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Holden Caulfield

dynamiteninja

Man for all seasons
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May 30, 2008
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4w5
The infamous protagonist of JD Salinger's classic novel, Catcher In The Rye.

Personally I always saw him as a kind of INFP, whilst having no clear idea of his type. This could be a case of most readers projecting their own type onto him? However I think that the author is typed as INFP, and authors tend to write from the point of view of people like themselves :)

Here goes:

I: Hates almost everyone he meets; I'm not saying that Is are anti-social, but they don't require as much social interaction as Es.
N: Constantly making connections, hates sport (Ns are more likely to dislike sport)
F: Always reacts with feelings to situations
P: Pretty much aimless, goes against the grain, hates his schools, runs away etc

However Holden is under some interpretations of the book, insane, at least by the end of the book, which could affect his projected personality.
 

placebo

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INFP
Haven't read it in a while, but INFP I think. Quite disillusioned isn't he.

Oh and from wikipedia:

The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.
—Original book jacket copy, possibly partially written by Salinger[1]

Totally, totally...
 

Usehername

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I always saw him as an immature ENFP just about ready to start maturing.
 

Usehername

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What do you mean by that?

I mean you could tell he was beginning to start asking meaningful questions and get his life on track, but then he'd do something really stupid and knee-jerk and adolescent egocentric, etc.


He was beginning to be a healthy version of whatever his type was, but at the point of the story, he was still an adolescent egocentric and givethefingertotheman kinda kid.

ENFPs are said to be the most intraverted of the extraverts. Food for thought.
 

Haphazard

Don't Judge Me!
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I always saw him as an ISTP.

A very, very fucked up ISTP.
 

htb

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ISTP. A pretty normal one, actually.
 

JivinJeffJones

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Definitely an XNFP imo, but I'm guessing he's an extravert despite the reclusive log-cabin fantasy. It exhausted me just reading the book how often he sought out people even when he'd finally reached a place of solitude. So I'm pegging him as an ENFP in the grip of a mighty fit of Fi. I really can't see him being a T at all.
 

dynamiteninja

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I can see him as a fucked up ISTP, although he would seem quite a gregarious one. I think INFP fits better
 

Haphazard

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Holden Caufield is pure bad Fe. Not a drop of Fi in 'im.
 

JivinJeffJones

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Holden Caufield is pure bad Fe. Not a drop of Fi in 'im.

The thing he hates most about people is when they're phoney. That's very Fi. I can't see much Fe in him at all. Could you give examples to back up your mystifying assertions?
 

Haphazard

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The thing he hates most about people is when they're phoney. I can't see much Fe in him at all. Could you give examples to back up your mystifying assertions?

He believes them to be phoney purely because of the way they act. He doesn't give consideration at all as to what's within them, except for Phoebe and that one girl, and even then his assertions are shallow...

I suppose if one takes him to be a reliable narrator, he's Fi, but if he's unreliable, he's totally, totally, totally bad Fe. Depends on interpretation. :devil:
 

Magic Poriferan

^He pronks, too!
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
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14,081
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Yin
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One
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I haven't quite figured out any of the four letters yet, but I have determined that he is some kind of anoying bitch.

Enneagram-wise... almost surely a Four.
 

JivinJeffJones

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He believes them to be phoney purely because of the way they act. He doesn't give consideration at all as to what's within them, except for Phoebe and that one girl, and even then his assertions are shallow...

I haven't read the book in a few years, so I can't treat this assertion with the crossreferenced disrespect that I'm pretty sure it deserves. But surely you can't call someone "phoney" without giving consideration to what's really within them? Since phoneyness is when the appearance doesn't seem to match the (internal) substance.

I suppose if one takes him to be a reliable narrator, he's Fi, but if he's unreliable, he's totally, totally, totally bad Fe. Depends on interpretation. :devil:

Tell me about this bad Fe then.
 

Haphazard

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I haven't read the book in a few years, so I can't treat this assertion with the crossreferenced disrespect that I'm pretty sure it deserves. But surely you can't call someone "phoney" without giving consideration to what's really within them? Since phoneyness is when the appearance doesn't seem to match the (internal) substance.

But the point of the book is that this is exactly what he DOES.

The way he defines 'real' and 'phoney' are completely arbitrary and shallow. He has absolutely no acceptance for the fact that this is simply 'what people do' not for a defined moral reason but simply BECAUSE it is 'what people do.'

If he had had well-developed principles and complained about how they didn't match up to reality, then I would support the argument of him being an INFP, but he doesn't. The only way I can justify this negative thing being so much a part of his nature is if it were anima. It's obviously extroverted (and I couldn't imagine him as an ETJ), so he's some kind of ITP, and his antics were a lot more S than N, so ISTP.

And I just read the book a few months ago. This sort of thing is still relatively fresh in my mind...

An ISTP E4 is an unusual combination, but still possible, I suppose.
 

dynamiteninja

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Holden's objections to people tends to be a clash of values. This lends itself to INFP. Would an ISTP really smash every window in the house if they were angry? Also, is ISTP really the type to run away from school?
 

JivinJeffJones

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HH: I disagree with everything you just said, but I'll have to reread the book so I can remember exactly why I'm coming from where I'm coming from. Don't forget, however, that he's young and immature. I think that's where a lot of your confusion is coming from. And though I haven't read the book recently, I've read it about 4 or 5 times.
 

Haphazard

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Would an ISTP really smash every window in the house if they were angry? Also, is ISTP really the type to run away from school?

...yes.

JJJ: My interpretations have no mercy. And why would he being 'young and immature' confuse me?
 

JivinJeffJones

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And why would he being 'young and immature' confuse me?

Because this is quite common in immature Fi in my experience (especially the bolded):

The way he defines 'real' and 'phoney' are completely arbitrary and shallow. He has absolutely no acceptance for the fact that this is simply 'what people do' not for a defined moral reason but simply BECAUSE it is 'what people do.'

Yet you're taking it as evidence that he isn't an Fi user.
 
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