"The Full Story by No Means All Told": Harry Stack Sullivan at Sheppard-Pratt, 1922-1930.

Abstract

Harry Stack Sullivan (1892-1949) is well known for his interpersonal theory of mental illness, but little is known about how he actually worked as a clinician with patients. This article examines a pivotal time in Sullivan's career at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Baltimore from 1922 to 1930. Using clinical records as well as published writings, the article focuses on 2 crucial issues that are not fully addressed either in Sullivan's published writings or in past studies of him: first, his treatment as a gay psychiatrist of patients who he believed had homosexual orientations; second, the intellectual and institutional paradigm in psychiatry that influenced his practice. Finally, this article addresses the circumstances surrounding Sullivan's departure from Sheppard-Pratt, suggesting psychiatry's limited confrontation with the social stigmatization of homosexuality.

The “American” Psychoanalytic Hospital in the Making

“…But some-Chapman, Hill, Partridge, and Silverberg-collaborated with Sullivan to a certain point, which suggests that these physicians were at least willing to go along with Sullivan's rejection of the social stigmatization of homosexual acts and desires. 16 In the above patient's case, Partridge took turns with Sullivan in treatment. In what Sullivan described a "wonderful" job of self-exploration, the patient, at the end of a little more than five months of hospitalization, reached the stage where he claimed to have no worries about his homosexual tendencies:…”

“…He believed that the illness had its root in the most fundamental part of a patient's mental makeup, making such patients good candidates for a thorough reorganization of their personalities through psychoanalysis. 15,16 Thus, schizophrenic patients whom physicians considered to be treatable by analysis were given a preference at Sheppard-Pratt.…”

“…40 This comment was made by Sullivan, who was himself gay and, at least in clinical settings, highly critical of homophobia. 16,[46][47][48] Unlike the debunking of religious teaching against masturbation, such a critical analysis of homophobia was not widely shared by his colleagues at Sheppard-Pratt. But some-Chapman, Hill, Partridge, and Silverberg-collaborated with Sullivan to a certain point, which suggests that these physicians were at least willing to go along with Sullivan's rejection of the social stigmatization of homosexual acts and desires.…”

Interpersonal theory.

“…Sullivan's clinical work on schizophrenia made him a key figure in the development of the therapeutic community (Schulz, 1987). Sullivan overstated the success of intensive psychoanalytic therapy with severe disorders such as schizophrenia, however (Wake, 2006). Inspired by Sullivan, interpersonalists such as Frieda Fromm-Reichman (1960) practiced long-term interpersonal psychoanalysis with psychotic, unmedicated inpatients for decades, most famously at Chestnut Lodge in Maryland.…”

Sullivan y la adolescencia. Reconstruyendo la subjetividad en el “milagro” de la adolescencia

“…Para elaborar la reseña biográfica -que recojo en extenso en mi capítulo sobreSullivan (Ávila Espada, 2013) me he basado principalmente en la biografía elaborada por HelenPerry (1982), que fue la asistente personal de Sullivan entre 1946 y 1949 y coordino el comité que publicó su obra póstuma; así como en el ensayo de F Barton Evans III (1996),. el trabajo deWake (2006) sobre la etapa del Sheppard-Pratt y el profundo y minucioso ensayo de MarcoConci (2010), entre otros.…”