ABSTRACT
As mentioned in Chapter 1, Harry Stack Sullivan’s life was shrouded with mystery and controversy. There are whole periods of his life for which there are no accounts of his activities or whereabouts. Yet, as Freud before him, it is clear from his writings that Sullivan draws on his own life experiences, especially interpersonal experience, as an important source for his theories about personality and human nature. While it is well beyond the scope of this book to write a detailed biography, a summary discussion of his early life experiences, his early professional training, and his later personal and professional life are in order. Readers interested in greater depth on this topic are referred to Helen Swick Perry’s (1982) Psychiatrist of America: The Life of Harry Stack Sullivan. Perry’s book is by far the most thoughtful and well researched biography to date. Perry edited five of the seven books that comprise the Sullivan opus and therefore knew his writings intimately. Her book not only thoroughly chronicles Sullivan’s life, but is an excellent example of a biography from the perspective of Sullivan’s interpersonal theory.
