HARRY STACK SULLIVAN: A bright student, Sullivan graduated from

INTERPERSONAL THEORY high school as valedictorian at age16. He

then entered Cornell University intending to
The theory of personality developed by become a physicist, although he also had an
Harry Stack Sullivan, which based on the interest in psychiatry. His academic
belief that people’s interactions with other performance at Cornell was a disaster,
people, especially significant others; however, and he was suspended after 1
determine their sense of security, sense of year. The suspension may not have been
self, and the dynamisms that motivate their solely for academic deficiencies. He got into
behavior. Sullivan believed that people trouble with the law at Cornell, possibly for
develop their personality within social mail fraud. For the next 2 years, Perry
context. Without other people, Sullivan (1982) reported Harry may have suffered a
contended, humans would have no schizophrenic breakdown at this time and
personality. was confined to a mental hospital. Alexander
(1990), however, surmised that Sullivan
“A personality can never be isolated from spent this time under the guidance of an
the complex of interpersonal relations in older male model who helped him overcome
which the person lives and has his being” his sexual panic and who intensified his
(Sullivan) Sullivan insisted that knowledge of interest in psychiatry. Whatever the answer
human personality can be gained only to Sullivan’s mysterious disappearance from
through the scientific study of interpersonal 1909 to 1911, his experiences seemed to
relations. have matured him academically and
possibly sexually.
His interpersonal theory emphasizes the
importance of various developmental stages Sullivan enrolled in the Chicago College of
– infancy, childhood, juvenile era, Medicine and Surgery, where his grades,
preadolescence, early adolescence, late though only mediocre, were a great
adolescence and adulthood. Sullivan also improvement over those he earned at
believed that people achieve healthy Cornell. He became closely acquainted with
development when they are able to William Alanson White, and began an
experience both intimacy and lust toward association with the Medical School of the
the same other person. University of Maryland. In 1923 Sullivan
moved to the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt
BIOGRAPHY Hospital in Baltimore and conducted
intensive studies of schizophrenia.
Harry Stack Sullivan was born February 21,
1892 in Norwich, New York with his mother Later that year he moved to New York City
Ella Stack Sullivan and Timothy Sullivan his and opened a private practice to improves
father. As a preschool child, Sullivan had his studies by investigating non-
neither friends nor acquaintances of his age. schizophrenic disorder, especially those of
After beginning school, he still felt like an an obsessive nature (Perry, 1982). While he
outsider, being an Irish Catholic boy in a was in New York he works with several
Protestant community. His Irish accent and psychiatrists and social scientists with a
quick mind made him unpopular with his European background, and formed a Zodiac
classmates throughout his years of Group, these people are Karen Horney,
schooling in Smyrna. When Sullivan was 8 Erich Fromm, and Freida Fromm-
½ years old, he formed a close friendship Reichmann who along with Sullivan Clara
with a 13-yearold boy from a neighboring Thompson. It is an informal organization that
farm. This chum was Clarence Bellinger. met regularly over drinks to discuss old and
Both were retarded socially but advanced new ideas in psychiatry and the related
intellectually; both later became social sciences. Sullivan’s theory of
psychiatrists and neither ever married. The interpersonal psychiatry is neither
relationship between Harry and Clarence psychoanalytic nor neo-Freudian. Sullivan
had a transforming effect on Sullivan’s life. It served as the first president of the
awakened in him the power of intimacy, that foundation and also as editor of the
is, the ability to love another who was more foundation’s journal, Psychiatry.
or less like himself.
In Sullivan’s mature theory of personality, he January 14, 1949, Harry Stack Sullivan died
placed heavy emphasis on the therapeutic, of a persistent cardiovascular disease while
almost magical power of an intimate at the World Federation for Mental Health, in
relationship during the preadolescent years. Paris. Sullivan acclaimed by many as the
“father of modern psychiatry” and by others people have a natural tendency to
as an interdisciplinary innovator worthy of avoid it, inherently preferring the
international acclaim in mental health state of euphoria, or complete lack of
treatment. tension.

SULLIVAN’S CONTRIBUTION TO Whereas other tension results in actions

PERSONALITY THEORY directed specifically toward their relief,
anxiety produces behavior that
Like Freud and Jung, Sullivan (1953b) saw
personality as an energy system which exist (1) prevent people from learning from
either as tension (potential for action or as their mistakes
action for themselves (energy (2) keep people pursuing a childish wish
transformation) for security, and
(3) generally, ensure that people will not
A. TENSION learn from experiences.

