The Sigourney Award-2026 Recipients Announced!
An international panel of anonymous judges evaluated a record number of outstanding applications from 23 countries and selected four bodies of work that most closely embody Mary Sigourney’s vision. Please join us in congratulating The Sigourney Award-2026 recipients (in alphabetical order): Salem Eid Al-Arjani, PhD (Gaza, Palestine); Paula Christian-Kliger, PhD, ABPP (New York, USA); Juan-Eduardo Tesone, MD, PhD (Buenos Aires, Argentina); and the University College London Psychoanalysis Unit (London, UK).
Four Recipients Granted The Sigourney Award-2026 for Transformative Contributions to Psychoanalytic Thought
San Francisco, CA – Nov. 10, 2026 – Recognizing transformative contributions to psychoanalysis around the world, The Sigourney Award-2026 honors four bodies of work significantly advancing the field. Today, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, announces this year's award-winning work by Salem Eid Al-Arjani, PhD (Gaza, Palestine); Paula Christian-Kliger, PhD, ABPP (New York, USA); Juan-Eduardo Tesone, MD, PhD (Buenos Aires, Argentina); and the University College London Psychoanalysis Unit (London, UK).
“This year’s honored work engages people in new ways, through psychoanalytic methods and meaningful action. It reaches children in a war zone where catastrophe surrounds both patient and healer, addresses the divides of race and difference in business and communities, opens dialogue where silence has long surrounded incest and sexual abuse, and advances interdisciplinary research on contemporary challenges in health, society, and culture. Each body of work shows psychoanalysis doing what it does best: restoring trust, meaning, and human connection,” says Deutsch.
The Sigourney Award, established by Mary Sigourney in 1989, annually rewards outstanding achievements that nurture greater understanding, innovation, and acceptance of psychoanalysis and its societal benefits. An anonymous panel of judges evaluated diverse submissions from 23 countries and selected work that champions Sigourney's vision. Full summaries of the recipients’ work are available at www.sigourneyaward.org.
The Sigourney Award-2026 Recipients (Alphabetical Order)
Salem Eid Al-Arjani, PhD | Gaza, Palestine
Dr. Salem Eid Al-Arjani's cutting-edge work as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and trauma researcher holds a singular place in psychoanalysis. Operating within an active trauma field, Al-Arjani treats children in Gaza, Palestine, who have lost family, homes, or both, while he lives under the same daily threat. From within this reality, he is building a new framework for psychoanalytic treatment of trauma offers a new theoretical framework for psychoanalysis in at its most extreme frontiers. He redefines resilience not as recovery after trauma, but as the capacity to imagine, find meaning, and stay connected while danger continues. In the case of a child, their family's sole survivor, he traces a movement from pre-symbolic shutdown and ontological collapse, in which the child could not speak at all, to renewed symbolic flexibility: the return of play, speech, and grief. Building on Ann Masten's idea of resilience as "ordinary magic," Al-Arjani's work suggests this magic can survive total devastation, offering hope and a working model for clinicians in catastrophic settings.
Paula Christian-Kliger, PhD, ABPP | New York, USA
Dr. Paula Christian-Kliger’s extraordinary interdisciplinary work demonstrates the transformative potential of psychoanalytic ideas far beyond the clinic. A psychoanalyst, author, and artist, she has developed a relational, trauma-informed model grounded in humanistic and Buddhist practices that bring psychic and emotional layers of experience into view. Her reach is broad: intensive clinical treatment for young adults and families; leadership work in Fortune 500 companies that deepens self-awareness and strengthens collaboration; and experiential life-skills learning for neurodiverse youth. Through art-informed experiences rooted in history and origin stories, Christian-Kliger's work invites self-reflection and dialogue across race, gender, class, culture, and generations, among leaders and communities, while empowering those long-unseen and unheard. Uniting these efforts is psychoanalytic presence in action: creating emotionally alive spaces where people learn to stay with what has felt unbearable, recognize unconscious patterns, and move toward empathy, repair, and shared humanity. Alongside her clinical practice, her work demonstrates how psychoanalytic reflection can shape our collective human journey to function adaptively.
Juan-Eduardo Tesone, MD, PhD | Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dr. Juan-Eduardo Tesone, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, has expanded psychoanalytic theory into a domain long kept at a distance – incest, which he calls "the unthinkable and unthought-about taboo." In Trauma: A Pain Without a Subject (Routledge, 2024), he offers a framework for understanding how sexual violence and psychological trauma may compromise psychic organization, symbolization, and the capacity to articulate suffering within a coherent sense of self. Tesone has also turned this understanding into protection for children. Inspired by Canada's "Feeling Yes, Feeling No" program, he created and supervised through 2023, a child sexual abuse prevention program in the primary schools of San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, in partnership with local government and the region’s mental health and legal oversight organizations. Tesone’s collection of fictional short stories, Impure Tales (2024), explores trauma, memory, and unconscious transmission across generations. A Professor Emeritus at Buenos Aires's Universidad del Salvador, he has taught nearly 300 Latin American doctoral candidates.
The University College London (UCL) Psychoanalysis Unit | London, UK
The University College London Psychoanalysis Unit, led by Dr. Elizabeth Allison, has done what many believed psychoanalysis could not: subjected psychoanalytic ideas to rigorous scientific testing without stripping away what makes them genuinely psychoanalytic. The Unit’s team of researchers and clinicians developed and tested Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT), which strengthens mentalizing, the capacity to understand ourselves and others in terms of thoughts and feelings. In a landmark trial published in The Lancet Psychiatry, men on probation with antisocial personality disorder who received MBT showed significantly less aggression than a comparison group and had committed significantly fewer offenses after three years. The Unit has also placed the breakdown of epistemic trust at the heart of contemporary social and political dysfunction, illustrating how the work is a living research program rather than a finished product. Since 2016, the Unit has trained more than 260 psychoanalytic master’s and doctoral students and engaged the public through Freud Museum exhibitions, conferences, webinars, and film.
