Sullivan was one of those savants who had the uncanny ability to relate to and cure schizophrenia without medication. Yes, they appear, and reinvent the wheel, every thirty-forty years or so.
One of Sullivan's insights was the essential value of what he called, simply, "buddies." He noted that people who had intimate(non-erotic) same-sex best friends as children, seldom developed severe mental illness later in life.
Anyone who attempts to suppress a 'best-friend' relationship ought to be considered a perpetrator of child abuse and be treated accordingly.
“Anyone who attempts to suppress a ‘best-friend’ relationship ought to be considered a perpetrator of child abuse and be treated accordingly.”
I think you’re on to something there.
of course that raises the question of whether it’s because having a best friend protects against developing later mental illness, or whether it means children prone to mental illness find it difficult to make friends.
Most psychologists, having failed algebra in high school, do not develop good logical skills and, in particular, often confuse correlation with causation.
In this case, he is likely to have reversed causality: people that are born with mental problems that become evident later in life do not develop close relationships --- even in childhood, when their problems are dormant.