf and Lord Randal My Son stuff when I was at the Whooton School. I mean I didn't have to do any work in English at all hardly, except write compositions once in a while." It is obvious he is smart and the lack of academic performance lays somewhere else and not in his IQ.

He is not a student that is trying to get out of high school at any cost just to make his parents finally give up on him. He is incapable to follow through in order to graduate from any school. He cannot focus. His note to his teacher at the end of his history paper is clearly pointing out that he is desperate, although not even aware of the fact himself:

DEAR MR. SPENCER [he read out loud]. That is all I know about the Egyptians. I can't seem to get very interested in them although your lectures are very interesting. It is all right with me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything else except English anyway. Respectfully yours, HOLDEN CAULFIELD"(Ch 2).

His inability to focus does not stop here, he is… READ MORE

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