Interpersonal psychoanalysis is based on the theories of Harry Stack Sullivan

Harry Stack Sullivan

Harry Stack Sullivan was a U.S. psychiatrist whose work in psychoanalysis was based on direct and verifiable observation .-Life and works:Sullivan was a child of Irish immigrants and allegedly grew up in an...

 (1892–1949), an American psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

, who believed that the details of a patient's interpersonal interactions with others can provide insight into the causes and cures of mental disorder.

Selective inattention

Sullivan proposed that patients could keep certain aspects or components of their interpersonal relationships out of their awareness by a psychological behavior described as selective inattention. The term has to a degree passed into common usage: "Selective inattention".

Personifications

Sullivan emphasized that psychotherapists' analyses should focus on patients' relationships and personal interactions to obtain knowledge of affecting patterns and tendencies - personifications. Such analyses would consist of detailed questioning regarding moment-to-moment personal interactions, even including those with the analyst himself.

For Sullivan, 'personifications embody one's assumptions, schemata, internalised representations of others and reflected appraisals of the self'. They can form the basis for 'the later ambiguities in interpersonal relations that Sullivan termed parataxic distortion...a very similar concept to the standard psychoanalytic transference/projection mechanisms'.

Sullivan and the neo-Freudians

'Like the other neo-Freudian

Neo-Freudian

The Neo-Freudian psychiatrists and psychologists were a group of loosely linked American theorists of the mid-twentieth century, who were all influenced by Sigmund Freud, but who extended his theories, often in social or cultural directions...

s that Sullivan worked with, he rejects the orthodox Freudian drive model, although he retains a variant of the pleasure principle'. Sullivan's interdisciplinary emphasis - linking him with 'psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, counsellors and clergy. Horney

Karen Horney

Karen Horney born Danielsen was a German-American psychoanalyst. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views, particularly his theory of sexuality, as well as the instinct orientation of psychoanalysis and its genetic psychology...

, Fromm

Erich Fromm

Erich Seligmann Fromm was a Jewish German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with what became known as the Frankfurt School of critical theory.-Life:Erich Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, at Frankfurt am...

, Thompson

Clara Thompson

Clara Mabel Thompson studied medicine at Johns Hopkins University and in her last year she was introduced to psychoanalysis. In the future years she developed as a psychoanalyst working with people like William Alanson White, Adolf Meyer, Harry Stack Sullivan, Joseph Cheesman Thompson, and Sándor...

 and Fromm-Reichman

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann was a German psychiatrist and contemporary of Sigmund Freud who emigrated to America during World War II.-Life and work:...

 were all associates' - was an important part of his enduring influence.

Criticism

The point has been made that Sullivan's 'need to separate himself from Freud was perhaps so great that he persistently invented new, often obtuse, terms for concepts already well expressed by Freud'.

Literature

• Curtis, R. C. & Hirsch, I. (2003). Relational Approaches to Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. In Gurman, A. G. & Messer, S. B. Essential Psychotherapies. NY: Guilford.
• Curtis, R. C. (2008). Desire, Self, Mind & the Psychotherapies. Unifying Psychological Science and Psychoanalysis. Lanham, MD & New York: Jason Aronson.

See also

• Interpersonal psychotherapy
  Interpersonal psychotherapy
  Interpersonal Psychotherapy is a time-limited psychotherapy that focuses on the interpersonal context and on building interpersonal skills. IPT is based on the belief that interpersonal factors may contribute heavily to psychological problems. It is commonly distinguished from other forms of...
  
  
• Family therapy
  Family therapy
  Family therapy, also referred to as couple and family therapy, family systems therapy, and family counseling, is a branch of psychotherapy that works with families and couples in intimate relationships to nurture change and development. It tends to view change in terms of the systems of...
  
  
• Relationship counseling
  Relationship counseling
  Relationship counseling is the process of counseling the parties of a relationship in an effort to recognize and to better manage or reconcile troublesome differences and repeating patterns of distress...
  
  
• Transactional analysis
  Transactional analysis
  Transactional analysis, commonly known as TA to its adherents, is an integrative approach to the theory of psychology and psychotherapy. It is described as integrative because it has elements of psychoanalytic, humanist and cognitive approaches...