Reflection about Harry Stack Sullivan - An about Theories of Personality, perfect for 1st and 2nd year college PDF

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A class note about Theories of Personality, perfect for 1st and 2nd year college students....

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 How did Sullivan's personal life influence his views on personality?  Do you agree with his rather optimistic view of human personality and personality disorder and psychopathology? Explain. ANSWER: Harry Stack Sullivan is a psychiatrist and the founder of Interpersonal Psychiatry in America. He developed a theory based on interpersonal relationships. As a child, he was lonely and isolated. During adolescence, he suffered from schizophrenic episode. It is the sudden change in personality and behavior, which happens when people who have it lose touch with reality. Their behaviors are strange and shocking. As an adult, he experienced a relationship that is superficial meaning that physical looks is more important.He also experienced ambivalent relationship wherein there’s a coexistence of opposing emotions and desires towards the other person that creates an uncertainty about being in the relationship. In addition, he never came out of the closet because homosexuality is considered a.crime in America that time. These personal experiences seem to have had a marked effect on Sullivan's views in later life. He view personality as characteristics determined by the relationship between each individual and the people in his environment. For Sullivan, human are unproblematic. He saw the human nature in a positive way. He believed that interpersonal relations is the basis of personality. He believed that social factors are big contribution to the development of personality. Personality characteristics are determined by the relationship between each individual and the people in his environment. He avoided thinking of personality as a unique, individual, unchanging entity and preferred to define it as a manifestation of the interaction between people. Basically, he blame everything in the environment. In addition, he believed that we exist somewhere between the states of absolute euphoria and absolute tension. Absolute euphoria is a state of utter well-being. Tension is the alternative state to euphoria, and tension is very much a part of our lives. It arises from needs (biological and cultural) and anxiety. An example given about this is an infant and its mothering need which is an interpersonal relationship. When needs are met by the mother, the infant will find view interpersonal relationships as significant for survival and psychological development. While anxiety can be satisfied through interpersonal security. It can be obtained through relationships that provide the child with tenderness and empathy. I disclose that I am neutral with Harry Sullivan’s view of human personality, personality disorder and psychopathology. In Sullivan's view, the child's sense of self evolves gradually during the first year of life. If this caretaker is loving and meeting the infant's needs, the infant has a generalized feeling of “good me.” In opposite, if the caretaker is anxious and tense, the infant generalized feeling of “bad me.” I believe that childhood play a big role in our life. But during that phase, our perception is not yet fully developed. We don’t understand things to what they really are. Anxiety during childhood can affect our life later on if we experience trauma. Personality is what makes us who we are and I believed that we can’t blame it all on environment. We are born with a blueprint and that is what makes us unique. Development is a

continuous process and during our school age or the period where we interact with people outside the family, then I can say that how we deal with people has will make an impact on our personality because we explore things at this age and being influenced is inevitable. Moreover, I agree somehow that how we interact with others has contribution on our mental health. Sometimes, a disorder can be formed because of our toxic environment. Toxic environment makes us mentally unhealthy than can lead to mental disorder....