Press Release for The Sigourney Award-2022

The Sigourney Award-2022 Honors Five Recipients For Outstanding Work Advancing Psychoanalytic Principles Globally

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Distinguished Panel Of Judges Select Psychoanalytic Work From Italy, UK, And USA

Seattle, WA — Nov. 16, 2022 – The Sigourney Award annually rewards achievements that advance psychoanalytic thought with international recognition and a substantial cash prize for recipients. This year, a panel of distinguished judges evaluated work from an exceptional pool of global applicants. Today, work meriting The Sigourney Award-2022 is announced by Robin A. Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.

Mary Sigourney founded The Sigourney Trust in 1989 to recognize and promote exceptional work that advances psychoanalytic principles and their ability to better humankind.

“We are pleased to announce this year’s award-worthy work that fully embodies Mary Sigourney’s vision and are honored to introduce them today,” says Dr. Deutsch. “Our notable panel of judges steadfastly observed Ms. Sigourney’s directions in evaluating this year’s exemplary work and outstanding ideas,” she adds.

The Sigourney Award-2022 Winning Work (Alpha order)

Giuseppe Civitarese, PhD (Pavia, Italy)
Dr. Civitarese’s innovative efforts have primarily focused on such themes as elaboration of Bion’s thought, the development of post-Bionian models and analytic field theory. His work extended Bion’s reformulation of the concept of “hallucinosis” in a way that deciphers and transforms this difficult Bionian concept into comprehensible psychoanalytic technique. Civitarese extends these ideas to show how human subjectivity is also intersubjective, essentially positing that mental life is rooted in co-being with others. His work has empowered the analyst to be receptive to the unconscious no longer only in terms of the I/you split but of the intersubjective we. Part of Civitarese’s contribution is his ability to describe this shift conceptually and to evoke the experience of analytic transformation for readers in how he writes. His work emphasizes how the analytic encounter, previously focused on individual subjectivity, is enlivened and increasingly effective if it is viewed as a group process. During the past decade, Civitarese published eight books (distributed internationally) and lectured extensively to help analysts. Civitarese’s scientific, institutional, and cultural endeavors have contributed to the ongoing renovation of psychoanalysis to keep it alive and able to meet the real challenges of our times, as one of the finest instruments available to treat mental suffering and understand the mind.

Jack Drescher, MD (New York, NY)

Dr. Drescher’s pioneering work in the areas of gender and sexuality has brought innovation to psychoanalytic treatment and theory--specifically, major, critical re-thinking based on solid scientific evidence and what is actually known rather than outdated assumptions about gender and sexuality. His work has also demonstrated how cultural biases about human sexuality and gender are embedded in analytic theories. During the past decade Drescher has focused psychoanalytic theory and attention on harms done by efforts to change a person’s homosexual orientation and by de-pathologizing sexual orientation and gender identity. A Training and Supervising Analyst, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Senior Psychoanalytic Consultant for Sexuality and Gender at Columbia University, and an Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, Drescher’s scholarly work and media communications to the general public have had an international impact on changing both psychoanalytic attitudes and public policies towards gender and sexuality. His work has managed to shift psychoanalytic thinking about LGBTQ+ people and brought psychoanalytic sensibilities into conversations outside of psychoanalysis fostering a sea change in psychoanalytic organizations’ perspectives on psychoanalysis. His work has also contributed to actions in 20 U.S. states and nearly 30 countries to ban conversion therapies for ‘gay’ clientele, and notably, his publications were cited by India’s Supreme Court in its decision to abolish laws making homosexuality illegal.

Dorothy E. Holmes, PhD (Bluffton, SC)