Tension refers to the potentiality for action Sullivan (1953b) postulated that it is
that may or may not be experienced in transferred from the parent to the infant
awareness. Thus, not all tensions are through the process of empathy.
consciously felt. Sullivan recognized two
types of tensions: needs and anxiety. According to him the presence of anxiety is
much worse than its absence. “Anxiety is a
● Needs – are tensions brought on by tension in opposition to the tensions of
biological imbalance between a needs and to action appropriate to their
person and the physiochemical relief”.
environment, both inside and outside
the organism. Although needs B. ENERGY TRANSFORMATIONS
originally have a biological
component, many of them stem from Energy transformations are tension that are
the interpersonal situation. For transformed into actions, either over or
Sullivan, the most basic covert. Behavior aimed at satisfying needs
interpersonal need is tenderness. and reducing anxiety- two great tensions.

● Tenderness – the most basic C. DYNAMISMS

interpersonal need. Touching, Dynamisms refer to a term that means
fondling, or holding are needs for about the same as traits or habit patterns.
tenderness that satisfied through the
use of infant’s mouth and the Two-major classes:
mother’s hands.’
(1) specific zones of the body, including
● General needs – facilitate the overall mouth, anus, and genitals
wellbeing of a person which includes
interpersonal and physiological (2) related to tensions. This second
needs. Example, Oxygen, water, and class is composed of 3 categories: (a)
food are needs. the disjunctive - include
those destructive patterns of
● Zonal needs – arise from a specific behavior,
body part which includes oral, (b) the isolating - include
genital, etc.
behavior pattern such as
Lust that are unrelated to
● Anxiety – it is the chief disruptive force interpersonal relations and
blocking the development of (c) the conjunctive - such as
healthy interpersonal relations. intimacy and self-system.
Anxiety is more diffuse and vague,
and calls forth no consistent actions
● Malevolence - the disjunctive
for its relief. Severe anxiety makes
dynamism of evil and hatred is called
people incapable of learning, impairs
malevolence, defined by Sullivan as
memory, narrows perception, and
a feeling of living among one’s
may even result in complete
enemies. Those children who
amnesia. Because anxiety is painful,
become malevolent have much
 difficulty giving and receiving experiences from awareness.
tenderness or being intimate with
other people. D. PERSONIFICATIONS