Salem Eid Al-Arjani’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2026
Treating children in the active trauma field of Gaza, Dr. Salem Eid Al-Arjani’s work builds a new framework for psychoanalytic treatment of trauma in extreme frontiers and redefines resilience through his findings amidst the ongoing danger.
Cutting-Edge Work by Salem Eid Al-Arjani Offers a New Framework for Psychoanalytic Treatment in Extreme Frontiers and Earns The Sigourney Award-2026
San Francisco, CA – Nov. 10, 2026 – Work by Salem Eid Al-Arjani, PhD (Gaza, Palestine) is being recognized with The Sigourney Award-2026 for outstanding achievements that advance psychoanalytic thought and its application, according to Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust. His work was one of four selected for the Award’s international recognition after an anonymous panel of distinguished judges reviewed a record number of applications from 23 countries.
“Dr. Al-Arjani’s work explores trauma and resilience from within continuous danger, where analyst and patient share the same unstable reality. It shows what psychoanalysis can offer even in the most extreme conditions imaginable,” says Deutsch.
Dr. Salem Eid Al-Arjani’s cutting-edge work as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and trauma researcher holds a singular place in psychoanalysis. Operating within an active trauma field, Al-Arjani treats children in Gaza who have lost family, homes, or both, while he lives under the same daily threat. From within this reality, he is building a new framework for the psychoanalytic treatment of trauma in extreme conditions. He redefines resilience not as recovery after trauma, but as the capacity to imagine, find meaning, and stay connected while danger continues. In the case of a child, their family’s sole survivor, he traces a movement from pre-symbolic shutdown and ontological collapse, in which the child could not speak at all, to renewed symbolic flexibility: the return of play, speech, and grief. Building on Ann Masten’s idea of resilience as “ordinary magic,” Al-Arjani’s work suggests this magic can survive total devastation, offering hope and a working model for clinicians in catastrophic settings.
Al-Arjani’s work asks what treatment can accomplish when trauma is ongoing and its end unknown. Without a safe consulting room, he argues, the therapist must carry the protective frame of treatment within himself, through reliability and presence. With colleagues, he travels between locations to reach displaced children where they are, and he has guided caregivers in displacement camps to support children’s play and storytelling. His work shows the relevance of psychoanalytic thinking in humanitarian crises, and its power to open dialogue across national and political lines.
“Resilience isn’t the absence of fear or suffering. It’s the ability to keep finding meaning and human connection despite them,” says Al-Arjani.
Al-Arjani also serves as a mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) technical supervisor with International Medical Corps, where he supervises and supports psychologists providing mental health services to individuals and families affected by conflict and displacement in Gaza. He teaches at Al-Aqsa University, helping develop the next generation of mental health practitioners. He recently presented his work at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia’s Henri Parens Symposium. Committed to strengthening peace within and between communities, he is dedicated to healing trauma and building resilience among those affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Al-Arjani earned a PhD in counseling psychology from Al-Aqsa University, a master’s degree in community mental health from Al-Quds University, and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Islamic University of Gaza. He also completed two years of professional training in psychodynamic psychotherapy for children and adolescents at the Binational School of Psychotherapy at Hadassah in Jerusalem.
“We are honored to recognize the impactful psychoanalytic work being achieved around the world. Dr. Al-Arjani’s accomplishments embody Mary Sigourney’s belief in the benefits psychoanalysis can bring to human lives,” says Michael J. Harrington, JD, Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.
Paula Christian-Kliger’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2026
Fusing psychoanalysis with art and Buddhist practice, Dr. Paula Christian-Kliger has pioneered a model that changes not only individual lives but how organizations and communities function, opening honest dialogue across race, culture, and difference.
Dr. Paula Christian-Kliger’s Interdisciplinary Work Bringing Psychoanalysis into Social and Institutional Change Wins The Sigourney Award-2026
San Francisco, CA – Nov. 10, 2026 – Work by Paula Christian-Kliger, PhD, ABPP (New York, USA) is being recognized with The Sigourney Award-2026 for outstanding achievements that advance psychoanalytic thought, according to Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust. Her work was one of four selected for the Award’s international recognition after an anonymous panel of distinguished judges reviewed a record number of applications from 23 countries.
“Dr. Christian-Kliger’s work directly supports our founder’s vision. It shows how psychoanalytic thought becomes not only a treatment method, but a practice that enriches human experience and transforms how people lead, learn, repair, and evolve,” says Deutsch.
Dr. Paula Christian-Kliger’s extraordinary interdisciplinary work demonstrates the transformative potential of psychoanalytic ideas far beyond the clinic. A psychoanalyst, author, and artist, she has developed a relational, trauma-informed model grounded in humanistic and Buddhist practices that brings psychic and emotional layers of experience into view. Her reach is broad: intensive clinical treatment for young adults and families; leadership work in Fortune 500 companies and professional organizations that deepens self-awareness and strengthens attunement, partnering, and collaboration; and experiential life-skills learning for neurodiverse youth. Through art-informed experiences rooted in history and origin stories, her work invites self-reflection and dialogue across race, gender, class, culture, and generations, among leaders and communities, while empowering those long-unseen and unheard. Uniting these efforts is psychoanalytic presence in action: creating emotionally alive spaces where people learn to stay with what has felt unbearable, recognize unconscious patterns, and move toward empathy, repair, and shared humanity.
