Harry Stack Sullivan

1892 - 1949

 Man however undistinguished biologically as long as he is entitled to the term, human personality, will be very much more like every other instance of human personality, than he is like anything else in the world. ( Sullivan 1953)

Sullivans Biographical Data

Raised as an Irish Catholic in a rural, Protestant town. Only child Never accepted by other children Became fascinated with horses
Two horse head symbol

 Evil vs. Good Male vs. Female Homosexual intimacy

Mother dominant
Third child, but others died in infancy Mother
Semi-invalid Depressed Periods of hospitalization Married below social class
Communicated this to son

 Disappeared when he was 2

Could not care for him

Her mother became caretaker

Distant

Mother possibly attempted suicide

Father
Distant and taciturn 30 before closer relationship Believed mother had prevented this

8 first close relationship

Older boy 13 Suspected homosexual relationship

 Others argue that it was not Towns people believed it Increased isolation, but unity of the two Harry showed trust and tenderness Other boy, Clarence manipulative bully Both became psychiatrists

College (Cornell University) at 16

Suspended
Version 1 failed all subjects Version 2 attempted to obtain drugs using stolen drugstore stationary

Dropped from sight for 2 years

 Possibly a schizophrenic episode Hospitalized at Bellevue

Admitted to medical school without college 1911

19 years old and poor Little psychiatric training there
His worst grades

Graduated in 4 years
Unpaid tuition 2 years later redeemed his diploma

Worked for federal government with veterans 1921

 St. Elizabeths Hospital in D.C.

1923 Baltimore Shepherd Pratt Hospital

Empathic relationship with schizophrenics 6 male aides instructed in patient relationships Creating healthy relationships
Believed schizophrenia rooted in unhealthy relationships

Encouraged staff to share preadolescent homosexual experimentation

Believed it was normal maturation

80% of patients substantially

 1927 adopted 15 year old boy

Lived with him until death in 1949 Typified as genuinely intimate on both parts

1930 moved to New York

Park Avenue practice

1949 World Federation of Mental Health in Paris brain hemorrhage and died

Sullivans Theory
Development
Prototaxic Mode
Stream of sensory experience No meaning or order No cause and effect No sense of time mouth mother appears when hungry
Crying not associated as cause

Own existence is everything

 Parataxic Mode
Mounting hunger results in feeding
Anticipation of satisfaction

Predict one event from another leads to understanding of time Egocentrism reduced Differentiate body from world Superstitions
Gamblers win with person sitting next to them

Syntaxic Mote
Adult logic Physical and spatial causality

 Synthesis of past, present, and future Language allows children to store information
Allows Syntaxic mode

Sources of psychological difficulties

Disturbed interpersonal relationship early in life The self-identity becomes distorted Perceptions are involved
It is not only how the other acts its how we perceive their actions Particularly true in early childhood

 Primary disturbance with mother Child responds to anxiety caused in this relationship in such a way as to reduce it Maladaptive behavior paterns become established and are maintained Examining these relationships and adaptations in therapeutic relationship will lead to better health

Founded William Alanson White Psychiatric Foundation in 1933 Helped found the Washington School of Psychiatry in 1936

 Helped found the World Federation for Mental Health after WW II In 1938 helped found the journal Psychiatry and served as editor Wrote
The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry The Fusion of Psychiatry and Social Science