ABSTRACT
Sullivan was in part known for his treatment of schizophrenic patients and his directorship of Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Maryland. The treatment that Sullivan, Fromm-Reichmann, and Searles offered occurred in a therapeutic community, and this type of community arrangement is one that was pioneered by Sullivan and his colleagues. In addition to the therapeutic community, there was also intense individual psychotherapeutic treatment that occurred. Sullivan specifies periods of development where needs states can be differentiated. If we liken psychoanalysis to modern physics, Sullivan sees himself as a field theorist, whereas Freudian thought is seen as Newtonian in origin. The title of interpersonalist is not a misnomer for Sullivan, since he thought that “A personality can never be isolated from the complex of interpersonal relations in which the person lives and has his being”.