Before becoming a psychologist and psychoanalyst, Christian-Kliger was a singer, songwriter, and performer. Entertaining troops in Vietnam with the USO introduced her to trauma and new cultures, and inspired her move into psychology without leaving her art behind. Today, her poetry, figurative art, and psychoanalytic engagement with music and film invite communities toward change and hope. Her public-facing work includes the award-winning book Power Your Heart, You Power Your Mind: Self-Study Then Build a Bridge to Someone (2018), the We Are Human First podcast, a psychoanalytically informed art exhibition, and community dialogues. Christian-Kliger also edited We Are Human First: Black Psychoanalysts Write, a special issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry which includes the “Holmes Commission Leadership” conversation. Her published papers extend psychoanalysis into transgenerational history, trauma, race, the social unconscious, and repair, including “Reflections on Anti-Racism in Psychoanalysis” in Contemporary Psychoanalysis.
At the Harlem Family Institute, she has led the Psychoanalytic Renaissance talk series on psychoanalysis and diversity and helped create Harlem Family Services’ subsidiary, The Margaret Morgan Lawrence Center for Family and Child Development, a mental health clinic in Harlem licensed under Article 31 by the New York State Office of Mental Health. There, experienced psychoanalysts and psychodynamic psychotherapists serve children, families, adults, and the wider community affected by, or at risk of, historical and ongoing stress-based trauma.
“Psychoanalysis helps us explore what keeps history alive within us: our beliefs, identities, traumas, and losses, and the love, hate, and certainty that shape our stories. My work brings these layers into view so that we can learn from one another,” says Christian-Kliger, founder and president of PsychAssets and Kliger Consulting Group.
“Dr. Christian-Kliger encourages people to study themselves, listen across differences, learn how to share power, and build more humane relational cultures. She brings psychoanalysis alive as it helps us move from ‘I’ toward ‘we’ without erasing difference,” says Michael J. Harrington, JD, Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.
Download Full Press Release Here
Juan-Eduardo Tesone’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2026
Dr. Juan-Eduardo Tesone’s work confronts incest and child sexual abuse, a subject psychoanalysis long kept at a distance, and turns that understanding into a prevention program protecting schoolchildren in Argentina.
Dr. Juan-Eduardo Tesone’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2026 for Translating Psychoanalytic Understanding of Child Sexual Abuse into Public Health Practice
San Francisco, CA – Nov. 10, 2026 – Work by Juan-Eduardo Tesone, MD, PhD (Buenos Aires, Argentina) is being recognized with The Sigourney Award-2026 for outstanding achievements that advance psychoanalytic thought and its application, according to Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust. His work was one of four selected for the Award’s international recognition after an anonymous panel of distinguished judges reviewed a record number of applications from 23 countries.
“Dr. Tesone’s work makes a major contribution to the psychoanalytic understanding of incest and childhood sexual trauma. Combined with his sustained educational and preventive impact across Latin America, it shows how psychoanalytic knowledge can move beyond the consulting room and become a force for lasting public benefit,” says Deutsch.
Dr. Juan-Eduardo Tesone, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, has expanded psychoanalytic theory into a domain long kept at a distance: incest and child sexual abuse, which he calls “the unthinkable and unthought-about taboo.” While psychoanalysis has extensively theorized incestuous desire, Tesone engages with abuse as it actually occurs, distinguishing the seduction that helps form a child’s psyche from traumatic seduction, in which an adult’s sexuality intrudes destructively and erases the boundaries between generations. In Trauma: A Pain Without a Subject (Routledge, 2024), he offers a framework for understanding how sexual violence and psychological trauma may compromise psychic organization, symbolization, and the capacity to articulate suffering within a coherent sense of self.
“Despite the severity and rise in child sexual abuse—particularly online, which has grown exponentially—this issue has not been adequately addressed in psychoanalysis, either from a theoretical perspective or in terms of the implementation of public prevention policies,” says Tesone.
Tesone has also turned this understanding into protection for children. Inspired by Canada’s “Feeling Yes, Feeling No” program, he created and supervised through 2023 a child sexual abuse prevention program in the primary schools of San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, in partnership with local government and the city’s professional associations of psychologists and lawyers. Reaching children ages six to ten, along with their parents and teachers, the program was recognized by the Province of Tucumán as one of its most significant social initiatives. Tesone has further extended psychoanalytic care to the community by supervising SOS Brasil, a program through which psychoanalysts offer free treatment to low-income people suffering from trauma.
A Professor Emeritus at Buenos Aires’s Universidad del Salvador (USAL), Tesone has taught nearly 300 Latin American doctoral candidates in the doctoral program “The Disruptive and Psychoanalysis,” and has trained professionals for emergency work in disasters and catastrophes. His fictional short story collection, Impure Tales (2024), explores trauma, memory, and unconscious transmission across generations.
A training analyst of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association and former member of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society, Tesone has been named a Knight of the National Order of Merit and a Knight of the Academic Palms by the French government for his contributions to child and adolescent mental health in France and Argentina.
“Dr. Tesone’s original contribution to psychoanalytic theory, and his use of psychoanalytic knowledge to benefit society, are a fitting example of our founder’s vision,” says Michael J. Harrington, JD, Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.