● Intimacy - the conjunctive dynamism Personifications are mental images we have

marked by a close personal of other people and of ourselves.
relationship between two people of Personifications need not to correspond to
equal status is called intimacy. reality, for the importance of how they
Intimacy facilitates interpersonal influence our interactions with others lies in
development while decreasing both the individually different way in which we
anxiety and loneliness. Because conceive of the other person.
intimacy helps us avoid anxiety and
loneliness, it is a rewarding Sullivan believed that people acquire certain
experience that most healthy people images of self and others throughout the
desire. Intimacy must not be developmental stages, and he referred to
confused with sexual interest. In fact, these subjective perceptions as
it develops prior to puberty. personifications. Some of these
personifications are the following:
● Lust - in contrast to both malevolence
and intimacy, lust is an isolating 1. Bad-Mother, Good-Mother
dynamism requiring no other person : The bad-mother personification
for its satisfaction. That is, lust is a grows out of infant’s experiences
self-centered need that can be with a nipple that does not satisfy
satisfied in the absence of an their hunger needs. All infants
intimate interpersonal relationship. In experience the bad-mother
other words, although intimacy personification, even though their
presupposes tenderness or love, lust real mothers may be loving and
is based solely on sexual nurturing. Later, infants acquire a
gratification and requires no other good-mother personification as they
person for its satisfaction. become mature enough to recognize
the tender and cooperative behavior
● Self-System - the most inclusive of all of their mothering one. Still later,
dynamisms is the self-system, or that these two personifications combine
pattern of behaviors that protects us to form a complex and contrasting
against anxiety and maintains our image of the real mother.
interpersonal security. The self-
system is a conjunctive dynamism, 2. Me Personifications
but because its primary job is to : The most noteworthy of the
protect the self from anxiety, it tends personifications are those related to
to stifle personality change. the self. According to Sullivan, we all
form images of ourselves, and these
Security Operations images fall into three basic
categories:
Experiences that are inconsistent with our ● The good - me
self-system threaten our security and personification- consists of
necessitate our use of security operations, those aspects of ourselves
which consist of behaviors designed to that we feel good about, that
reduce interpersonal tensions. It is “a have been rewarded in the
powerful brake on personal and human past, and that are not
progress” (Sullivan 1953b, p. 374). Two associated with anxiety.
important security operations are:
● The bad-me personification -
● Dissociation - includes those reflects those parts of our
experiences, impulses desires and experiences that we would
needs, that a person refuses to allow rather not think about, that
into awareness or block from have not been rewarded, and
awareness. that have associated with
anxiety.
● Selective attention - is a refusal to see
those things that we do not wish to ● The not-me personification -
see. It involves blocking only certain
 represents those aspects of Sullivan saw interpersonal development as
ourselves which are so taking place over seven stages, from infancy
threatening that we to mature adulthood. Personality changes
dissociate them from the self are most likely during transitions between
system and maintain them in stages.
our unconscious. This
process of dissociation is 1. Infancy (0-2 years)
similar to Freud’s concept of : The period from birth until the
repression. emergence of syntaxic language,
usually at about age 18-24 months a
3. Eidetic Personifications time when the child receives
: One of Sullivan’s most interesting tenderness from the mothering one
observations was that people often while also learning anxiety through
create imaginary traits that they an empathic linkage with the mother.
project onto others. Included in these Anxiety may increase to the point of
eidetic personifications are the terror, but such terror is controlled by
imaginary playmates that preschool- the built-in protections of apathy and
aged children often have. These somnolent detachment that allow the
imaginary friends enable children to baby to go to sleep. During infancy
have a safe, secure relationship with children use autistic language, that
another person, even though that is, private language that makes little
person is imaginary, also to protect or no sense to other people.
self-esteem.
2. Childhood (2-6 years)
E. LEVELS OF COGNITION IN : The stage that lasts from the
INTERPERSONAL THEORY beginning of syntaxic language until
the need for playmates of equal
Sullivan recognized three levels of status is called childhood. The child’s
cognition, or ways of perceiving things - primary interpersonal relationship
prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic. continues to be with the mother, who
is now differentiated from other
persons who nurture the child.
a. Prototaxic Level. Experiences that are
Besides their parents, preschool-
impossible to put into words or to
aged children often have one other
communicate to others are called
significant relationship- an imaginary
prototaxic. Newborn infants
playmate.
experience images mostly on a
prototaxic level, but adults, too,
frequently have preverbal 3. Juvenile Era (6- 8 ½ years)
experiences that are momentary and : The juvenile stage begins with the
incapable of being communicated. need for peers of equal status and
ends until the child develops a need
b. Parataxic Level. Experiences that are for an intimate relationship with a
prelogical and nearly impossible to chum. At this time children should
accurately communicate to others learn how to compete, to
are called parataxic. Included in compromise, and to cooperate. These
these are erroneous assumptions three abilities, as well as an orientation
about cause and effect, which toward living, help a child develop
Sullivan termed parataxic distortions. intimacy, the chief dynamism of the
next developmental stage.
c. Syntaxic Level. Experiences that can
be accurately communicated to 4. Preadolescence (8 ½ - 13 years) :
others are called syntaxic. Children Perhaps the most crucial stage is
become capable of syntaxic preadolescence, because mistakes
language at about 12 to 18 months made earlier can be corrected during
of age when words begin to have the preadolescence, but errors made
same meaning for them that they do during preadolescence are nearly
for others. impossible to overcome in later life.
Preadolescence spans the time from
the need for a single best friend (chum)
F. STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
until puberty. A preadolescent’s
intimate relationship ordinarily involves
 another person of the same gender or
JUVENILE ERA
social status. Children who do not learn
intimacy during preadolescence have Age 6 to 8 ½
added difficulties relating to potential
sexual partners during later stages. Significant Others Playmates of
equal status
5. Early Adolescence (13- 15 years) : Interpersonal Orientation
Begins with puberty and ends with the Process toward living in
need for sexual love with one person. the world of
Development during this stage is peers
ordinarily marked by a coexistence of
intimacy with a single friend of the Important Competition,
Learnings compromise,
same gender and sexual interest in
cooperation
many persons of the opposite gender.
However, if children have no PREADOLESCENCE
preexisting capacity for intimacy, they
may confuse lust with love and develop Age 8 ½ to 13
sexual relationships that are devoid of
true intimacy. Significant Others Single chum

Interpersonal Intimacy
6. Late Adolescence (15-18 years) : It Process
begins when a person is able to feel
both intimacy and lust toward the same Important Affection and
person. Late adolescence is Learnings respect from
characterized by a stable pattern of peers
sexual activity and the growth of the
EARLY ADOLESCENCE
syntaxic mode, as young people learn
how to live in the adult world. Age 13 to 15

7. Adulthood (18 onwards) Significant Others Several chums

: Late adolescence flows into
Interpersonal Intimacy and
adulthood, a time when a person Process lust toward
establishes a stable relationship with a different
significant other person and develops a person
consistent pattern of viewing the world.
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT SUMMARY Important Balance of lust,
TABLE Learnings intimacy and
security
INFANCY operations

