Harry Stack Sullivan’s treatment for individuals with mental/emotional issues revolves around “integrating tendencies.” Integrating tendencies (belonging tendencies) are used in treatment by involving significant others in the person’s life. Sullivan proclaimed that his integrating tendency approach could even be applied to psychotic patients. Sullivan’s theory sounds similar to the Finland Model. In the United States the initial paradigm to treat mental illness is psychotropic treatment —–> and now even for emotional/behavioral issues. The U. S. practices a kind of cosmetic psychiatry where the first line of treatment is the prescription pad. There is a surface facial look at the individual and then drugs are prescribed. This psychotropic treatment model sets the stage for dependency on medication in order to function, many side effects from the meds, and lays the ground work for chronic illness. The psychotropic paradigm in America has influenced the number of U.S. Government disability checks increasing from 16,200 in 1987, to an astonishing 4,508,000 in 2017 (this is a 278-fold increase).