The Sigourney Award Trust annually rewards achievements that advance psychoanalytic thought and principles worldwide with international recognition. Tesone’s work was honored alongside work by Salem Eid Al-Arjani, PhD (Gaza, Palestine); Paula Christian-Kliger, PhD, ABPP (New York, USA); and the University College London Psychoanalysis Unit (London, UK).
Download Full Press Release Here
University College London Psychoanalysis Unit’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2026
The University College London Psychoanalysis Unit’s work puts psychoanalytic ideas to rigorous scientific testing, developing treatments shown to be effective with some of the hardest-to-treat patients while preserving the depth of psychoanalysis.
University College London Psychoanalysis Unit’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2026 for Demonstrating How Psychoanalytic Thought Can Transform Health Care, Scholarship, and Culture
San Francisco, CA – Nov. 10, 2026 – Work by the University College London Psychoanalysis Unit (London, UK) is being recognized with The Sigourney Award-2026 for outstanding achievements that advance psychoanalytic thought and application, according to Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust. The Unit’s work was one of four selected for the Award’s international recognition after an anonymous panel of distinguished judges reviewed a record number of applications from 23 countries.
“The University College London Psychoanalysis Unit makes an exceptional contribution to the contemporary development of psychoanalysis, transforming psychoanalytic concepts into carefully tested, clinically effective frameworks for understanding and treating complex mental health conditions,” says Deutsch.
Since 2016, under the leadership of Director Dr. Elizabeth Allison, the University College London Psychoanalysis Unit has done what many believed psychoanalysis could not: subject psychoanalytic ideas to rigorous scientific testing without stripping away what makes them genuinely psychoanalytic. The Unit’s team of researchers and clinicians developed and tested Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT), which strengthens mentalizing, the capacity to understand ourselves and others in terms of thoughts and feelings. In a landmark trial published in The Lancet Psychiatry in 2025, men on probation with antisocial personality disorder who received MBT showed significantly less aggression than a comparison group and committed significantly fewer offenses over three years. The Unit has also placed the breakdown of epistemic trust at the heart of contemporary social and political dysfunction, illustrating how the work is a living research program rather than a finished product.
Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy, developed and tested by Psychoanalysis Unit researchers and clinicians, is now recognized by England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and funded as a national treatment within the National Health Service (NHS). Unit members have also shaped policy at the highest levels, advising NICE on clinical guidelines and providing national clinical leadership within NHS England.
Integrating theoretical inquiry, empirical research, and clinical practice, the Unit has trained more than 260 master’s and doctoral students since 2016. Its 56 conferences, seminars, webinars, and exhibitions have reached an estimated 10,800 participants from 60 countries, including 26 free public seminars on topics ranging from dreaming and bereavement to childhood verbal abuse and epistemic trust.
The Unit has also brought psychoanalysis to the public through art. Students from UCL’s Slade School of Fine Art and the University of the Arts London exhibited work inspired by psychoanalysis at the Freud Museum in London, in exhibitions exploring secrecy (2017) and melancholia (2020). Lockdown Dreams, an animated film series drawn from more than 500 dreams recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, translates psychoanalytic ideas about dreaming into accessible visual stories. Together, these projects make psychoanalytic ideas something audiences can see and feel, widening public appreciation of psychoanalysis beyond clinical and academic circles.
“We are deeply honored. This award recognizes the work of many colleagues who have shown that psychoanalytic ideas can be rigorously tested and still remain true to their depth,” says Dr. Elizabeth Allison, Director of the University College London Psychoanalysis Unit, who will accept the award on the Unit’s behalf.
“The Unit’s work supports Mary Sigourney’s vision by carrying psychoanalytic principles from empirical science into health policy, and by advancing education and awareness of psychoanalysis around the world. We applaud its contributions,” says Michael J. Harrington, JD, Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.
Professor Lemma on MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Research
DrugScience and University College London collaborate to better understand how MDMA-assisted psychotherapy treatment works. This article explores how much the psychotherapy matters in such treatments.
Sigourney recipient Professor Alessandra Lemma (2022) is one of the experts tapped to offer her insight.
https://www.drugscience.org.uk/ucl-drugscience-mdma-psychotherapy-study
Jack Drescher, MD (2022) at the IPA Journal Club Series
Join The Sigourney winner, Dr Jack Drescher, when he will present one of his papers: From bisexuality to intersexuality: Rethinking gender categories” during the IPA Journal Club series on September 11th.
To Learn more and to register, click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/QceVaw_WTq6ekNfyk80LOQ#/registration
Arash’s World Podcast Episode with ROOM, One of Our 2025 Recipients
Hear about ROOM: Sketchbook for Analytic Action, when you tune into Arash’s World Podcast. Hattie Myers, PhD, co-founder and Editor-in-Chief is joined by Aneta Stojnić, PhD and co-host of ROOM’s podcast, to discuss the psychoanalytic magazine and winning The Sigourney Award.
Learn more, then consider what work you may know to nominate or submit your own for consideration for The Sigourney Award-2026.
The Sigourney Award-2026 Now Accepting Applications for Psychoanalytic Innovation
Each year, The Sigourney Award Trust welcomes applications from across the globe—from individuals, organizations, teams whose work strengthens and re-imagines psychoanalysis.
Whether your contribution is clinical, theoretical, creative, interdisciplinary, or social in nature — what matters most is this: Has your work strengthened the presence, understanding, or impact of psychoanalysis?
Apply or Nominate outstanding work today. Be a part of Mary Sigourney’s inspiring vision!
Arash's World Podcast Interview with Calibán in Spanish and English
As we continue to expand our reach across the globe, we’re very happy to share both a Spanish language and English language interview on Arash’s World Podcast with 2025 Sigourney Award recipient, Calibán.
