Chapter 8 - Sullivan\'s Interpersonal Theory PDF

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Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory

Tenderness is the most basic interpersonal needs. A neonate develops the need for tenderness from its primary caregiver or the “mothering one.”

Overview of Interpersonal Theory

Infants express their need to receive tenderness via mouth (i.e. cooing, crying, or smiling). In response, the “mothering one” expresses her need to give tenderness via hands (i.e. touching, fondling, or holding).

Growing up, Harry Stack Sullivan had no friends of his age but did have a lot of imaginary playmates. At age 8 ½, he had a close friendship with Clarence Bellinger – thirteen years older than him. Most scholars believe that their relationship was at least homosexual in nature, but others beg to disagree.

General need There is a need for us to know the true sexuality of Harry Stack Sullivan. First, a personality theory is largely based upon the theorist’s life history. Second, his sexual orientation may have hindered him from gaining fame and acknowledgement from other scholars because, at that time, people believed that “physician heal thyself.” Harry Stack Sullivan was the first American to construct a comprehensive personality theory relying on a belief that people develop their own personality within a social context. His interpersonal theory emphasizes the importance of various developmental stages – infancy, childhood, the juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood. He believed that people can achieve healthy development when they are able to express intimacy and lust toward the same other person. However, anxiety hinders them from satisfying interpersonal relations with others at any age. Tensions To Sullivan, personality is an energy system . It generates energy in the form of tension (potential action) or energy transformation (action itself). Energy transformation converts tension into overt or covert behaviors and it is aimed to reduce anxiety. Tension is a potential for actions and may be expressed unconsciously or consciously. Sullivan recognized two types of tensions: needs and anxiety. Needs result in productive actions; whereas anxiety results to non-productive actions. 

Needs Needs arises from biological imbalance between a person and its physiochemical environment, both inside and outside of the organism. They are episodic. Once satisfied, it loses its power, but eventually regains afterwards. Although they are biologically based needs, most of them stem from interpersonal situation, and they are called interpersonal needs.

Zonal need

A need concerning the overall well-being of a person. A need arising from a particular area of a body.

While a person satisfies his general needs, he expends more energy than necessary. The excess energy, then, is transformed into consistent characteristics modes of behavior called dynamisms. 

Anxiety In contrast to the tension of needs, anxiety is disjunctive, more diffuse, vague, and calls forth no consistent actions for its relief. To Sullivan, anxiety is passed on from the mothering one to the infant through the process of empathy. Since infants do not have the capacity to reduce anxiety, the mothering one has no effective means to deal with it. Hence, any attempt by the mothering one to induce the anxiety of infants only satisfies their needs, but not the reduction of anxiety. Anxiety is the chief disruptive force blocking the development of healthy interpersonal relations. It is unique to other tensions as it maintains the status quo even to people’s overall detriment. Anxiety produces behaviors that (1) prevent people from learning from their mistakes, (2) keep people pursuing a childish wish for security, and (3) generally ensure that people will not learn from their experiences. Anxiety and loneliness are unique among all experiences because they are unwanted or undesirable. They are painful, and people prefer the state of euphoria, the complete lack of tension, to avoid experiencing anxiety. Anxiety is different from fear in such ways that (1) it stems from complex interpersonal situations and is vague, (2) it has no positive value, non-productive, and (3) it blocks the satisfaction of needs.

To Sullivan, “anxiety is a tension in opposition to the tension of needs and to action appropriate to their relief.”

other person satisfaction.

for

its

Lust is a powerful dynamism during adolescence for it often leads to a reduction of self-esteem. When rebuffed, it decreases self-worth and increases anxiety.

Energy Transformations When tensions are transformed into overt or covert actions, they are called energy transformations. They are aimed at satisfying needs and reducing anxieties. Dynamisms When energy transformations are organized as typical behavior patterns, similar to traits or habit, characterizing a person throughout their lifetime, they are called dynamisms. Dynamisms are of two classes: (1) related to zonal areas, and (2) related to tensions. Tension-related dynamisms are composed of three categories: (1) disjunctive – destructive patterns of behavior, (2) isolating – non-interpersonal relations patterns, and (3) conjunctive – beneficial behavior patterns. Malevolence

Intimacy

Disjunctive dynamism of evil and hatred, characterized by the feeling of living among one’s enemies. It developed around the age of 2 or 3 years when children expressing the need to receive tenderness are ignored, rebuffed, or met with anxiety and pain. Hence, children learn to withhold their expression and adopt a malevolent attitude to protect them. A dynamism that grows up from the need for tenderness but more specific and involves close relationship between two people of equal status. Intimacy must not be confused with sexual interest because it develops prior to puberty, ideally during preadolescence.

