This brief analysis of the contributions of Dr. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann's European teachers to her work traces parallel developments in Europe and America that led Fromm-Reichmann and Harry Stack Sullivan to a similar understanding of the treatment of schizophrenia. Fromm-Reichmann was prepared by Kurt Goldstein's insights into the patient's security operations; Goldstein, Johannes H. Schultz, and Georg Groddeck's holistic views; Groddeck's focus on early mothering; the Frankfurt sociological school's stress on the influence of socioeconomic factors; and her own clinical experience to be receptive to Sullivan's interpersonal theories.