Harry Stack Sullivan: biography of this psychoanalyst.

A referent of psychoanalysis who created Interpersonal Psychoanalysis.

The history of the study of psychology, although of relatively recent beginning, is full of important figures and different schools and currents of thought. All of them have contributed their vision of the psyche and behavior, in some cases opposing each other. Among the different schools of thought we can find the psychoanalytic and psychodynamic current, focused on the existence of intrapsychic conflicts due to the repression of impulses and the attempt to adjust them to the reality of the environment.

One of the authors of the psychodynamic current, considered among the neo-Freudians and who, like Alfred Adler and Carl Jung, distanced themselves from Sigmund Freud to create their own vision of psychoanalysis was Harry Stack Sullivan, creator of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis. In this article we will review his life, making a short biography of this important author.

A brief biography of Harry Stack Sullivan

One of the great figures of the psychodynamic currents, Harry Stack Sullivan is known for the creation of interpersonal psychoanalysis, based on the importance of the interaction between people in personal development and in the creation of identity and personality, and his expansion of psychoanalysis in the population with psychotic disorders and the application of a more empirical methodology compared to other psychoanalysts. The development of his theories is largely influenced by his experience throughout life.

Childhood and early years

Harry Stack Sullivan was born on February 21, 1892 in Norwich, New York. Son of Timothy Sullivan and Ella Stack Sullivanwas born into a poor family of Irish origin with Catholic beliefs. His relationship with his parents was apparently convulsive, not having a close relationship with his father and receiving little affection from his mother. However, he would have a better bond with his aunt Margaret, who would give him great support.

The family had to move due to lack of resources to a farm owned by his mother's family in Smyrna. His early years were not easy, feeling rejected and socially isolated (it is believed that he did not have a real friendship until he was eight years old, with the young Clarence Belliger) living in a Protestant majority population where Catholics were not welcome, possessing a shy nature and excelling in studies.

Education and early work

Despite coming from a family of few resources (although his mother's family was somewhat wealthier), he would enroll in Cornwell University in 1909 after finishing high school, but for some reason (it is believed that he suffered a psychotic break that would lead him to be detained in an institution) he would not finish his studies there, having only completed his first year.

With the passage of time, Sullivan managed to enter the Chicago Medical School in 1911, graduating in Medicine and Surgery in 1917.

The fact that in 1914 the First World War started would make him be called up, participating in the conflict as a military doctor in the Army Veterans Medical Corps, and in 1921 he would start working at Saint Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, where he would meet the neuropsychiatrist William Alanson White and would work for the first time with schizophrenic people. Along with him, Sullivan would work to adapt psychoanalysis to the psychotic population, especially in the case of schizophrenia..

A year later he would enter to work for the first time as a psychiatrist at Sheppard & Enoch Pratt Hospital, where he would stand out for quickly connecting with patients and obtaining good results.

Link with psychoanalysis and development of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis

During his stay at Sheppard & Enoch he would meet Clara Thompson, with whom he would share his affinity for the treatment of schizophrenia and with whom he would become one of his closest friends. She would introduce him to her mentor Adolf Meyer, from whom Sullivan would learn psychoanalytic practice as well as skepticism towards the orthodoxy of classical psychoanalysis.

In 1926 (the same year in which his mother died) he would also meet the anthropologist and ethnolinguist Edward Sapirwhose collaboration would make her interested in the study of communication and its effects. Through him she met George Mead, from whom she would acquire numerous concepts.

Also interested in Ferenczi's ideas, she proposed to Thompson to go to Budapest to be analyzed by him in 1927. Upon her return, Thompson would become Sullivan's analyst, which would eventually lead to Sullivan's acceptance into the American Psychoanalytical Society. Also in 1927 she would meet a young man named Jimmy whom she would eventually adopt and make his secretary and sole heir.

All this set of circumstances would lead Sullivan, during his stay at the hospital (where he would become Director of Clinical Research), to rely partially on the theory of Sigmund Freud (with whom he never came into contact) and on the contributions of other disciplines to elaborate a model that could explain the circumstances that can lead to a psychotic crisis. This would eventually lead him to elaborate his interpersonal theory, which would eventually lead to the founding of interpersonal psychoanalysis..

Sullivan would become aware of the importance of uniting the contributions of various disciplines, which would lead him to try to found several organizations together with other professionals. However, some of these ventures would lead him to near bankruptcy.

Final years and death

In 1930 he left his position at the Sheppard Hospital (because, despite his active participation in the creation of a new center and his work, he was not granted it and also began to cancel the provision of funds for his research) and moved to New York.

Three years later, together with other professionals, he founded the William Alanson White Foundation, to later create the Washington School of Psychiatry in 1936 and finally the publication Psychiatry in 1938. He would also collaborate with several hospitals and universities, serving as professor and head of the department of psychiatry at Georgetown University. Later, from 1940 onwards, he would carry out several collaborations with the World Health Organization and Unesco..

Sullivan died on January 14, 1949 in Paris due to a cerebral hemorrhage, while resting in a hotel room where he was staying overnight during his return trip from a meeting of the World Federation of Mental Health in Amsterdam.

Although he may not be as well known as other authors of the psychoanalytic current, Sullivan's contributions have had a wide repercussion in the world of psychology, serving as a basis for such well-known authors as Carl Rogers.

Bibliographical references:

• Barton, F. (1996). Harry Stack Sullivan. Interpersonal theory and psychotherapy. Rouledge London and New York. New York.