Lust

It is integrative for it tends to draw loving reactions from the other person/ Thus, reducing anxiety and loneliness. An isolating dynamism because it doesn’t require

Self-system

Lust often hinders intimate relationship, especially during early adolescence when it is easily confused with sexual attraction. A conjunctive dynamism arising also from interpersonal relations. However, it develops earlier at about age 12 or 18 months. It is a consistent pattern of behavior that maintains people’s interpersonal security by protecting them from anxiety through a built-in warning device that signals slight increase or decrease in anxiety. Because the primary task of self-system is to protect people against anxiety, it is “the primary stumbling block to favorable changes in personality” However, Sullivan believed that personality is dynamic and is open to changes at various stages of development. As self-system develops, we begin to form a consistent image of ourselves. Thus, any interpersonal experience that goes against our image threatens our security. When that happens, we defend ourselves against that interpersonal experience by means of security operations; the purpose is to reduce anxiety and insecurity. Sullivan called security operations as “a powerful

brake on personal and human progress.” Dissociation – happens when a person does not allow impulses, desires, and needs into awareness. Selective inattention – happens when a person refuses to see things that they don’t wish to see.

Levels of Cognition Levels of cognition refer to ways of perceiving, imagining, and conceiving. Prototaxic Level

Parataxic Level

Personifications Throughout the developmental stages of an individual, they acquire certain images of themselves and others called personifications. These images may be relatively accurate or grossly distorted. Bad-Mother, Good-Mother (others image) Bad-mother personification grows out of the infant’s experiences with the bad-nipple: that is, the nipple that does not satisfy hunger needs. The mothering one may be the mother, the father, a nurse, or anyone else involved in the nursing situation.

Syntaxic Level

After the bad-mother personification is formed. The infant will acquire a good-mother personification based on the tender and cooperative behaviors of the mothering one.

These are experiences that are difficult to describe or define because they are beyond conscious recall. These are experiences that are prelogical and usually result when a person assumes a causeand-effect relationship between two events that occur coincidentally. They can be communicated to others only in a distorted fashion, and is called parataxic distortion. These are experiences that are consensually validated, meaning two or more people agree with the meaning of words, and that can be symbolically communicated.

Stages of Development Me Personifications (self image) The bad-me personification is fashioned from experiences of punishment and disapproval the infants receive from their mothering one. The good-me personification results from infants’ experiences with reward and approval. The not-me personification results from sudden severe anxiety that forces infants to either dissociate or selectively inattend experiences related to that anxiety. This personification is also encountered by adults. When adults are struck by sudden severe anxiety, they are overcome by uncanny emotion (i.e. dreams, awe, horror, loathing, or a “chilly crawling” sensation).

Sullivan postulated seven crucial epoch or stages of development. According to him, personality changes take place during the transition threshold period from one stage to another. This makes some people indispensable throughout the development stages. Infancy Infancy begins at birth and continues until a child develops articulate or syntaxic speech, usually at about age 18 to 24 months. Sullivan believes an infant becomes human through tenderness received from the mothering one. The mothering one is undifferentiated wherein infants have a dual personification of them: the good mother and the bad mother.

Eidetic Personifications (imaginary) Eidetic personifications are unrealistic traits or imaginary friends that many children invent in order to protect their self-esteem. These imaginary friends are as significant as real playmates. Most adults, too, project onto others imaginary traits that are remnants of their previous relationships. This hinders communication and prevents people from functioning on the same level of cognition.

Apathy and somnolent detachment prevents the infant from dying by allowing them to fall asleep instead. Around mid-infancy, infants begin to learn how to communicate through languages starting with the parataxic level, autistic language, and ending with the syntaxic language. Childhood Childhood begins at about age 18 to 24 months until about age 5 or 6 years. This stage marks the advent of

syntaxic language and continues until the appearance of the need for playmates of equal status. During this stage, the mothering one is no longer undifferentiated. The child has learned to fuse her dual personification, but still remains on a parataxic level, and discern the other persons who previously fall under the “mothering one” image. At about the same time, children are fusing the mepersonifications into a single self-dynamism. The terms “good” and “bad” are now used to refer to their behaviors and not the level of anxiety. In contrast to the infancy stage, the relationship between the mother and the child is now more personal and less one-sided. The child is able to receive and give tenderness. Besides the parent, children have other significant relationship in this stage – the imaginary playmates. This eidetic friend enables children to have a safe, secure relationship that produces little anxiety. Sullivan referred to childhood as a period of rapid acculturation. Children learn to acquire languages, learn cultural patterns of cleanliness, toilet training, eating habits, sex-role expectancies, dramatization, and preoccupation. Dramatization refers to the child attempts to act or sound like an authority figures. Preoccupations refer to the child being occupied on an activity that has been proven useful or rewarding so they could avoid anxiety and fear-provoking situations. Malevolent attitude reaches its peak during preschool years. Children have come to realize that they are living in a hostile world and that freedom has its restrictions. With this, children evolve their selfdynamism to protect them from anxiety-inducing experiences and to stabilize their personality. However, self-system provides so much stability that changes in personality will become difficult.

