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How can Psychology help the reader understand the reasons behind the pathological behaviours of the protagonists of The Wasp Factory and Catcher in the Rye?

Dr. Holden & Mr. Frank

"Sometimes the thoughts and feelings I had didn't really agree with each other, so I decided I must be lots of different people inside my head."

"I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen. It's really ironical, because I'm six foot two and a half and I have gray hair"

"I had to do something to even up the balance. It was like an itch, something I had no way of resisting, like when I walk along a pavement in Portneil and I accidentally scuff one heel on a paving stone. I have to scuff the other foot as well, with as near as possible the same weight, to feel good again."

"I thought I'd just go down, down, down, down, and nobody'd ever see me again.[...] Then I started talking to my brother Allie. I'd say to him, «Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie.»"

“That's the terrible part. I swear to God I'm a madman.”

Frank

caused by

external attributions

father's influence

Holden

caused by

internal attributions

Double Nature

mood

Schizophrenia

personality

σ

“I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.” - Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Internal struggle

Holden as Dr. Jekyll

Holden puts the life of others in front of his own, by doing so he suppresses himself and becomes depressed.

Dr Jekyll - annihilated by his own experiment

He works on an intellectual level

lives on hypotheses and "what ifs"

no actions

Frank as Mr. Hyde

Frank embodies the wholly evil and the wholly dark, there's no space left inside him for pity and compassion.

No Angus - No Frank

No Dr Jekyll - No Mr Hyde

He works on a practical level, not hesitating to turn his criminous and most despicable thoughts into reality.

Similarities

  • lack of parental guidance
  • isolated from their peers
  • above average intelligence

The Difference

  • feeling of superiority
  • Frank lives for himself
  • "mission" to accomplish

"to boost my ego, restore my pride and give me pleasure"

  • self-consciousness
  • Holden lives for the others

symptoms of the same pathology

  • violent instincts

"What I did, I finally put my suitcases under my bed so that old Slagle wouldn't get a goddam inferiority complex about it"

This concept can be explained through the Psychology notion of attributions

external attributions

"the beliefs about why people behave the way they do"

actions of others

social pressures

internal attributions

situation

upbringing

personality

biological makeup

effort

mood

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