You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
MALEVOLENT TRANSFORMATION is an interpersonal term coined by Harry Stack Sullivan (1953). It refers to a compulsive display of hostility when a need for tenderness arises. The phenomenon of malevolent transformation reflects a pattern of biting the hand that one would like to be stroked by tenderly.
Dynamically malevolent transformation is the outgrowth of a developmental miscarriage. The core of the malevolent personality warp, according to Sullivan, is the consistent experience of expecting rebuff and humiliation whenever a need for tenderness, for friendly cooperation is displayed. As a protective or defensive counterreaction, people with these experiences act hatefully when they feel a need for tenderness. The anticipatory malevolence is further aided by the intervention of selective inattention i.e., a consistent pattern of looking "the other way "when an actual friendly response occurs. Selective inattention hinders a beginning discriminatory attitude that would enable the person to be more discerning between an accepting or rejecting interpersonal atmosphere.
Sullivan was of the opinion that malevolent transformation is "perhaps the greatest disaster that happens in the childhood phase of personality development" (Sullivan, 1953, p. 216) since