Harry Stack Sullivan’s Interpersonal Psychodynamic Theory
Assumptions and Key Concepts
- Anxiety: the “main disruptive force” in interpersonal relations
- Basic Anxiety: fear of rejection by significant persons
- Interpersonal Security: feelings associated with relief of anxiety, the point when all needs are met, or a sense of total well-being
- Parataxic Distortion: a person’s fantasy perception of another person’s attributes without consideration important personality differences
- Selective Inattention: how people cope with the anxiety caused by the undesired traits
Sullivan focused on anxiety as being a consequence of faulty social interactions. He believed people developed a personification of self and others through the integration of “good me, bad me, and not me” perception (the self-system):
Self System: The collection of experiences or security measures to protect against anxiety
- Good Me: represents what people like about themselves and is willing to share with others
- Bad Me: what people don’t like about themselves and are not willing to share. Develops in response to negative feedback with feelings of discomfort, displeasure, and distress. The “Bad Me” creates anxiety.
- Not Me: the aspects of self that are so anxiety-provoking that the person does not consider them a part of the person. It contains feelings of horror, dread, dread. This part of the self is primarily unconscious (dissociative coping).
Sullivan believed that all psychological disorders have an interpersonal origin and can be understood only with reference to the patient’s social environment. To understand a person’s drives for behavior, 2 needs are involved; satisfaction (sleep, sex, hunger) & security (conforming to social norms of the person’s reference group). If the 2 drives of the “self-system” are interfered with, mental illness occurs.
Stages of Interpersonal Development
| Stage (Epochs) | Time-Period | Developmental Task |
|---|---|---|
| Infancy | 0-18mths | Oral gratification; anxiety first occurs |
| Childhood | 18mths-6y | Delayed gratification |
| Juvenile | 6-9y | Forming peer-relationships |
| Preadolescence | 9-12y | Same-sex relationships |
| Early Adolescence | 12-14y | Opposite-sex relationships |
| Late Adolescence | 14-21y | Self-identity is developed |
Additional Information & References
- A Complete Chapter and Overview of Harry Stack Sullivan (PDF File)
- Harry Stack Sullivan brief summary by Current Nursing
- More Details of the Stages of Interpersonal Development by All Psych
About Dr. Sullivan
Herbert “Harry” Stack Sullivan (1892– 1949) was an American Neo-Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who held that the personality lives in a complex of interpersonal relations. Harry was the oldest existing son of poor Irish Catholic parents, lonely childhood existence, and a poor relationship with his father. Academically gifted, Sullivan graduated from high school as valedictorian at age 16. He then entered Cornell University intending to become a physicist, although he also had an interest in psychiatry.
However, his academic performance at Cornell was a disaster and he was suspended after a year and possibly suffered a schizophrenic breakdown. Eventually, Dr. Sullivan graduated from Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery, despite his academic struggles. Dr. Sullvian had no formal training in psychiatry but devoted years of clinical and research work to help people with psychotic illnesses, especially patients with schizophrenia. There were also rumors of homosexuality:
Why is it important to know about Sullivan’s sexual orientation? This knowledge is important for at least two reasons. First, a personality theorist’s early life history, including gender, birth order, religious beliefs, ethnic background, schooling, as well as sexual orientation, all relate to that person’s adult beliefs, the conception of humanity, and the type of personality theory that that person will develop.
Second, in Sullivan’s case, his sexual orientation may have prevented him from gaining the acceptance and recognition he might have had if others had not suspected that he was homosexual. A. H. Chapman (1976) has argued that Sullivan’s influence is pervasive yet unrecognized largely because many psychologists and psychiatrists of his day had difficulty accepting the theoretical concepts and therapeutic practices of someone they suspected of being homosexual.
Chapman contended that Sullivan’s contemporaries might have easily accepted a homosexual artist, musician, or writer, but, when it came to a psychiatrist, they were still guided by the concept “Physician heal thyself.” This phrase was so ingrained in American society during Sullivan’s time that mental health workers found it very difficult to “admit their indebtedness to a psychiatrist whose homosexuality was commonly known” (Chapman, 1976, p. 12). Thus, Sullivan, who otherwise might have achieved greater fame, was shackled by sexual prejudices that kept him from being regarded as America’s foremost psychiatrist of the first half of the 20th century.
-Theories of Personality/PDF above
Overall, Dr. Sullvian was a prominent theorist with regard to understanding the magnitude of interpersonal relationships. Hildegard Peplau also credited her theoretical approach of nursing interventions with psychiatric patients based on Sullivan’s theory. It is unfortunate that he doesn’t get more recognition but that’s why additional context was given to provide more consideration.
