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The author discusses the relationship between "intrapsychic" and "interpersonal" from a Sullivanian perspective. He feels we have moved beyond the early polarization. The issue now is not a choice between intrapsychic and interpersonal, but the relationship between them. Mitchell traces some of the early history of the conflict, beginning with Freud's shift from a theory of infantile seduction (interpersonal) to a theory of infantile sexuality (intrapsychic). Sullivan's introduction of the term "interpersonal" in 1927 was not in opposition to Freud's theory but to Kraepelin's theory of dementia praecox, and was important because of his interest in treating schizophrenics. Sullivan's continued development of his theory was inspired by "operationalism," which dominated the natural and social sciences of his day. In this methodology meaningful scientific concepts had to be closely tied to concrete "operations." The more abstract a concept became, the more suspect it was. Operationalism caused Sullivan to become unhappy with Freud's theory after it changed. Sullivan felt it had moved away from actual experience to more abstract, invisible psychodynamic forces. He rejected Freud's concept of the individual mind as basic