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This book is a reprinting of the first William Alanson White Memorial Lectures by Sullivan—the two last chapters expanded—followed by a critical review of Sullivan's theories by Patrick Mullahy.
According to Sullivan, current psychiatry reflects the influence of three men of genius: Sigmund Freud, Adolf Meyer and William Alanson White. To be sure, Sullivan presents a fusion of distorted and diluted extracts from Freud's discoveries, with Meyer's concepts of mental disorders as types of reaction to the demands of life, and White's vision of a synthesis between medical and social sciences.
'Man is not … a conflict of society and one's instincts …' (according to Sullivan this represents Freud's viewpoint), nor should we talk of instincts, impulses, drives, since they cannot be observed. What we do observe are '… situations integrated by two or more people …'. Sullivan's constant emphasis on the functional interrelationship between man and his environment—which has long been integrated in modern biological and psychological thinking—accounts partly for his difficulties in expressing himself clearly. Long sentences, abundant neologisms, a complicated bizarre style of writing, confuse the reader further. They conceal commonplaces and platitudes as well as the true brilliance of the author.
It need hardly be mentioned that Sullivan rejects Freu's structural concepts. Instead of using the terms, ego and superego, he speaks of the 'self dynamism' or the 'self system'. The 'self system' is 'made up of reflected appraisals'. Anxiety develops as 'a peculiar discomfort' from the disapproval felt through the 'empathic' linkage