What is Parataxical Integration?

First used by Irish-American psychoanalytic psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan in the 1940s, Parataxical Integration refers to the mutual condition of parataxic distortions. Parataxical integration exists when two people, usually intimate with each other , are reciprocally reactive to each other’s seductions, judgmental inaccuracies, hostile comments, and manipulations or other "triggering" behaviors. One says or does something causing the other to react, setting off a cyclical "ping-pong", "tit-for-tat", "you-get-me-and-I-get-you-back" oscillation of verbal and/or behavioral reactions.