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Harry Stack Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory and Psychotherapy

Author(s) : F. Barton Evans III

Reviews and Endorsements

This book is the authoritative source on one of the most influential and underappreciated thinkers in mental health in the 20th century, written by a world-class expert who trained in Sullivan's milieu and applied interpersonal principles for his entire illustrious career. As in the first edition, Evans provides a thorough treatment of Sullivan's thinking about development, psychopathology, assessment, psychotherapy, and broader social problems. In this new edition, he elaborates significantly on how Sullivan's approach to clinical and social issues can be understood through a contemporary lens and inform current practice. A must read for anyone who wants to understand this central player in the story of medicine and social science and situate their clinical work in the historically rich and eminently humane context offered by interpersonal theory.
Christopher Hopwood, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Zurich

Evans' book on Harry Stack Sullivan is the best summary of Sullivan's work on the market today. It clearly describes all his basic concepts and their clinical implications. And this second edition contains clinical material illustrating an interpersonal approach to trauma work. Patients re-enact their traumas in therapy in order to tell the history of their interpersonal suffering. And if the therapist can listen with a relational ear, he can provide a climate of safety where the unsayable in the past can be said in the present. If for no other reason, the interpersonal understanding of anxiety and the strategies of self-other protection alone will reward the reader with new vistas of understanding.
Jon Frederickson, MSW, Faculty, Washington School of Psychiatry; Author, Co-Creating Change and Co-Creating Safety

In this engaging new edition of his 1996 book, Barton Evans shows himself to be the pre-eminent authority on all things Sullivanian. Readers will be intrigued as Evans connects Sullivan’s life story to his interpersonal theory and then traces the influence of Sullivan’s concepts on modern psychotherapy, psychological assessment, social psychology, and psychiatry. Sullivan remains an underappreciated genius, and Evans helps us recognize his immense and far-reaching impact. Readers interested in Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment (C/TA) will especially appreciate Evans’ discussion of current interpersonal models of psychological assessment.
Stephen E. Finn, Ph.D., President, Therapeutic Assessment Institute; Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Evans succeeds in this masterful effort to “re-collect” the silent, forgotten, and sometimes maligned contributions of the genius Harry Stack Sullivan. Evans’ scholarly research and skillful explanation of Sullivan’s largely unacknowledged imprint on contemporary developments in psychoanalysis, theories of anxiety and psychopathology, and the vicissitudes of child development reminds us of how his ideas never really disappeared. In this gem of a book, Evans makes clear that at the heart of Sullivan’s theories was the enduring strength of interpersonal connections, which can “heal the developmental warps” that unfortunately occur in some. In Evans’ beautiful words, it is the “love between humans which ultimately liberates us.” These words have never been more important than they are now.
James H. Kleiger, Psy.D., ABPP, ABAP, Independent Practice Bethesda, MD; Past President, Baltimore-Washington Psychoanalytic Institute