The Developmental Theories of Harry Stack Sullivan - Term Paper Example

The Developmental Theories of Harry Stack Sullivan This paper examines the life of Harry Stack Sullivan and the influence it had on his creation of the developmental theories, his understandings of tensions and anxieties. It also examines his understanding of personifications along with dynamisms and their relation to Sullivan’s seven interpersonal stages of development. Harry Sullivan led an isolated and a lonely childhood within a small community that was mainly involved in farming activities (Austrian, 2008). Due to his isolation along with loneliness, Sullivan however formed only one secure interpersonal relation with another boy who was five years older than he was (Sullivan, 2003). Sullivan also had unhappy experiences during his stay in public schools though he eventually enrolled into a medical school. He pursued his education and was finally able to become a physician (Engler, 2008). After getting his medical diploma, he had to wait for a period of six years before he could get a job at hospital known as St. Elizabeth in the Washington DC area. He found a job as a psychiatrist despite the fact that he had no formal training in the field. He won the accord of many people for his work on patients who were suffering from schizophrenia. He additionally managed to acquire the respect of several corporate though he had very few interpersonal relations with his friends (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). When developing the theory, Sullivan believed that this type of relationships had the powers of transforming immature preadolescents into individuals who were healthy psychologically. Sullivan also retained most of the concepts that had been put forward from the theories on personality created by Freud (Sullivan, 2003). Freud’s theories on psychosexual development emphasize on the conflicts that exist between the superegos and id of an individual (Engler, 2008). When developing his theories, Sullivan perceives anxiety as being present and resulting from an individual’s social interactions. When developing his theories, Sullivan incorporates defense mechanisms which can be used for the purpose of reducing social anxieties (Feist, 2005). Sullivan thought of personality in the concept of a system of energy that existed as tension or energy transformations (Engler, 2008). In other words, he perceived personality existing as a potentiality for performing certain actions or the actions being carried out. In his developmental theories, tensions are further subdivided into needs along with anxiety (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). According to Sullivan, a person’s general welfare or the specific zones that he is located relate to his needs. He classifies the general needs as physiological or interpersonal and describes the physiological needs as including items like food and the oxygen we require for survival (Austrian, 2008). He describes the interpersonal needs as including our need for intimacy along with tenderness when performing our daily activities (Sullivan, 2003). On the other hand, Sullivan describes anxiety as the conjunctive and unlike needs that require specific actions for them to be reduced. This according to him occurs due to the fact that anxiety is considered to be disjunctive while not calling for any consistent actions for the purpose of achieving relief (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). Sullivan additionally suggests that all toddlers are able to learn how to be anxious through their emphatic relationships with their mothers. He describes anxiety as the main force behind the disruptions that occur in interpersonal relationships (Austrian, 2008). In addition, he describes anxieties and tensions absence as a condition known as euphoria (Feist, 2005). However, in contrast to his definition, academics have defined the term euphoria as the act of having deep happiness (Sullivan, 2003). In referring to a typical behavioral pattern, Sullivan utilized the word dynamism, in order to relate to specific tensions or zones in our bodies (Engler, 2008). According to Sullivan, malevolence, the first dynamism, is the disjunctive dynamism involving evil along with hatred. He additionally suggests that malevolence involves the feeling that an individual is living among his enemies (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). In his developmental theories, Sullivan claims that children who grow to become malevolent experience a lot of difficulty when called upon to show tenderness or become intimate with their neighbors (Feist, 2005). Secondly, Sullivan describes the other dynamism as intimacy which he suggests is conjunctive. He states that this conjunctive dynamism is marked by the close and personal relations existing between to people who share equal statuses. According to him, intimacy enables the interpersonal development in a child while decreasing his feelings of anxiety along with loneliness (Sullivan, 2003). Thirdly, Sullivan identifies lust as a dynamism that isolates because it is mainly a need that is self-centered and can be additionally satisfied even when no intimate and personal relationships between people exist. He perceived intimacy as presupposing love and tenderness whereas lust had its base on sexual pleasures requiring nobody else for the purpose of achieving satisfaction (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). Finally, Sullivan identified self-systems as being the dynamism that was most inclusive. He described self-systems as those behavioral patterns that aid us in protecting ourselves against anxiety while maintaining our security when socializing with other people (Engler, 2008). According to him, the systems are conjunctive since their main aim involves protecting ourselves from anxiety