At the end of this stage, children should have developed an orientation toward living for it readies them for deeper relationships to follow. Preadolescence 1/2

Preadolescence begins at about age 8 and ends with adolescence. This stage marks the intimacy with one particular person of the same gender, age, and status . All previous friendships are formed based on selfinterest. However, in this stage, a preadolescent takes genuine interest in the other person. Sullivan called this process as “the quiet miracle of preadolescence.” The outstanding characteristic of this stage is the capacity to love. The essence of friendship during this stage is of intimacy and love. To be liked by one’s peers is more important to the preadolescent than to be liked by teachers or parents. Because when you have a chum, you’re able to freely express yourself without being humiliated or embarrassed. Sullivan believed that preadolescent is the most untroubled and carefree time of life. Preadolescent experiences unselfish love without the complication of lust. Experiences during preadolescence are critical for the future development of personality. If children do not learn intimacy at this time, they are likely to be seriously stunted in later personality growth. Moreover, any mistakes made during earlier stages can be overcome during preadolescence. However, mistakes during preadolescence are difficult to overcome during later stages. Early adolescence Early adolescence begins with puberty and ends with the need for sexual love with one person. It is marked by the eruption of genital interest and the advent of lustful relationships.

Juvenile Era The juvenile era begins at about age 5 or 6 years until 1/2 about age 8 . This stage begins with the appearance of the need for playmates and ends when one found a single “chum” to satisfy their need for intimacy. During this stage, children should learn how to compete, compromise, and cooperate. Cooperation is a critical step in becoming socialized and is the most important task confronting children during this stage of development. Moreover, children associate themselves with others of equal standing. One-to-one relationships are rare, but if they do, it is built on convenience rather than genuine intimacy. It is also at this stage that children begins to discriminate themselves from others. They can distinguish adult from one another.

The need for intimacy, starting from preadolescence, continues during early adolescence but is now accompanied with lust. Aside from lust, anxiety and security also brings conflict to the young adolescent in three ways: (1) lust interferes with security operations because genital activity is ingrained with anxiety, embarrassment, and guilt; (2) intimacy threatens security as when young adolescent seek intimate friendships with other genders are accompanied with self-doubt, uncertainty, and ridicule from others; and (3) lust and intimacy are frequently in conflict during this stage. Sullivan believed that early adolescence is a turning point in personality development. The person either emerges from this stage in command of intimacy and lust dynamisms or faces serious interpersonal difficulties during future stages.

Late adolescence Late adolescence begins when young people are able to feel both lust and intimacy toward the same person, and it ends in adulthood when they establish a lasting love relationship. Late adolescence embraces the period of self-discovery. The outstanding characteristic of this stage is the fusion of intimacy and lust. Successful late adolescence includes a growing syntaxic mode wherein late adolescents are able to freely exchange ideas with others and having their opinions or beliefs validated or repudiated. People who were unsuccessful in the previous stages come into late adolescence with no intimate interpersonal relations, inconsistent patterns of sexual activity, and a great need to maintain security operations. They are often pressured into “falling in love.” However, only mature person has the capacity to love; others merely go through the motions of “in love” in order to maintain security. Adulthood The culmination of all stages is adulthood, a period when people can establish a love relationship with at least one significant other person. To Sullivan, adulthood is beyond the scope of interpersonal psychiatry. Mature adults are perceptive of other people’s anxiety needs, and security. Psychological Disorders Sullivan believed that all psychological disorders have an interpersonal origin and can be understood only with reference to the patient’s social environment. He also held that the deficiencies found in psychiatric patients are found in every person, but to a lesser degree. Most of Sullivan’s early therapeutic work was with schizophrenic patients. He identified two classes of schizophrenia: (1) organic causes that are beyond the study of interpersonal psychiatry, and (2) schizophrenic disorders grounded in situational factors. Dissociated reactions are characterized by loneliness, low self-esteem, the uncanny emotion, unsatisfactory relations with others, and everincreasing anxiety. People with dissociated reactions tend to build an elaborate self-system that blocks any experiences that threatens their security. Psychotherapy Sullivan based his therapeutic process on an effort to improve a patient’s relationship with others. The therapist serves as a participant-observer, becoming a part of interpersonal relationship with the patient and providing patient an opportunity to establish syntaxic communication with another human being.

Although the therapists are participant-observer, they should avoid getting personally involved with their patients. They do not place themselves on the same level as their patients; in fact, they try to convince their patients of their expert abilities. In conclusion, Sullivan was primarily concerned with understanding patients and helping them improve foresight, discover difficulties in interpersonal relations, and restore their ability to participate in consensually validated experiences. Related Research Sullivan’s interpersonal theory rests on the assumption that unhealthy personality development results from interpersonal conflicts and difficulties. The Pros and Cons of “Chums” for Girls and Boys Sullivan believes that friends help us develop into a healthy adult because they are our source of social support and comfort when times are tough. Moreover, having a chum is important for children as they do not have the same emotional coping mechanism as adults do. Researchers conducted a study to find out the harmful aspects of social support in childhood. They looked into the dynamics of co-rumination between friendships. Research finding shows that co-rumination between girls and boys are different. For girls, they have an increased risk of developing depression but better friendships. For boys, there’s no increase or decrease in developing depression but better friendships. Imaginary Friends Sullivan recognized the importance of having an imaginary friend, especially during the childhood stage, as it helps us build real relationships growing up. Researchers conducted a study to explore how children view imaginary friends in relation to their real friends. Findings show that relationships with imaginary friends were enjoyable at about the same l...