Age 0 to 2

Significant Others Mothering One

LATE ADOLESCENCE
Interpersonal Tenderness Age
Process
Significant Others
Important Good
Learnings mother/bad Interpersonal
mother, good Process
me/bad me
Important
CHILDHOOD Learnings
Age 2 to 6

Significant Others Parents

15 --
Interpersonal Protect security
Process through Lover
imaginary
playmates Fusion of intimacy
and lust
Important Syntaxic Language
Learnings Discovery of self
 and the world Composed of four parts: inception,
outside the self reconnaissance, detailed inquiry and
termination.
G. PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS
Family Therapy: treat psychological
Sullivan believed that all psychological problems in the context of family has its
disorders have an interpersonal origin and roots in the work of Adler and Sullivan.
can be understood only with reference to the
patient’s social environment. Most of CRITIQUE
Sullivan’s early therapeutic work was with
schizophrenic patients, and many of his ● Sullivan lacks popularity among
subsequent lectures and writing dealt with researchers most apt to conduct
schizophrenia. research- academicians.
● Sullivan’s theory like those of Freud,
Sullivan (1962) distinguished two broad Jung, and Fromm must receive a
classes of schizophrenia. The first included very low mark. Sullivan’s notion of
all those symptoms that originate from the importance of the interpersonal
organic causes and are therefore beyond relations for psychological health has
the study of interpersonal psychiatry. The received a moderate amount of
second class included all schizophrenic indirect support. However,
disorders grounded in situational factors. alternative explanations are possible
These disorders were the only ones of for most of these findings.
concern to Sullivan because they are the ● Despite its many elaborate postulates,
only ones amenable to change through the theory can receive only a
interpersonal psychiatry. moderate rating on its ability to
organize knowledge. Moreover, the
He also studied and treated patients with theory’s extreme emphasis on
dissociated reaction, which often precede interpersonal relations subtracts from
schizophrenia, are characterized by its ability to organize knowledge
loneliness, low self-esteem, the uncanny because much of what is presently
emotions, unsatisfactory relations with known about human behavior has
others, and ever-increasing anxiety biological basis and does not easily
(Sullivan, 1953b) fit into a theory restricted of
interpersonal relations.
H. PSYCHOTHERAPY ● Relative lack of testing of Sullivan’s
theory diminishes its usefulness as a
Viewed psychotherapy as an interpersonal practical guide for parents, teachers,
process in which one person assists another psychotherapists, and others
in resolving problems of living (1954). concerned with the care of children
Sullivanian therapists attempt to help and adolescent.
patients develop foresight, discover ● Sullivan’s ideas suffer from his inability
difficulties in interpersonal relations, and to write well but the theory itself is
restore their ability to participate in logically conceptualized and holds
consensually validated experiences. He together as a unified entity.
used the concept of participant observation
to define the nature of psychiatric inquiry CONCEPT OF HUMANITY
and treatment (1954)
One-genus Hypothesis, “everyone is much
Participation Observation: the therapist more simply human than otherwise”
serves as a participant observer, becoming (Sullivan). In other words, the differences
part of an interpersonal, face-to-face between any two instances of human
relationship with the patient and providing personality—from the lowest-grade imbecile
patient an opportunity to establish a syntaxic to the highest-grade genius – are much less
communication with another human being. striking than the difference between the
least-gifted human being and member of the
nearest other biological genus.

RESEARCH

Sullivan conducted empirical research on

personality. He emphasizes that his theory
was grounded on empirical data and
observation, and he tried to avoid
formulating imaginary concepts that could
never be tested. His theory has focused
primarily on the techniques of interviewing
and the therapeutic personality. He is best
known for his research on the therapeutic
process and, on the techniques of
interviewing.

RELATED RESEARCH

Sullivan believed that a “chum” relationship

is the beginning of genuine human
relationships. In healthy preadolescence the
relationship may but need not entail overt
homosexual genital activity. Sullivan’s
interpersonal theory of personality rests on
the assumption that unhealthy personality
development results from interpersonal
conflicts and difficulties.

Beginning around the age of 6, and

especially by the age of 9, children’s
relationships with peers their own age
become increasingly important for
personality development. Sullivan
particularly emphasized the importance of
same-sex friends and used the term
“chums” to describe this specific category of
peers. In this section we review some recent
research on the dynamics of same-sex
friendships in childhood and how they can
be simultaneously helpful and harmful for
healthy development depending on certain
factors.

PRIMARY ASSUMPTIONS

● Development of personality is within

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