Harry Stack Sullivan (February 21, 1892, Norwich, New York – January 14, 1949, Paris, France) was a U.S. psychiatrist whose work in psychoanalysis was based on direct and verifiable observation (versus the more abstract conceptions of the unconscious mind favored by Sigmund Freud and his disciples).
Sullivan was a child of Irish immigrants and allegedly grew up in an anti-Catholic town. This resulted in social isolation which might have been the ...
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Harry Stack Sullivan (February 21, 1892, Norwich, New York – January 14, 1949, Paris, France) was a U.S. psychiatrist whose work in psychoanalysis was based on direct and verifiable observation (versus the more abstract conceptions of the unconscious mind favored by Sigmund Freud and his disciples).
Sullivan was a child of Irish immigrants and allegedly grew up in an anti-Catholic town. This resulted in social isolation which might have been the incentive for his later interest in psychiatry. He received his medical degree in Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery in 1917.
Along with Clara Thompson, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, Erik H. Erikson, and Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Sullivan laid the groundwork for understanding the individual based on the network of relationships in which he or she is enmeshed. He developed a theory of psychiatry based on interpersonal relationships where cultural forces are largely responsible for mental illnesses (see also social psychiatry). In his words, one...
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