and they also tend to stifle changes in our personalities (Austrian, 2008). He suggested that inconsistent experiences in relation to our self-systems usually threaten security therefore calling for the use of various security operations. These security operations should comprise of behaviors that have been designed for the purpose of reducing the existing tensions between different people (Feist, 2005). Sullivan identifies an example of such a security operation as dissociation from the experiences that contribute to blocking our awareness. He also gives the example of selective inattention that involves the blocking of barely certain experiences that reduce our awareness levels (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). In his developmental theories, Sullivan describes several forms of personifications we should adopt in our interpersonal relations (Austrian, 2008). According to Sullivan, he defines personification as the act of people acquiring certain images concerning themselves and others in the course of passing through the different developmental stages in life (2003). He describes the personification of a bad-mother as arising out of a child’s experience with nipples that do not satisfy his or her hunger needs (Feist, 2005). He suggests that all children usually experience this form of personification though their actual mothers may show love and their ability to nurture them well (Engler, 2008). Sullivan additionally suggests young children usually acquire the personification of a good-mother when they have become mature. This happens through their recognition of their mothers tender along with cooperative behaviors as they grow up. However, Sullivan suggests that the two personifications usually combine forming complex along with contrasting images of their real mothers (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). Sullivan states that young children usually acquire three types of “Me” personifications which include personifications like good-me, bad-me and not-me (Austrian, 2008). He suggests that the bad-me personification arises from experiences involving punishment along with the disapproval that young children have encountered in the past (Feist, 2005). On the other hand, Sullivan suggests that the good-me personification arises from the previous experiences that children have encountered where they were rewarded and approved (Engler, 2008). He also suggests that the not-me personification allows individuals to dissociate themselves from experiences that are associated to anxiety (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). Sullivan finally describes personifications as eidetic which involves the creation of imaginary traits in an individual which are projected onto others. He gave the example of the playmates young children have who are imaginary and provide safe and secure relationships with them despite the fact that they do not actually exist (Feist, 2005). In perceiving things when creating his developmental theories, Sullivan described three cognition levels which included the parataxic, prototaxic along with the syntaxic levels. In describing the prototaxic level, he suggested that they involved experiences which people found hard to explain to others (Sullivan, 2003). He stated that newborn children experience images at this level though grownups too usually experience them momentarily and are still incapable of communicating them (Engler, 2008). In describing the parataxic level, he suggested they involved experiences that are mainly prelogical and almost impossible to communicate accurately to other people. For instance, Sullivan claims that most erroneous assumptions that people make on the causes along with effects of certain events are distortions that are parataxic (Austrian, 2008). The syntaxic level is described by Sullivan as the experiences which are easily communicable and suggests that children reach this level when they attain the age of 12 to 18 months. It occurs at this period because they have started understand the meaning of different words as the other people do (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). According to Sullivan, interpersonal developments along with personality changes take place during the transitions occurring as an individual moves from infancy into becoming a mature adult (Austrian, 2008). He described these stages as the stage of infancy, childhood, becoming a juvenile, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence and finally adulthood (Feist, 2005). Sullivan describes infancy as the period beginning when one is born to the period he develops syntaxic language after about one year (Sullivan, 2003). It is during this period that children receive tenderness from their mothers while learning anxiety from their mothers through their emphatic linkages (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). Sullivan suggested that since anxiety could increase till it becomes terrifying; it could be controlled by having some in-built apathy along with somnolent detachments that may allow the child to fall asleep (Engler, 2008). Sullivan describes children as utilizing autistic languages during infancy when on either the prototaxic or parataxic levels (Feist, 2005). Sullivan describes childhood as the period lasting from the start of syntaxic languages until the child develops the need for having playmates that are equal in status (Engler, 2008). During this period, according to him, children continue having primary interpersonal relations with their mothers who they now perceive differently from other people who assist in caring for them (Austrian, 2008). This stage takes place from the time a child attains the age of one to five years. He suggests that children who have entered the juvenile era greatly require friends with whom they share equal statuses (Sullivan, 2003). This era according to Sullivan begins when the urge for an equal friend develops until the time they develop the need for having intimate relationships with them. He additionally suggests that it is during this period that the children should effectively learn different issues on competing, compromising and cooperating (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). Sullivan believes that with these abilities along with orientations towards living could effectively help children in developing intimacy which becomes the main dynamism of the preadolescence stage. This stage takes place from the time a child attains the age of six to eight years (Feist, 2005). The preadolescence development stage is the most important stage according to Sullivan. This is mainly because any mistakes that the children had committed in the previous stages can be rectified in this stage although the problems encountered are quite difficult to overcome in their future (Sullivan, 2003). The stage starts from the time when the child desires having a single and close peer until the period he or she reaches puberty. In case a child is not able to learn about intimacy during this stage then he or she will most likely develop problems when socializing with his or her potential partners for sex in the later stages of his life (Engler, 2008). This stage takes place from the time a child attains the age of nine to twelve years. Early adolescence brings about the lust dynamism and signals the start of the early adolescence stage (Austrian, 2008). According to Sullivan, the developments that occur in this stage are marked by coexistences of intimacy with a close peer of a similar gender and the development of sexual interests in other persons from the opposite sex (Feist, 2005). Sullivan additionally suggests that children who may be having no previous capacity for engaging in intimate activities, they usually have confusion in distinguishing between lust and love (Engler, 2008). This in turn implies that the children may end up developing sexual relations with their desired partners that lack true intimacy between the two of them. This stage takes place from the time a child attains the age of thirteen to seventeen years (Sullivan, 2003). Subsequently, during late adolescence which begins when the child attains the age of sixteen years, the child is able to have feelings of being intimate and having lust for an individual. The period is mainly characterized by sexual activities that have stable patterns while their syntaxic modes grow (Engler, 2008). Sullivan suggested that it is during this period that the young adults learn how they should live within the mature world. This stage takes place from the time a child attains the age of eighteen to twenty two years (Austrian, 2008). The final development stage suggested by Sullivan is the adulthood stage which comes after an individual is done with being considered a late adolescent (Feist, 2005). According to him, it is the period whereby an individual is able to create a stable relationship with another important individual in his or her life. It is also in this period according to Sullivan that a person develops consistent patterns of perceiving the world (Sullivan, 2003). This stage is said to occur among individuals who have surpassed twenty three years of age and involves their struggles aimed at achieving financial security, family and good careers (Austrian, 2008). According to Sullivan, individuals who have succeeded in the previous stages of adolescence are able to socialize easily in their adulthood (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). Sullivan suggests that individuals have interpersonal origins that are only comprehendible by referencing an individual’s communal environment (Austrian, 2008). He began the concept of a therapist being considered a participating observer who creates interpersonal relationships with his or her patients (Engler, 2008). He suggested that the therapists are in turn responsible for comprehending their patients while helping them to develop foresight, restoring their abilities to operate on syntaxic levels and improving their interpersonal relationships (Sullivan, 2003). The developmental theories created by Sullivan have however been criticized due to their recent loss in popularity (Feist, 2005). Critics have rated the theory low in their falsifiability tests because the theory has a low ability of generating research. The theories have also been criticized for their inability of organizing knowledge and guiding an individual’s action. These critics have additionally rated it as having average self-consistency and low prudence (Palombo, Bendicsen & Koch, 2009). Since Sullivan perceived human personality as formations of interpersonal relations, his theories are rated highly in social influences but lowly on biological influences (Austrian, 2008). The theories are additionally rated highly on determinants which are unconscious and average on optimism, causality along with free choices though low in terms of uniqueness (Feist, 2005). In conclusion, the paper examined Sullivan’s life and its influence on his theory, his understanding of tensions/anxieties, personifications and dynamisms as they relate to the seven interpersonal developmental stages. It also includes the views of critics to the theories developed by Sullivan. References Austrian, S. G, 2008, Developmental Theories through the Life Cycle, Columbia University Press, New York. Engler, B, 2008, Personality Theories: An Introduction, Cengage Learning, London. Feist, G. J, 2005, Theories Of Personality, McGraw-Hill, New York. Palombo, J, Bendicsen, H & Koch, B. J, 2009, Guide To Psychoanalytic Developmental Theories, Springer, New York. Sullivan, H. S, 2003, The Interpersonal Theory Of Psychiatry, Routledge, New York. Read More