Posted by Sigismund on August 26, 2008, at 1:39:52
In reply to Re: Sigismund - Harry Stack Sullivan, posted by Sigismund on August 26, 2008, at 1:26:40
From somewhere else.......
Treating Schizophrenia
Sullivan believed personality and personality disturbance were a function of interpersonal relations. Unlike Freud, he insisted later periods, especially adolescence, were as critical as the first five years for personality development. Since he believed mental illnesses were a "problem-solving" reaction to an unbearable situation, Sullivan insisted schizophrenia, no matter how bizarre, could be treated. He is recognized as the psychiatrist who removed schizophrenia from the class of incurable disorders, unlike Freud, who believed schizophrenia was untreatable because his "talking therapy" was useless with people who could not communicate rationally. Sullivan's contributions to the technique of clinical interviewing pioneered efforts to understand and help the severely disturbed. Sullivan was also the first to suggest that the therapist could be a greater participant in helping the patient cope with his behavior, instead of merely striving to understand it. His orientation deemphasized biology and sexuality in explaining human behavior, and his new theory of the importance of interpersonal relations revolutionized psychiatry by broadening its relevance to social problems and helped to bring it into the modern age.
Source:Helen Swick Perry, Psychiatrist of America, the Life of Harry Stack Sullivan (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1982).
>Since he believed mental illnesses were a "problem-solving" reaction to an unbearable situationInteresting hey?
Whaddya think?
You mean life has purpose?
poster:Sigismund
thread:847724
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20080810/msgs/848349.html