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.