Beware Catcher in the Rye syndrome

You can't save everyone

The title of JD Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye comes from Holden Caulfield, the troubled protagonist, misremembering a line in a Robert Burns poem, and imagining himself with a job saving children playing in a field of rye by catching them before they fall off a cliff.¹

That would be work that mattered. But you can’t save everyone. You can’t be everything to all of the people you care for, teach, advise, manage, protect, serve, or otherwise help. If you try to be, you’ll fail, and you might benefit from a look inside to figure out what it is that you’re trying to prove, to whom, and where that comes from. Know thy working self. Catcher in the Rye syndrome doesn’t affect everyone, but those who choose work that matters may be more prone to it than others. Unsurprisingly, research shows overcommitment’s associated with stress, feeling overloaded, and conflict between work and family—and that it’s worse for women. Catcher in the Rye syndrome burns people out.

(And no, you haven’t missed hearing about that syndrome—it’s my name for it.)

A useful benchmark is the standards your good colleagues expect of themselves and the parameters within which they work. Do your job well. But looking after yourself is a necessary prerequisite for that: remember the effort/results bell-curve. Don’t overestimate your importance. Have wise boundaries. Prioritize rest.

---

These emails are based on a book I’m writing. To get a publisher interested, I have to grow my subscribers. Can you help me spread the word? If you’ve found something useful here, your friends, colleagues, family, students, and followers can sign up at www.adamsandell.com. Or you can click here:

Thanks for reading.

1. J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, 1st ed. (Modern Library, 1951).