Tune in to hear Maria Luisa “Mati” Silva Checa, Editor in Chief (Spanish), and Deputy Editor Silvana Rea (English) as they discuss the Caliban team’s well-deserved win with podcaster Arash Farzaneh, and offer an inside look into producing the international journal. You can also find Arash’s World Podcast on Spotify and other platforms.
Editor in Chief Maria Luisa “Mati” Silva Checa (Spanish)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI3LjTlaxnY
Deputy Editor Silvana Rea (English)
The Sigourney Award-2025 Recipients Announced!
A notable panel of anonymous judges evaluated a broad spectrum of work from 11 countries and selected four bodies of work most closely aligned with Mary Sigourney’s vision. Please join us in congratulating The Sigourney Award-2025 recipients In alphabetical order, clockwise from top left, recipients include: Dana Amir, PhD (Haifa, Israel); Calibán, Latin American Journal of Psychoanalysis (Montevideo, Uruguay); Siri Hustvedt, PhD (New York, USA); and ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action (New York, USA).
The Sigourney Award-2025 Celebrates Four Recipients Honored for Creative Trailblazing Work Expanding Psychoanalytic Thought Globally
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Interdisciplinary Work from Israel, Uruguay, and the United States Earns The Prestigious Sigourney Award-2025 Prize
San Francisco, CA – Nov. 11, 2025 – The trailblazing work of four recipients has won The Sigourney Award-2025, earning international recognition and a substantial cash prize for advancing psychoanalytic thought and principles throughout the world. Announced today by Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, recipients include: Dana Amir, PhD (Haifa, Israel); Calibán, Latin American Journal of Psychoanalysis (Montevideo, Uruguay); Siri Hustvedt, PhD (New York, USA); and ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action (New York, USA).
"The 2025 recipients’ work demonstrates a renaissance of creative and applied psychoanalytic thought. Their contributions span theory, visual arts, literature, poetry, and applied and clinical practice enhancing the richness of the psychoanalytic endeavor. This work enhances and influences understanding and acceptance of psychoanalysis and its benefits to society,” says Dr. Deutsch.
Founded by Mary Sigourney in 1989, The Sigourney Award was established to annually recognize and promote exceptional achievements of the past decade that foster greater understanding, innovation, and acceptance of psychoanalysis and its societal benefits. A notable panel of anonymous judges evaluated a broad spectrum of work from 11 countries and selected four bodies of work that most closely aligned with Sigourney's vision. Full summaries of the recipients’ work are available at www.sigourneyaward.org.
Dana Amir, PhD (Haifa, Israel)
Professor Dana Amir’s pioneering work has brought a novel and sophisticated perspective to the study of how trauma is conveyed in language. Her work portrays the traumatic lacuna as a melting pot of language that creates multiple forms of external and internal syntax. Her research delves into both perpetrators' and victims' testimonies, focusing on aspects such as word choice, tone, rhythm, and inflection. By mapping the interplay between dissociative and associative forces, she has identified new pathways for therapeutic intervention, demonstrating that language can serve simultaneously as a symptom of trauma and a vehicle for healing. Amir’s research and insights on the language of revenge and forgiveness have become a vital tool for both therapeutic and broader social interventions and provided a framework for facilitating dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
Calibán, Latin American Journal of Psychoanalysis (Montevideo, Uruguay)
Calibán, Latin American Journal of Psychoanalysis, the official journal of the Psychoanalytic Federation of Latin America (FEPAL), is a stunning and engaging international journal that has cultivated both critical thinking and cultural expansion within the psychoanalytic community. Calibán provides a space where psychoanalytic theory meaningfully engages with linguistic diversity, cultural perspectives, and social and artistic sensibilities. Driven by a devoted team of ~80 volunteers hailing from various countries, Calibán is renowned for its collaborative editorial initiatives. Originally published in both Spanish and Portuguese, Calibán is now also translated into English. It is a global resource for both scientific and popular readership on its freely accessible digital platform. Calibán embodies a collaborative spirit and capacity for dialogue that continues to grow ever stronger and is led by María Luisa Silva, Calibán’s Editor-in-Chief.
Siri Hustvedt, PhD (New York, USA)
Dr. Siri Hustvedt’s extraordinary work mines rich seams in psychoanalysis, literature, and culture and has significantly advanced the ongoing relevance of psychoanalysis in current intellectual and cultural discourse. An international author of both fiction and non-fiction, Hustvedt examines the intersections of psychoanalysis with art, philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, and the history of medicine. Her work is noted for probing questions about identity, gender, selfhood, and perception, drawing upon the insights of psychoanalytic thinkers such as Freud, Lacan, Winnicott, Bion, and neuropsychoanalyst Solms. Rejecting the notion that psychoanalytic thinking is outdated or confined to the past, Hustvedt’s writings resonate with both practitioners and general audiences and demonstrates the profound impact that psychoanalytic theory and practice continue to have on people’s lives today.
ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action (New York, USA)
Brilliantly curated and edited, ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action is a global and free digital forum and platform that has illuminated and forged new connections between psychoanalysis and the most pressing social, political, and cultural issues facing the contemporary world. Through its wide-ranging collection of essays, creative writing, memoirs, poetry, art, and community projects, ROOM places a psychoanalytic lens on contemporary challenges while embodying a uniquely new analytic modality for collective connection and societal change. Today ROOM serves as a valued tool for education and public scholarship, having evolved beyond its original format to produce films, books, events, and collaborative educational programming. Led by co-founder and Editor-in-Chief Hattie Myers, PhD, these initiatives further expand knowledge of psychoanalysis and highlight its potential applications across diverse fields.
