Merav Roth’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award - 2024
/Work by Merav Roth PhD Earns International Recognition With
The Sigourney Award-2024
Extraordinary interdisciplinary work on psychoanalysis and literature and pioneering psychoanalytic study, treatment of trauma earns Prof. Merav Roth The Sigourney Award-2024
Seattle, WA – Nov. 12, 2024 -- The Sigourney Award annually bestows international recognition and a substantial cash prize for outstanding work completed within the past 10 years that advances psychoanalytic thought worldwide. A prestigious panel of judges carefully reviewed applicants from 10 countries across the globe and today, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD and Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, announces Merav Roth, PhD (Tel Aviv, Israel) as one of four international recipients presented the prestigious prize.
“Dr. Roth’s work reflects Mary Sigourney’s commitment to reaching audiences outside the psychoanalytic community. Her work has benefited society and helped advance ‘psychoanalysis for the people’ through clinical work with disadvantaged populations and victims of trauma, and by introducing a psychoanalytic understanding of reading and literature, accessible to psychoanalysts and lay people,” says Dr. Deutsch.
Merav Roth, PhD (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Prof. Merav Roth’s pioneering work in studying and treating private and collective trauma has employed innovative applications of traditional and novel psychoanalytic thought and advanced Freud’s cherished goal of a “psychoanalysis for the people.” Alongside her work writing on trauma, ethics and culture in Israel and abroad, in the last decade Roth’s novel approach to psychoanalysis and literature has given readers a better understanding of the deep psychic processes involved in reading. Her impressive interdisciplinary work on psychoanalysis and literature earned her reputation as an original psychoanalytic thinker.
In her first book, A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Reading Literature - Reading the Reader (Routledge, 2020), Roth described the unconscious processes involved in reading literature - a riddle that was declared challenging to reach by other researchers such as Holland and Lesser. Additional books have dealt with the human condition, internal battles, and ethical standing. Her work has elevated psychoanalytic programs at Tel Aviv University and at the University of Haifa, including founding post-graduate Klein studies in the Psychoanalytic psychotherapy program, Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, researching, writing and presenting psychoanalytic applications and interdisciplinary work (psychoanalysis and literature) to therapists and the public.
Another non-traditional application of psychoanalytic thought is to the field of ethical standing. Roth has written extensively on Holocaust literary works and on civil standing, human spirit and resilience in the face of evil and injustice - all from a Kleinian perspective, highlighting one’s challenge to avoid vengeance and promote human solidarity. Roth also founded philanthropic psychoanalytic psychotherapy clinics for disadvantaged populations (including survivors of prostitution, homelessness, etc.), and promoted pioneering psychoanalytic work with trauma. As the former chair of the psychoanalytic psychotherapy program at Tel Aviv University, Roth established and still chairs “The Clinic For All” which provides pro-bono psychotherapy for deprived or disadvantaged populations. As a professor at the University of Haifa, she established a new philanthropic initiative, “Interweaving,” a culturally sensitive clinic for diverse disadvantaged populations.
Roth’s psychoanalytic work with trauma was swiftly employed to provide guidance and wide-reaching help after the events of October 7 in Israel. She lived with the survivors of Kibbutz Be’eri to establish therapeutic first aid, and she still counsels them, the Hostages Families Forum and more. She and two colleagues established “FLM,” a civil philanthropic network of 450 psychoanalysts who provide expertise and pro-bono, long-term therapy for survivors and their family members.
Her theoretical and clinical work is innovative, poetic and rigorous. Her sought-after teachings are shared through media and participation in highly respected cultural and scientific platforms which helps bring psychoanalytic thinking to the forefront.
"The Sigourney Award and the recognition it conveys for groundbreaking psychoanalytic work give me and many analysts the strength to tirelessly continue applying psychoanalysis for the benefit of trauma survivors worldwide,” says Roth. “I deeply believe in the human capacity to transcend primitive tendencies and be our better selves.”