The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy

SUMMARY The author summarizes major contributions of Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949) that lie outside his well-known contributions to the interpersonal school of psychoanalysis. She describes him first as a tragic hero who tried to depathologize homosexuality in psychiatry and in Selective Service screening procedures–a role immortalized in John Fisher's 1996 play, Combat! She also interprets features of his “personality” in light of his “theorem of reciprocal emotion.” She then explores ways that he haunts the family psychology and therapy literature as a “ghost” who influenced Nathan Ackerman, Carl Whitaker, Don Bloch, Don Jackson, Robin Skynner, Salvador Minuchin, and R. D. Laing; and as a “buried ancestor” whose ideas pervade the family therapy literature. Finally, she summarizes his role as “muse” to pastoral theologians, emphasizing Sullivan's reciprocal influence on Anton T. Boisen in their explorations of the role of concealment and cosmic dramas in psychosis; his life-changing effect on O. H. Mo...

Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949): Hero, Ghost, and Muse

A biographical action research approach was used to understand managers' behavior and foster their development. While taking part in a team study of executives' life histories, the author developed a theoretical framework of managerial style and personality. This approach was used to determine the underlying forces within each subject's character shaped by that person `s life history and environment and reinforced by organizational values and norms. The key principles of the biographical method are the following: gather multiple perspectives, use multiple methods, and combine research and service. Applications of the framework and principles in studying and consulting to executives are described, with details of the case study of one subject highlighted. The dilemmas of biographical action research involve resulting emotional repercussions, reporting data accurately without compromising subjects' anonymity, and balancing service to clients with the scientific pursuit of knowledge. The benefits include dee...

Using Biographical Methods to Understand Managerial Style and Character

This paper is the first in a planned series which aims to articulate and synthesise the persons in relation perspective in counselling and psychotherapy, drawing together the contributions of the philosopher John Macmurray (1891–1976), the psychotherapist Ian Suttie (1889–1935), and the psychoanalyst Ronald Fairbairn (1889–1965). The present paper introduces the persons in relation perspective, derived from Macmurray’s work. It outlines the historical and cultural context leading to the emergence of modernism, and the response of personalism. It summarises John Macmurray’s life and philosophy, focussing on his account of knowledge, its relation to the senses and the emotions, and his view of persons, society and religion. The paper goes on to develop a hypothesis about the rise of counselling and psychotherapy in Britain, linking it to the decline of religion, the conflict between individualism and collectivism, and the re-emergence of the persons in relation perspective. It concludes by posing challenges for the personcentred and psychodynamic orientations, and for counselling and psychotherapy as a whole.

The Persons in Relation Perspective

Harry Stack Sullivan was born on February 21, 1892 in Norwich, New York, the only child of Timothy Sullivan and Ella Stack Sullivan. Timothy was a laborer working on Ella’s father’s farm when they married in 1885. Her family felt that she was marrying beneath her status. Timothy and Ella had previously lost two boys, both born in the month of February, one in 1888 and the other in 1890. The first baby died in convulsions due to cholera infantum. The second baby also died in convulsions due to entero colitis (Perry, 1982) . Given these circumstances, it is likely that Harry’s mother felt a special sense of protectiveness over him. His background was Irish-American and Catholic. His mother and her family were the most important figures in his upbringing, while knowledge of his father and his father’s family is scant. He eventually came to believe that his mother actively kept him apart from his father, and it was only after her death, when Sullivan was in his thirties, that he was able to come to know his father. The one way that Sullivan’s father remained involved and influential was in his insistence on regular church attendance. Exposure to the sexual asceticism taught by the church later impressed Sullivan as posing problems for young adolescents. Being an only child and growing up without a connection to his father, Sullivan was led to theorize that all boys who are only children had problems with their fathers (Perry, 1982).

Patrick Mullahy

Papers

The contributions of Harry Stack Sullivan : a symposium on interpersonal theory in psychiatry and social science