Psychodynamic Theory

1.5 SULLIVAN’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY (Including Horney and

Sullivan)
Harry Stack Sullivan was born in Norwich, near New York and died in 1949 in
Paris. He received his medical degree in 1917 and served with the armed forces
in World War I. In 1922 he met William Alanson White, a leader in American
Neuropsychiatry. Then he conducted investigations in Schizophrenia that
established his reputation as a clinician. Although Sullivan was trained in
psychoanalysis in the United States, but soon drifted from the specific
psychoanalytic beliefs while retaining much of the core concepts of Freud.

Interestingly, Sullivan placed a lot of focus on both the social aspects of personality
and cognitive representations. Sullivan called his approach an interpersonal theory
of psychiatry because he believed psychiatry is the study of what goes on between
people. This is in contrast to Freud’s paradigm that focuses on what goes on
inside people. Freud’s is a drive model while Sullivan’s is an interpersonal model.

For Sullivan, relationships are primary. Personality is a hypothetical entity that

cannot be observed or studied apart from interpersonal situations wherein it is
made manifest. The only way personality can be known is through the medium
of interpersonal interactions. Therefore the unit of study is not the individual
person, but the interpersonal situation. Sullivan’s theory can be explained under
three main headings:
• Dynamics of personality
• Enduring aspect of personality
• Developmental epochs

1.5.1 Dynamics of Personality

Sullivan conceptualised personality as an energy system, with energy existing
either as tension (potentiality for action) or as energy transformations (the actions
themselves). He further divided tensions into needs and anxiety.

Needs can relate either to the general well-being of a person or to specific zones,
such as the mouth or genitals. General needs can be either physiological, such as
food or oxygen, or they can be interpersonal, such as tenderness and intimacy.

Unlike needs, which are conjunctive and call for specific actions to reduce them
anxiety is disjunctive and calls for no consistent actions for its relief. All infants
learn to be anxious through the empathic relationship that they have with their
mothering one. Sullivan called anxiety the chief disruptive force in interpersonal
relations. A complete absence of anxiety and other tensions is called euphoria.
Sullivan recognised three levels of cognition, or ways of perceiving things
• Prototaxic
• Parataxic and
• Syntaxic.
Prototaxic level contains the primitive experience of infants. Experiences that
are impossible to put into words or to communicate to others are called prototaxic.
Newborn infants experience images mostly on a prototaxic level.

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Theories of Personality-I Experiences that are prelogical and nearly impossible to accurately communicate
to others are called parataxic. Included in these are erroneous assumptions about
cause and effect, which Sullivan termed parataxic distortions.

Experiences that can be accurately communicated to others are called syntaxic.

Children become capable of syntaxic language at about 12 to 18 months of age
when words begin to have the same meaning for them that they do for others.

Although all the three types of experiences are found in the whole life span of
the individual but in the life of a normal person the syntaxic experiences remain
dominated.

1.5.2 Enduring Aspects of Personality

Sullivan, in his theory of personality emphasised those aspects of personality
which are enduring in nature. Among them, following three are main enduring
aspects:
• Dynamism
• Personification
• Self-system

1.5.2.1 Dynamism
In Sullivan’s theory dynamism is a term which is considered equivalent to traits.
That is, Sullivan used the term dynamism to refer to a typical pattern of behaviour.
Two types of dynamism are distinguished by him
i) dynamisms related to specific zones of the body and
ii) dynamism related to tensions.
The first type of dynamism leads to the satisfaction of particular bodily needs
like hunger, thirst.
The second type of dynamism is divided in three subtypes
1) disjunctive dynamism,
2) conjunctive dynamism, and
3) isolating dynamism.
The disjunctive dynamism of evil and hatred is called malevolence, defined by
Sullivan as a feeling of living among one’s enemies. Those children who become
malevolent have much difficulty giving and receiving tenderness or being intimate
with other people.

The conjunctive dynamism marked by a close personal relationship between

two people of equal status is called intimacy. Intimacy facilitates interpersonal
development while decreasing both anxiety and loneliness

In contrast to both malevolence and intimacy, lust is an isolating dynamism. That

is, lust is a self-centered need that can be satisfied in the absence of an intimate
interpersonal relationship. In other words, although intimacy presupposes
tenderness or love, lust is based solely on sexual gratification and requires no
other person for its satisfaction.
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1.5.2.2 Self-System Psychodynamic Theory
(Including Horney and
The most inclusive of all dynamisms is the self-system, or that pattern of Sullivan)
behaviours that protects us against anxiety and maintains our interpersonal
security. The self system is a conjunctive dynamism, but because its primary job
is to protect the self from anxiety, it tends to stifle personality change. Experiences
that are inconsistent with our self-system threaten our security and necessitate
our use of security operations, which consist of behaviours designed to reduce
interpersonal tensions. One such security operation is dissociation, which includes
all those experiences that we block from awareness. Another is selective
inattention, which involves blocking only certain experiences from awareness.

