Self-cognitive disorder is common among teenagers who are experiencing puberty changes, for the transforming process from childhood to adulthood often confuses them about the roles they are playing in society. And though Holden’s age lies at the end phase of puberty, details in his description of three days’ wandering substantiate that the majority of his grief comes from abnormal self-recognition.

Compared with other teenagers suffering from adolescence, Holden makes a much more specific distinction of the world of children and adults, under which naiveness and innocence are virtues of children, while phoniness and corruption go to adult society. Yet aiming to be “the catcher in the rye”, Holden was more and more accustomed to the cynical manners of adult world, and was becoming experienced in being a hypocrite himself. Overlapping the two utterly incompatible worlds made Holden neither a big child nor a grown-up—while his childish mindset was criticized by almost everyone in the adult world, the death of his brother Allie had long before showed him that childhood never returns—and the blurring boundary between the two life stages eventually resulted in chaos in Holden’s personal values: it can be reasonably inferred that all Holden’s contradictory behaviors throughout the book can be attributed to his internal sufferings from chaotic values.

On the topic of sex, Holden preserved his most naive attitude towards love, that is, understanding and respect are the foundation of further expressions of love, which is epitomized through his attitude towards Jane. Yet another more cynical attitude towards love, resembling more to those of Stradlater’s and the bar visitors’, exists in Holden himself as well, which is especially illustrated through his relationship with Sally. While finding it outrageous for Stradlater to attempt overly intimate interactions with Jane on their first date, Holden himself tolerated Sally’s deliberate showing-off to other males when the appointment was still going on. The coexistence of such two opposing views of love not only just suggest Holden’s immaturity on love, but also his dilemma between preserving innocence and accepting society. In Catcher in the Rye, the question whether Holden chose Jane or Sally lingers on, and Holden always had lengthy excuses for that. But if viewed from the aspects discussed above, this may as well demonstrate the stress facing Holden when he confronts such a dilemma.