SULLIVAN DEFINED THE PSYCHIATRIC interview as a particular kind of interpersonal relationship which differed from other intimate relationships by its purpose, that "something useful" should be accomplished, namely increased skills of living for one of the people, the patient. He defined the role of the other person involved, the therapist, as that of a participant observer who needed to possess particular skills in the evaluation of interpersonal processes.

Sullivan's contributions need to be examined against the background of psychiatric and psychoanalytic thinking at the time when he formulated his most substantial innovations—the late 1920's and early 1930's. Sullivan was one of the early American psychoanalysts who was greatly appreciative of Freud's contribution for having drawn attention to the fact that abnormal mental phenomena were capable of being understood,