"Calibán and Room spark scientific, political, and artistic dialogue and offer regional perspectives with a global ambition. The work manages to blur the artificial boundaries between pure and applied psychoanalysis and clinical and cultural fields that escalate the impact of The Sigourney Award and offer sounding boards to amplify a wide variety of perspectives,” says Deutsch.
“The publications’ resulting work along with exceptional achievements by Professor Amir and Dr. Hustvedt are illustrative of our founder’s vision of psychoanalytic work that can benefit society as a whole,” says Michael J. Harrington, JD, Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.
Dana Amir’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2025
Professor Amir’s pioneering work has brought a novel and sophisticated perspective to the study of how trauma is conveyed in language. Amir has identified new pathways for therapeutic intervention, demonstrating that language can serve simultaneously as a symptom of trauma and a vehicle for healing.
Innovative Psychoanalytic Trauma Work by Dana Amir, PhD Earns International Recognition With The Sigourney Award-2025
San Francisco, CA – Nov. 11, 2025 -- The Sigourney Award annually bestows international distinction and a substantial cash prize honoring outstanding psychoanalytic work completed during the past decade. A prestigious panel of judges carefully reviewed applicants from 11 countries across the globe and today, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust announces Dana Amir, PhD (Haifa, Israel) as one of four international recipients whose work earned the notable recognition.
“The creativity, breadth, and quality of Professor Amir’s achievements as a clinician, teacher, supervisor, administrator, scholar, and Hebrew-language poet are matched only by the bravery and compassion of her interventions in the fields of contemporary trauma, testimony, and intervention,” says Dr. Deutsch.
Dana Amir, PhD (Haifa, Israel)
Professor Amir’s pioneering work has brought a novel and sophisticated perspective to the study of how trauma is conveyed in language. Her work portrays the traumatic lacuna as a melting pot of language that creates multiple forms of external and internal syntax. Her research delves into both perpetrators' and victims' testimonies, focusing on aspects such as word choice, tone, rhythm, and inflection. Through this approach, she encourages clinicians and patients alike to cultivate a poetic and lyrical sensitivity, one that focuses on the narrator rather than on the narrative, thus shedding light not on the factual story but on the unique way it is structured.
By mapping the interplay between dissociative and associative forces, Amir has identified new pathways for therapeutic intervention, demonstrating that language can serve simultaneously as a symptom of trauma and a vehicle for healing. This dual role of language is also reflected in her own poetic creations, which embody the dialectic between psychic pain and creativity. Amir’s insights on the language of revenge and forgiveness provided a framework for facilitating dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. In this way, her research has become a vital tool for both therapeutic and broader social interventions.
As a clinician, scholar, administrator, and published Hebrew-language poet, Amir has played a significant role in reinvigorating psychoanalytic thought within the Israeli academic community. In 2015 she established and continues to lead the interdisciplinary doctoral and postdoctoral track in psychoanalysis at Haifa University.
“My psychoanalytic work is deeply rooted in music and literature, and this means that what I am always looking for is not what people have in common but what sets them apart: the unique language in which they embody their deepest core,” says Amir. “Working with collective as well as individual trauma for many years taught me that, in the end, every abyss is unique, and therefore every way out is unique as well. It is based on what makes each one of us irreducible, irreplaceable. It is based on our lyrical core, or maybe the poet inside each of us.”
Amir’s work was awarded alongside Calibán, Latin American Journal of Psychoanalysis (Montevideo, Uruguay); Siri Hustvedt, PhD (New York, USA); and ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action (New York, USA).
Calibán’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2025
Calibán, the official journal of the Psychoanalytic Federation of Latin America (FEPAL), is a stunning and engaging international Publication that has fostered both critical thinking and cultural growth within the psychoanalytic community.
Extraordinary Team Work by Calibán Latin American Journal of Psychoanalysis Earns International Recognition With The Sigourney Award-2025
San Francisco, CA – Nov. 11, 2025 – International recognition and a substantial cash prize are annually bestowed by The Sigourney Award Trust to honor outstanding psychoanalytic work completed during the past 10 years. After a prestigious panel of judges reviewed work submitted from 11 countries, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, announces Calibán, Latin American Journal of Psychoanalysis, the official publication of the Psychoanalytic Federation of Latin America (FEPAL) based in Montevideo, Uruguay, as one of four international recipients presented the prestigious Sigourney Award-2025.
“Team Calibán has beautifully produced a provocative tri-lingual journal that negotiates international, disciplinary, and linguistic boundaries with fresh scientific and artistic perspectives about the dialogue between psychoanalysis and virtually every other aspect of human experience,’” says Dr. Deutsch.
Calibán, Latin American Journal of Psychoanalysis (Montevideo, Uruguay)
Extraordinary teamwork produces Calibán, the Latin American journal that has cultivated both critical thinking and cultural expansion within the international psychoanalytic community. Calibán provides a space where psychoanalytic theory meaningfully engages with linguistic diversity, cultural perspectives, and social and artistic sensibilities. Produced by a dedicated team of ~80 volunteers hailing from various countries, Calibán is led by María Luisa Silva, Editor-in-Chief and member of the Peruvian Society of Psychoanalysis and Silvana Rea, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and member of the Brazilian Society of Psychoanalysis.
