INTERPERSONAL THEORYHarry Stack Sullivan

People develop their personality within a social context.

Without other people, humans would have no personality.

Development rests on the individual’s ability to establish intimacy with another person.

Anxiety can interfere with satisfying interpersonal relations.

Overview

Healthy development entails experiencing intimacy and lust toward another same person.

Overview

Born Feb. 21, 1892 Oldest existing son of poor

Irish Catholic parents Lonely childhood

existence Poor relationship with

father. Close friendship with

Clarence Bellinger. Academically gifted.

Harry Stack Sullivan

Poor academic performance in freshman year at Cornell.

Suffered a schizophrenic breakdown.

Enrolled for Medicine, received degree 2 yrs after graduation.

Work with William Alanson Whte.

Harry Stack Sullivan

Private practice in New York

Zodiac Group His therapy was neither

psychoanalytic nor neo-Freudian.

Died of Cerebral Hemorrhage on Jan. 14, 1949.

Rumors of homosexuality

Harry Stack Sullivan

Personality is an energy system. Tension – potentiality for action Energy Transformations – actions

themselves

Personality

Anxiety, premonitions, drowsiness, hunger, sexual excitement.

Not always on a conscious level

Partial distortions of reality

Two Types: Needs Anxiety

Tension

Tensions brought about by a biological imbalance between the person and environment.

Episodic Biological component and

interpersonal relations. Zonal Needs – arises from a specific body

part. General Needs – over all well being of a

person. Tenderness is a basic interpersonal need.

Needs

Disjunctive, diffuse and vague, call forth no consistent action for relief.

Transferred through empathy. Chief disruptive force blocking the

development of healthy interpersonal relations. Prevents people from learning

from mistakes Persisting pursuance of childish

wish for security Ensures people will not learn from

experience. Its presence is worse than its

absence.

Anxiety

Stems from complex interpersonal relations.

Vaguely represented in awareness

No positive value Blocks satisfaction of needs

Anxiety

Tensions transformed into either overt or covert actions.

Behaviors that satisfy our needs and reduce anxiety.

May be observable or hidden from other people (emotions, thoughts)

Energy Transformations

Tensions transformed into either overt or covert actions.

Behaviors that satisfy our needs and reduce anxiety. May be observable or hidden from other people

(emotions, thoughts) Evolves into dynamisms

Energy Transformations

Traits or habit patterns Major Classes:

Related to specific zones of the bodyMouth, anus, genitals

Those related to tensionsDisjunctive (Malevolence) Isolating (Lust) Conjunctive (Intimacy and Self- System)

Dynamisms

Disjunctive dynamism between evil and hatred.

Feeling of living among one’s enemies

2-3 yrs, when child is rebuffed, ignored, or punished.

Adoption of malevolent attitude for protection.

Timidity, Mischievousness, Cruelty, anti-social behavior.

Malevolence

Assumes an isolating tendency.

Auto-erotic behavior Hinders an intimate

relationship. Increases anxiety and

decreases self- worth.

Lust

Close interpersonal relationship between 2 people of equal status.

Equal partnership Integrating dynamism that draws out loving

reactions from people. Decreases loneliness and anxiety Rewarding experiences most healthy people

desire.

Intimacy

Most complex and inclusive of all dynamisms.

Consistent pattern of behavior that maintains people’s interpersonal security by protecting them from anxiety.

Principal stumbling block to favorable changes in personality.

Security Operations

Self- System

Reduces feelings of anxiety or insecurity. Two kinds:

Dissociation = includes impulses, desires, and needs that a person refuses to allow into awareness. (dreams)

Selective Inattention = refusal to see things that one does not wish to see. (conscious)

Security Operations

People’s images of themselves or others

Begins in infancy and continues throughout development.

Bad mother – good mother Me Eidetic Personifications

Personifications

Similar to Klein’s Good Breast and Bad Breast.

Bad Mother- Good Mother

Bad Me, Good Me, Not Me Building blocks of self- personification

Me

Imaginary Friends Projection of traits to other people

Eidetic Personifications

Refers to ways of perceiving, imagining, and conceiving.

Prototaxic – undifferentiated experiences which are highly personal.

Parataxic – communicated to others in a distorted fashion.

Syntaxic – consensually validated and symbolically communicated.

Levels of Cognition

Stages of DevelopmentStage Age Significant

OtherInterpersonal Process

Learnings

Infancy 0-2 Mother Tenderness Good / Bad

Childhood 2-6 Parents Imaginary Playmates

Syntaxic Language

Juvenile Era 6-8.5

Playmates Living with Peers

Competition, Compromise, Cooperation

Preadolescence

8.5 – 13

Single Chum Intimacy Affection & Respect

Early Adolescence

13 – 15

Several Chums

Intimacy and Lust

Balance, Security Operations

Late Adolescence

15 - Lover Fusion of Intimacy and Lust

Discovery of self & world

All psychological disorders have an interpersonal origin and must be understood with reference to social environment

Deficiencies found in psychiatric patients are found in every person to a lesser degree

Psychological difficulties are not unique, but come from same interpersonal difficulties we all face

Two broad classes of schizophrenia Organic Situational

Psychological Disorders

Therapist is a participant observer who establishes an interpersonal relationship with the patient and provides opportunity for syntaxic communication

Sullivanian therapists attempt to help patients develop foresight, discover difficulties in interpersonal relations, and restore their ability to participate in consensually validated experiences

Psychotherapy