1.5.2.3 Personifications
Through social interactions and our selective attention or inattention, we develop
what Sullivan called Personifications of ourselves and others. While defenses
can often help reduce anxiety, they can also lead to a misperception of reality.

Sullivan shifts his focus away from Freud and more toward a cognitive approach
to understanding personality. These personifications are mental images that allow
us to better understand ourselves and the world.
There are three basic ways we see ourselves that Sullivan called
• the bad-me,
• the good-me and
• the not-me.
The bad- me represents those aspects of the self that are considered negative and
are therefore hidden from others and possibly even the self. The anxiety that we
feel is often a result of recognition of the bad part of ourselves, such as when we
recall an embarrassing moment or experience guilt from a past action.

The good me is everything we like about ourselves. It represents the part of us

we share with others and that we often choose to focus on because it produces no
anxiety.

The not-me, represents all those things that are so anxiety provoking that we can
not even consider them a part of us. Doing so would definitely create anxiety
which we spend our lives trying to avoid. The not-me is kept out of awareness
by pushing it deep into the unconscious.

1.5.2.4 Developmental Epochs

Another similarity between Sullivan’s theory and that of Freud’s theory is the
belief that childhood experiences determine, to a large degree, the adult
personality. And, throughout our childhood, mother plays the most significant
role. Unlike Freud, however, he also believed that personality can develop in
adolescence and even well into adulthood. He called the stages in his
developmental theory Epochs.

He believed that we pass through these stages in a particular order but the timing
of such is dictated by our social environment. Much of the focus in Sullivan’s
theory revolved around the conflicts of adolescence. As we can see from the
chart below, three stages were devoted to this period of development and much
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Theories of Personality-I of the problems of adulthood, according to Sullivan, arise from the turmoil of
our adolescence. Sullivan saw interpersonal development as taking place over
seven stages, from infancy to mature adulthood. Personality changes are most
likely during transitions between stages.

Table : The developmental epochs of Sullivan

Infancy: Birth to 1 year From birth to about age one, the child begins
the process of developing, but Sullivan did
not emphasise the younger years to near the
importance as Freud

Childhood: 1 year – 5 years The development of speech and improved

communication is key in this stage of
development

Juvenile ages: 6-8 years The main focus as a juvenile is the need for
playmates and the beginning of healthy
socialisation

Pre adolescence: 9-12 years During this stage, the child’s ability to form
a close relationship with a peer 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: 13-17 years The onset of puberty changes this need for
friendship to a need for sexual expression.
Self worth will often become synonymous
with sexual attractiveness and acceptance by
opposite sex peers

Late adolescence: 18-22/23 years The need for friendship and need for sexual
expression get combined during late
adolescence. In this stage a long term
relationship becomes the primary focus.
Conflicts between parental control and self-
expression are commonplace and the overuse
of selective inattention in previous stages can
result in a skewed perception of the self and
the world.

Adulthood : 23 years and above The struggles of adulthood include financial

security, career, and family. With success
during previous stages, especially those in
the adolescent years, adult relationships and
much needed socialisation become more
easy to attain. Without a solid background,
interpersonal conflicts that result in anxiety
become more commonplace.
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1.5.2.5 Evaluation Psychodynamic Theory
(Including Horney and
Despite Sullivan’s insights into the importance of interpersonal relations, his Sullivan)
theory of personality and his approach to psychotherapy have lost popularity in
recent years. In summary, his theory rates very low in falsifiability, low in its
ability to generate research, and average in its capacity to organise knowledge
and to guide action. In addition, it is only average in self-consistency and low in
parsimony.

Because Sullivan saw human personality as largely being formed from

interpersonal relations, his theory rates very high on social influences and very
low on biological ones. In addition, it rates high on unconscious determinants;
average on free choice, optimism, and causality; and low on uniqueness.

Self Assessment Questions

1) Critically evaluate Sullivan’s theory of personality.
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2) What are the main enduring aspects of personality proposed by Sullivan?
Discuss the concept of personification in detail.
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3) What are the main developmental stages in Sullivan’s theory? How do
they differ from Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual development?
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1.6 LET US SUM UP

All the theories in psychology that see human functioning based upon the
interaction of drives and forces within the person fall under psychodynamic theory.
Freud’s psychoanalysis was the original psychodynamic theory. Freud’s
Psychoanalytic theory is described under the three main headings: structure of 23
Theories of Personality-I personality, dynamics of personality and development of personality. In order to
describe the structure of personality two models have been developed by Freud:
topographical model and dynamic or structural model. Freud’s topographical
model represents his configuration of the mind. Freud conceived human mind in
terms of three different levels of consciousness. The current thoughts about which
we are aware are in the conscious. Beyond the conscious is the preconscious,
which is immediately not accessible but can be accessed. Beyond the preconscious
lies the unconscious, of which we are not aware. It contains the repressed desires
and impulses. Under the dynamic or structural model Freud maintained that
personality consists of three structures, namely, id ego and superego. Id is that
part of the personality which deals with the immediate gratification of primitive
needs, sexual desires and aggressive impulses. It follows the pleasure principle.
Ego develops out of id. It works on reality principle. Superego deals with the
ideals. It represents the societal demands and ideals. Under the dynamics of
personality Freud maintained that human organism is a complex system in which
lies both physiological energy as well as psychic energy. He stated that the instincts
are the ultimate cause of all behaviour. Anxiety comes from realistic sources in
the external world and conflict within one’s own mind. A common conflict is
when the id desires something that ego and/or superego do not agree with. An
important function of the ego is to operate defense mechanisms. Psychological
defenses are the way we deal with anxiety. Denial, repression, regression, reaction
formation, projection, rationalisation, intellectualisation, displacement, and
displacement are some of the important defence mechanisms. Freud described
human development as passing through a series of stages based on the different
ways we obtain bodily pleasure at different stages. Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual
Development are completed in a predetermined sequence and can result in either
successful completion of a healthy personality or can result in failure, leading to
an unhealthy personality. The stages of psychosexual development are anal stage,
oral stage, phallic stage, latency stage, and genital stage.