Renowned for its collaborative editorial initiatives, Calibán’s editorial team employs a creative, expressive academic approach to Latin American reality, aiming to transcend regional borders. Calibán, published originally in Spanish and Portuguese, is now also available in English. It is freely accessible in a digital version serving as a global resource for both scientific and popular readership. The work encompasses a broad dialogue with art, reflected in its distinctive aesthetic quality and the participation of prominent artists alongside essays, literature, and music, earning a reputation as a collector’s item.
“We will continue expanding our impact on three fronts: outside the region by reaching a broader global audience; within the region by deepening engagement within Latin America; and targeting psychoanalysts in training with the New Voices Award,” says Silva. “Our commitment will ensure that Calibán continues to grow its influence as a dynamic and inclusive platform for psychoanalytic thought, dialogue, and creative expression.”
Initiatives such as “Calibán Goes on Tour” exemplify the team’s ability to transcend geographical boundaries, facilitating public events in museums, universities, and cultural spaces. Founded by enthusiastic psychoanalysts across Latin America, where psychoanalysis is renowned for its vibrancy and dynamism, Calibán embodies a collaborative spirit and capacity for dialogue that continues to grow.
The journal is recognized as a hallmark of a living, contemporary psychoanalytic culture that resonates with today’s generation. This approach is especially meaningful in an era when psychoanalysis is fragmented across numerous schools and organizations, making such unity and open conversation particularly welcome.
“On behalf of the entire editorial team, we are profoundly grateful and are proud to receive The Sigourney Award. The tireless dedication of the voluntary editorial team being honored is a source of immense joy and a testament to the collective effort that defines Caliban’s journey,” says Rea.
Calibán’s work was awarded alongside work by Dana Amir, PhD (Haifa, Israel); Siri Hustvedt, PhD (New York, USA); and ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action (New York, USA).
Siri Hustvedt’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2025
Dr. Siri Hustvedt’s extraordinary work mines rich seams in psychoanalysis, literature, and culture and has significantly advanced the ongoing relevance of psychoanalysis in current intellectual and cultural discourse.
Work by Siri Hustvedt, PhD Wins The Sigourney Award-2025 for Fusing Psychoanalysis, Literature and Culture to Advance Psychoanalysis’ Relevance
San Francisco, CA – Nov. 11, 2025 – Every year, The Sigourney Award bestows international recognition and a substantial cash prize honoring outstanding psychoanalytic work completed during the past 10 years. After a prestigious panel of judges reviewed work submitted from 11 countries across the globe, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, announces Siri Hustvedt, PhD (New York, USA) as one of four recipients whose work is honored with The Sigourney Award-2025.
“A prolific and accomplished writer in many genres, Dr. Hustvedt has written poems, novels, essays, and scholarly articles of astonishing intellectual range. In each, she addresses questions of identity, gender, consciousness, and perception with a sensibility steeped in psychoanalytic insight and nuance,” says Dr. Deutsch.
Siri Hustvedt, PhD (New York, USA)
Dr. Siri Hustvedt’s extraordinary work mines rich seams in psychoanalysis, literature, and culture and has significantly advanced the ongoing relevance of psychoanalysis in current intellectual and cultural discourse. An international author of both fiction and non-fiction, Hustvedt examines the intersections of psychoanalysis with art, philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, and the history of medicine.
Her work draws upon the insights of psychoanalytic thinkers such as Freud, Lacan, Winnicott, Bion, and Solms. Rejecting the notion that psychoanalytic thinking is outdated or confined to the past, Hustvedt’s writings resonate with both practitioners and general audiences. She demonstrates the profound impact that psychoanalytic theory and practice continue to have on people’s lives today.
Hustvedt’s acclaimed works include A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: Essays on Art, Sex, and the Mind (Simon and Schuster, 2016) and Memories of the Future: A Novel (Simon and Schuster, 2019). In Hustvedt’s recent paper, "Umbilical Phantoms" published in The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 103, no. 2, 2022, she regarded umbilical phantoms as part of a defensive amnesia about early bodily connectivity to the mother that haunts both psychoanalysis and philosophy. Through these books and numerous essays, Hustvedt continues to shape and expand the dialogue around psychoanalysis and its contemporary significance.
Beyond her publications, Hustvedt is lecturer in the Dewitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and teaches a monthly seminar in narrative psychiatry to residents. In addition, she has taught writing workshops for psychiatric patients at the Payne Whitney Clinic and later shared her learnings in an essay referencing Freud's literary versus scientific worries. Her lectures and workshops have introduced new ways of thinking about the practice of medicine and redefining the relationship between clinician and patient that has had a lasting effect on medical practice.
“Freud's scientific research interested me long before I began attending neuropsychoanalysis lectures in New York that helped me explore the complexity of objective/subjective perspectives,” says Hustvedt. “In my work, literature is a form of knowledge I link to the creative ‘between zone’ of psychoanalysis where insight can arrive suddenly, surprisingly, and surreptitiously. Memories of the Future, a novel as faux autobiography, is essentially a testament to liberation by therapeutic dialogue. My eleven years in therapy unleashed a new freedom in me, and I consider myself a walking advertisement for psychoanalytically-based psychotherapy. To paraphrase Freud, psychoanalysis freed me from patterns that hindered the fullness of my life; I was liberated.”
Hustvedt’s work was honored alongside the work of Dana Amir, PhD (Haifa, Israel); Calibán, Latin American Journal of Psychoanalysis (Montevideo, Uruguay); and ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action (New York, USA).
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ROOM’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2025
ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action, a brilliantly curated and edited free digital forum and platform, has illuminated and forged new connections between psychoanalysis and the most pressing social, political, and cultural issues facing the contemporary world.
ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2025 for Initiating Contemporary Psychoanalytic Discussions and Actions
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Nonprofit ROOM’s Platform Places a Psychoanalytic Lens on Pressing Issues and Extends Psychoanalytic Action into the Public Sphere
San Francisco, CA – Nov. 11, 2025 -- The Sigourney Award annually bestows international recognition and a substantial cash prize to honor outstanding psychoanalytic work completed during the past 10 years. A prestigious panel of judges carefully reviewed applicants from 11 countries across the globe and today, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, announces ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action (New York, USA), an organization offering an innovative free digital forum and platform, as one of four recipients whose work wins The Sigourney Award-2025.
“As a living agora, ROOM has created a space for contemporary discussions, making the word ‘action’ possible in the psychoanalytical field, where reflection traditionally prevails. By engaging artists, poets, and voices from diverse disciplines, it dynamically expands psychoanalytic thought well beyond the clinical setting,” says Dr. Deutsch.
ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action (New York, USA)
Brilliantly curated and edited, ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action is a global, free digital forum and platform that has illuminated and forged new connections between psychoanalysis and the most pressing social, political, and cultural issues facing the contemporary world. Led by Hattie Myers, PhD, co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, ROOM’s wide-ranging collection of essays, creative writing, memoirs, poetry, art, and community projects place a psychoanalytic lens on contemporary challenges while embodying a uniquely new analytic modality for collective connection and societal change.
ROOM, produced collaboratively by more than 30 volunteers, serves as a valued tool for education and public scholarship, having evolved beyond its original format to produce films, books, events, and collaborative educational programming. These initiatives further expand knowledge of psychoanalysis and highlight its potential applications across diverse fields. By working on multiple levels, psychoanalytic action within ROOM is enhanced through the inclusion of visual artists whose contributions bring nonverbal and affective power to each publication. The featured artists’ statements not only illuminate their own practices but also articulate the synergy between their visual work and the analytic content of each issue.
Conceived of just days after the 2016 U.S. presidential election as an agent of community building, ROOM now reaches readers in more than 160 countries. Each issue of ROOM offers a window through which readers experience how culture and politics impact us personally, and how our psychology affects our environment and political reality. ROOM is published three times a year, is available free online and in print for purchase. Following each issue, an international roundtable allows readers and authors to deepen the conversation together. Additionally, ROOM produces a biweekly podcast featuring contributors to the magazine.
When Myers was asked to describe ROOM’s impact, she shared the words Dr. Karim Dajani offered during a gala speech. “Naguib Mahfouz the Egyptian Nobel prize winner said, ‘Happiness lies in the crevices of tragedy like diamonds lie in the crevices of the earth.’ ROOM shines a light in the crevices where forgotten wisdom, marginalized individuals, and repressed ideas are brought back into the fold for all to see, learn from, and enjoy. I’m so proud to be a part of that effort."
Dr. Helí Morales Ascencio's Work Continues to be Relevant
On “Throwback Thursday” we’re taking a look back at recipients in the news as we prepare to announce our 2025 award winners. Revisit Dr. Helí Morales Ascencio’s work with female victims of violence and relatives of the disappeared.
In 2021, Sigourney Award-2020 recipient Dr. Helí Morales Ascencio was featured in @PsychiatricTimes where he shared, “What is happening in Mexico and Latin America makes me want to investigate what psychoanalysis could say about cruelty, violence against girls and women, and the painful dimension of trauma in order to breakdown the violence.” His work remains relevant and impactful.
Read here: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychoanalysis-as-tool-against-violence
2024 Recipient Ububele Q & A with Psychiatric Times
The Psychiatric Times conversation details how The Ububele Educational and Psychotherapy Trust was founded and their focus on early childhood interventions to break cycles of emotional poverty.
We’re proud to see Psychiatric Times Q&A feature the leaders of the @Ububele Educational and Psychotherapy Trust based in South Africa, a Sigourney Award-2024 recipient. Read their story here:
Recipients Working Together
We’re very proud to see two Sigourney recipients collaborating during a free virtual event this week! Professor Mark Solms (Sigourney Award-2011) presents the keynote discussion for the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Rapaport-Klein Study Group which is hosted by Sigourney Award-2021 recipients from the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy of the Austen Riggs Center.
Solms will argue against the criticism that Strachey falsely scientized Freud. Register to attend the class free of charge.
Register for the accredited June 20 class scheduled at 8 – 10 pm EDT.
Free Online Discussion With Another Sigourney Recipient
Dominique Scarfone, MD, joins an online discussion entitled “The Sexual Drive for Power – The Passion for Ever More” with Orshi Hunyady, PhD, serving as moderator.
The event scheduled on April 4 is part of the 2024-25 Psychoanalytic Society of William Alanson White Institute Colloquium Series, you may register for the free event here: https://wawhite.org/event/dominique-scarfone-md-the-sexual-drive-for-power-the-passion-for-ever-more/
2024 Recipient Björn Salomonsson Online Talk
Sigourney Award-2024 recipient, Björn Salomonsson will join Tessa Baradon in a webinar on March 21st entitled “Rupture and Repair,” in the Early Relationships and Mental Health hosted by @TRTogether.
This is “the professional learning platform of Tavistock Relationships (TR), a UK-based group promoting the study and practice of counselling and psychotherapy. Salomonsson and Baradon will focus on the concept of rupture and repair in therapist-parent-infant relationships, drawing on research from pioneers including Stern, Trevarthen, Tronick, and Beebe. Find details and registration here:
https://trtogether.com/events/parent-infant-baradon/individual-registration