Harry Stack Sullivan

Herbert "Harry" Stack Sullivan (February 21, 1892, Norwich, New York - January 14, 1949, Paris, France) was an American psychiatrist whose work in psychoanalysis was based on direct and verifiable observation (versus the more abstract conceptions of the unconscious mind favored by Sigmund Freud and his disciples). His emphasis was more on the social aspects of personality.

Life

Sullivan was a child of Catholic Irish immigrants and grew up in a rural south-central new York Protestant community. This resulted in social isolation which might have been the incentive for his later interest in psychiatry. He received his medical degree in Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery in 1917.

Along with Clara Thompson, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, Erik H. Erikson, and Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Sullivan laid the groundwork for understanding the individual based on the network of relationships in which he or she is enmeshed. He developed a theory of psychiatry based on interpersonal relationships where cultural forces are largely responsible for mental illnesses. In his words, one must pay attention to the "interactional", not the "intrapsychic". This search for satisfaction via personal involvement with others led Sullivan to characterize loneliness as the most painful of human experiences. He also extended the Freudian psychoanalysis to the treatment of patients with severe mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia.

Work

Besides making the first mention of the significant other in psychological literature, Sullivan developed the Self System, a configuration of the personality traits developed in childhood and reinforced by positive affirmation and the security operations developed in childhood to avoid anxiety and threats to self-esteem. Sullivan further defined the Self System as a steering mechanism toward a series of I-You interlocking behaviors; that is, what an individual does is meant to elicit a particular reaction. Sullivan called these behaviors parataxic integrations, and he noted that such action-reaction combinations can become rigid and dominate an adult's thinking pattern, limiting his actions and reactions toward the world as the adult sees it and not as it really is. Sullivan's work on interpersonal relationships became the foundation of interpersonal psychoanalysis, a school of psychoanalytic theory and treatment that stresses the detailed exploration of the nuances of patients' patterns of interacting with others.

Another important distinction between Sullivan and Freud is around the concept of anxiety. While Freud believed anxiety represented nternal conflict between the id adn the superego, Sullivan saw anxiety as existing only as a result of social interactions. Sullivan described technicques, similar to Freud's defense mechanisms, that provide a way for people to reduce social anxiety.

Key Concepts

Selective Inattention

Sullivan believed that mothers express their anxiety about raising their children in a variety of ways. The child has no understanding or way to deal with this and so feels the anxiety himself. Selective inattention is a response to this as the chiild begins to ignore or reject the anxiety or an interaction that cold produce these uncomfortable feelings of anxiety. Later as adults, this technique is used to focus our mnds away from stressful situations.

Personifications

As a result of social interactions and selective attention or inattenton, individuals develop Personifications of themselves and others, according to Sullivan. Defense mechanisms reduce anxiety but they can also cause a misperception of realty. Personifications are mental images that help us understand ourselves and the world. sullivan described three basic ways we see ourselves called the bad-me, the good-me and the not-me. The bad-me consists of the aspects of the self that one considers negative and therefore hides from others and possibly even the self. This is sometimes called the shadow in other psychology systems. Anxiety can result from recognizing the bad part of ourselves, for example, when remembering an embarrassing moment or experiencing guilt from a past action.

The good-me is all that seems positive adn that we like about ourselves. This is the part we share wit the world because it produces no anxiety. The not'me part represents the aspects of ourselves that are so anxiety provoking that we reject them as a part of us. The not-me is hidden from our awareness by pushing it deep into the unconscious.

Developmental epochs

Similar to Freud, Sullivan maintained that childhood experiencess are a large contributor to the adult personality, the mother playing the most significant role. He differs from Freud in his belief tht personality can continue to develop past adolescence and even well into adulthood. These stages were called developmental theory epochs, which are in a particular order but their timing is determined by our social environment. The majority of focus revolved aorund the conflicts of adolescence, and many of adulthood problems arise from the turmoils of adolescence. The developmental epochs are:

Infancy (birth to 1 year)
Childhood (1-5)
Juvenile (6-8)
Preadolescence (9-12)
Early Adolescence (13-17)
Late Adolescence (18-22 or 23)
Adulthood (23 on)

Legacy

Although well recognized by many, Sullivan never acquired as much substantial reputation as many of his peers later did. He was one of the founders of the William Alanson White Institute, considered by many to be the world's leading independent psychoanalytic institute, and of the journal Psychiatry in 1937. He headed the Washington School of Psychiatry from 1936 to 1947.

Although Sullivan published little in his lifetime he influenced generations of mental health professionals, especially through his lectures at Chestnut Lodge in Washington DC. Leston Havens called him the most important underground influence in American psychoanalysis. His ideas were collected and published posthumously, edited by Helen Swick Perry, who also published a detailed biography in 1982 (Perry, 1982, Psychiatrist of America).

Bibliography

Sullivan, H.S. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York: Norton. ISBN: 1425424309

Sullivan, Harry Stack. (1955). Conceptions of Modern Psychiatry: First William Alanson White Memorial Lectures., London: Tavistock Publications. ISBN: 1425424309

Sullivan, H. S. (1962). Schizophrenia as a Human Process., New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Sullivan, H. (1964). The Fusion of Psychiatry and Social Science., New York: W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN: 0393006034

External links

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