This article examines J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951) using the psychosocial perspectives of Erik Erikson to illustrate the protagonist's coming of age problems as he transitions from the teenage of adolescence into early youth. Holden Caulfield is depicted as a teenager in crisis, with manifest attachments to the innocence of childhood, which complicates his separation from the influence of family members to assume an identity of his own. Emotionally unstable and deeply disturbed by traumatic events and the "phoniness" of his surroundings, he finds it difficult to succeed academically and socially integrate with peers or schoolmates. Using the American psychoanalyst's psychosocial model on personality development, Erikson's eight stages chart, and especially the pertinent stages which capture the protagonist's age, the article seeks to justify Caulfield's plight and explore possibilities for his redemption and reasons behind his disillusionment. The argument centers on the intersection Erikson posits between two stages: adolescence and early youth/adulthood. Caulfield’s problems stem from his precarious existence on the threshold between such stages as well as unresolved childhood attachments and traumas. A fake, hypocritical adult world seeks to exploit him or simply enhance his loneliness. However, attachments to the memory of his dead brother and to the purity of his younger sister, Phoebe, offer him an escape from the ugly realities of the adult world. Overall, Salinger’s book is a significant contribution to youth culture and the ethical imperatives of accommodating teenagers.