INTERPERSONAL

THEORY
BIOGRAPHY
• Born in Norwich, New York on February 21, 1892.
• He placed emphasis on the power of an intimate relationship
during the preadolescent years.
• Sullivan was not comfortable with is sexuality and had
ambivalent feelings toward marriage.
• He went to Cornell University to become physicist but
eventually transferred to Chicago College of Medicine and
Surgery to pursue medicine.
• In 1921, he went to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Washington, DC,
where he became closely acquainted with William Alanson
White.
• On January 14, 1949, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in a
hotel in Paris.
 OVERVIEW OF
INTERPERSONAL
THEORY
“A person can never be
isolated from the
complex of interpersonal
relations in which the
person lives and has his
being.”
Importance of various
developmental stages
Interpersonal theory also centers on
the following:
Healthy human development rests on a person’s ability to
establish intimacy with another person.

Most crucial stage of development is preadolescence.

People achieve healthy development when they can

experience both intimacy and lust toward the same other
person.
TENSIONS
TENSIONS

• It is a potentiality
for action that may
or may not be
experienced in
awareness.
 Two types of
tensions:

NEEDS ANXIETY
NEEDS
• It usually results in productive actions.
• Brought on by biological imbalance
between a person and the physiochemical
environment
• Episodic
• Many of our needs stem from the
interpersonal situation.
➢General needs
➢Zonal needs
 ANXIETY

It leads to nonproductive or disintegrative behaviors.

It is originated through the process of empathy.

Chief disruptive force blocking the development of healthy interpersonal

relations among adults.
DYNAMISMS

typical pattern
of behavior
CATEGORIES AND DISJUNCTIVE ISOLATING CONJUNCTIVE

TYPES OF • Malevolence • Lust • Intimacy

DYNAMISMS • Self-system
PERSONIFICATIONS

Bad-Mother

Good-Mother

Me Personifications
 Eidetic
Personifications
imaginary traits that
they project onto
others
LEVELS OF
COGNITION Prototaxic Parataxic Syntaxic
STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT
• “Epochs”
• Conflicts of
adolescence
 STAGE SIGNIFICANT INTERPERSONAL IMPORTANT LEARNINGS CONCEPT
OTHERS PROCESS
Infancy Mothering one Tenderness Good mother/ bad The child begins the process of developing, but Sullivan
0 to 2 years mother, good-me/ bad-me did not emphasize the younger years to near the
importance as Freud.
Childhood Parents Protect security through Syntaxic language The development of speech and improved communication
2 to 6 years imaginary playmates is key in this stage.
Juvenile Playmates of equal Orientation toward living in Competition, compromise, The main focus as a juvenile is the need for playmates and
6 to 8 ½ years status the world of peers cooperation the beginning of healthy socialization.
Preadolescence Single friend Intimacy Affection and respect from The child’s ability to form a close relationship with a peer
8 ½ to 13 years peers is the major focus.

This relationship will later assist the child in feeling worthy

and likable.

Without this ability, forming the intimate relationships in

late adolescence and adulthood will be difficult.
Early Adolescence Several friends Intimacy and lust toward Balance of lust, intimacy The onset of puberty changes this need for friendship to a
13 to 15 years different persons and security operations need for sexual expression.

Self-worth will often become synonymous with sexual

attractiveness and acceptance by opposite sex peers.
Late Adolescence Lover Fusion of intimacy and lust Discovery of self and the The need for friendship and need for sexual expression
15 years and world outside of self get combined.
beyond
A long-term relationship becomes the primary focus.

Conflicts between parental control and self-expression are

commonplace and the overuse of selective inattention in
pervious stages ca result in a skewed perception of the
self and the world.
 INTERPERSONAL
THERAPY
Personality is shaped almost
entirely by the relationships one
has with other people.