Clinical Case Study and Application of Sullivan's Interpersonal Theory
Harry Stack Sullivan (1892-1949) presented Interpersonal Theory. For Sullivan the personality is interpersonal and developed through interpersonal relationships.á Sullivan is like Freud with his emphasis on life's tragedies.á Also like Freud, Sullivan's conception of the self-system resembles certain aspects of Freud's ego.á The self-system's main function is to minimize the experience of anxiety which is similar to Freud's ego defense system.á Sullivan's self-system includes a set of protective measures that guard against anxiety that are developed in infancy and early childhood.á However, unlike Freud, Sullivan believed that anxiety stems from external social forces rather then from unconscious inner conflicts. Thus for Sullivan the development of the personality includes stages of development that are psycho-social. These six stages include: infancy, childhood, the juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, and late adolescence (Hall & Lindzey, 1970).
During infancy, the young child has a limited interpersonal field which includes the infant and the primary caregiver. During childhood (from syntaxic language to the need for playmates) the mother is still the most important interpersonal relationship but children tend to have an imaginary playmate. The juvenile era includes the development of intimacy and skills such as cooperation and compromise. Preadolescence is the most crucial stage; mistakes during this phase are difficult to overcome. Early adolescence brings intimacy and lust motivations, late adolescence directs these motivations toward one other person, and adulthood marks the culmination of development with a stable love relationship (Feist & Feist, 2002).
Sullivan believed that the personality is an energy system and energy can either exist as tension or actions (energy transformations). Energy transformations can transfo...