Horney reformulated Freudian thought and presented a holistic, humanistic

perspective that emphasised cultural and social influences, human growth, and
the achievement of self-actualisation. Horney’s theory can be explained under
the following three main headings: basic anxiety, neurotic needs, and measures
to cope with anxiety. Basic anxiety is an important theoretical concept in the
Horney’s theory of personality. When parents’ behaviour toward their child
indifference, disparaging, an erratic, the child feels insecure – a feeling termed
by Horney as basic anxiety. From her clinical experience, Horney discerned ten
particular patterns of neurotic needs. They are based on things that we all need,
but they have become distorted in several ways by the difficulties of some people’s
lives. Horney clustered neurotic needs into three broad coping strategies. The
first strategy is compliance, also known as the moving-toward strategy or the
self- effacing solution. The second broad coping strategy is aggression, also called
the moving-against and the expansive solution. Here, children’s first reaction to
parental indifference is anger, or basic hostility. The final coping strategy is
withdrawal, often labeled the moving-away-from or resigning solution. As far as
her theory of self is concerned Horney shared Abraham Maslow’s view that self-
actualisation is something that all people strived for. By “self” she understood
the core of one’s own being and potential. According to Horney we can have two
views of our self: the “real self” and the “ideal self”. The neurotic person’s self is
split between an idealised self and a real self. As a result, neurotic individuals
24 feel that they somehow do not live up to the ideal self.
Sullivan, on the other hand, placed a lot of focus on both the social aspects of Psychodynamic Theory
(Including Horney and
personality and cognitive representations. Sullivan called his approach an Sullivan)
interpersonal theory of psychiatry For Sullivan, relationships are primary.
Personality is a hypothetical entity that cannot be observed or studied apart from
interpersonal situations wherein it is made manifest. The only way personality
can be known is through the medium of interpersonal interactions. Therefore
the unit of study is not the individual person, but the interpersonal situation.
Sullivan’s theory can be explained under three main headings: dynamics of
personality, enduring aspect of personality, and developmental epochs. Sullivan
conceptualised personality as an energy system, with energy existing either as
tension (potentiality for action) or as energy transformations (the actions
themselves). He further divided tensions into needs and anxiety. Sullivan called
anxiety the chief disruptive force in interpersonal relations. Sullivan recognised
three levels of cognition, or ways of perceiving things—prototaxic, parataxic
and syntaxic. Prototaxic level contain the primitive experience of infants.
Experiences that are prelogical and nearly impossible to accurately communicate
to others are called parataxic. Experiences that can be accurately communicated
to others are called syntaxic. Sullivan, in his theory of personality, emphasised
those aspects of personality which are enduring in nature. These are dynamism,
self-system, and personification. In Sullivan’s theory dynamism is a term which
is considered equivalent to traits. The most inclusive of all dynamisms is the
self-system, or that pattern of behaviours that protects us against anxiety and
maintains our interpersonal security. Through social interactions and our selective
attention or inattention, we develop what Sullivan called Personifications of
ourselves and others. The personifications are mental images that allow us to
better understand ourselves and the world. There are three basic ways we see
ourselves that Sullivan called the bad-me, the good-me and the not-me. Like
Freud, Sullivan also believed that we pass through several developmental stages
in a particular order. He called the stages in his developmental theory Epochs.
Seven developmental epochs have been described Sullivan.

1.7 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) What are the main assumptions of psychodynamic theory of personality?
On what account Freud’s theory can termed as the leading psychodynamic
theory?
2) Discuss the main features of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.
3) Explain the structure of personality from psychoanalytic point of view.
4) Describe the stages of psychosexual development. What role they play in
developing the adult personality?
5) What do you mean by defense mechanisms? How they tend to reduce
anxiety? Illustrate your answer with suitable examples.
6) Explain the main features of Karen Horney’s theory of personality.
7) On what account does Horney’s theory of personality differ from Freud’s
theory of personality?
8) Discuss the importance of neurotic needs in the formulation of Horney’s
theory of personality.
9) Describe the salient features of Sullivan’s personality theory.
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