Sullivan, Harry Stack (1892-1949)

US psychoanalyst. He was the chief exponent of the dynamic-cultural school of psychoanalysis, which emphasized the role of ongoing interpersonal relationships rather than infantile sexuality in the formation of abnormal behaviour.

Although this view incurred considerable criticism from orthodox Freudian psychoanalysts, Sullivan argued that many psychological afflictions were amenable to this approach, including schizophrenia, with which he claimed to achieve considerable therapeutic success.