Dr. Holmes’ groundbreaking work examined race within psychoanalysis, observing that race is an essential lens for psychoanalytic understanding because racism has endemic intrapsychic and cultural effects, including traumatic ones. These effects are accessible in treatment wherein psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic institutions resist knowing and theorizing these effects and their resistances. Her work catalyzed open discussion of discriminatory practices in society and in psychoanalysis, and their harm about which psychoanalysis has traditionally been silent, both clinically and institutionally. Rather than seeing race as an obstacle to deeper work, Holmes posited that when race is acknowledged and addressed, it may lead to more just practices in therapy and beyond. Her efforts demonstrated that personal and organizational wellness cannot be achieved unless all aspects of one's identity are claimed, resolved, and embraced, including though not limited to racial identity. Applying clinical and organizational uses of psychoanalytic thinking holistically, Holmes’ methodology has helped address systemic racism within psychoanalytic organizations and promoted racial equity. She even ventured into psychoanalytic institutional protests designed to maintain racism as a "sleeping dog" employing liberatory psychoanalytic principles and tools to understand racism clinically and institutionally. Her recent psychoanalytic equity work theorizes the intrapsychic and institutional elements of resistance to recognizing the central role of race in society, in general and in psychoanalysis (e.g., use of primal defenses against recognition of racial hatred, clinging to white privilege).

Alessandra Lemma (London, UK)

Professor Lemma’s inventive theoretical and clinical contributions address contemporary issues such as  body modifications, transgender identities, and the impact of new digital technologies on the mind and body, especially applied in youth mental health. Lemma has disseminated her analytic knowledge world-wide, thus promoting psychoanalysis outside the confines of institutes and providing fresh psychoanalytic approaches to treatment in the UK and Europe. Addressing a deep understanding of how modern identity finds its way through our physical self, her work explains widespread social phenomena in young people (e.g., tattooing and cosmetic surgery). By translating clinical insights into everyday discourse, Lemma brings the ‘person in the street’ along and introduces them to the unconscious fantasies of modern teens. In addition, her approach to depression, Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT), builds on her work to define the essence of a psychoanalytic approach to brief psychotherapy, providing a template for the only psychodynamic approach recognized by the UK National Health Service. DIT is remarkable for being the sole publicly funded brief psychodynamic approach delivered within the British socialized health system and is now available free to patients. Lemma tackles tough issues in mental health, particularly youth mental health, that genuinely concern opinion leaders, young people, and the broader public.

Edward Tronick, PhD (Boston, MA)

Dr. Tronick’s seminal work focused on the concept of repair of relational disruptions as a major change process in psychological development and the healing of psychological illness, elaborating on his original model of mutual regulation. A Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and Chief Faculty Early Relational Health Fellowship, Tronick published more than 80 papers representing cutting-edge contributions to understanding biological and scientific advances in physiology, genetics, and epigenetics from 2011-2021. Building up on his Still-Face Paradigm work, he developed a new experimental paradigm for evaluating the effects on the infant by mildly stressing the mother. Tronick’s contributions offer psychoanalysts a scientific basis for the link between relational experience in the dyad and psychological health or illness in the individual. His work has generated the concept of the 'something more' in analysis as meanings made, not conveyed, by language or narrative. His work has reimagined both the infant and the analysand as more pro-active and co-creative than the passive model of both had suggested. The transference involves continuously operating implicit neurosomatic forms of meaning: the something more. The paradigm shifts our view of development and analysis to a discordant process of active agents engaged in finding shared meanings. A recent book co-authored with Claudia M. Gold, MD, The Power Of Discord: Why The Ups And Downs Of Relationships Are The Secret To Building Intimacy, Resilience, And Trust (Little Brown. 2020) raises the profile of psychoanalysis as well as broadens the application of psychoanalysis.

“We resolutely seek to reward and encourage work that moves psychoanalysis forward and influences important advancements to better the human condition worldwide. Whether the work is done by a group, organization or individual, we hope to inspire others to apply their originality and purpose towards expanding the reach and positive results of psychoanalytic principles and are eager to recognize their work in the future,” says Barbara Sherland, J.D., Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.

Find details of all winning work on The Sigourney Award website and watch for personal introductions to each winner’s work via individual videos presented on The Sigourney Award website in early 2023. Applications for The Sigourney Award-2023 will be accepted beginning March 2023 for qualifying work completed between 2012 and 2022. Visit www.sigourneyaward.org for information.

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Giuseppe Civitarese’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2022

Post-Bionian Model and Analytic Field Theory Work Earns Italian Dr. Giuseppe Civitarese The Sigourney Award-2022

Seattle, WA — Nov. 16, 2022 – The Sigourney Award annually rewards achievements that advance psychoanalytic thought with international recognition and a substantial cash prize. This year, a panel of distinguished judges evaluated work from an exceptional pool of applicants from around the world. Today, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD and Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, is introducing Dr. Giuseppe Civitarese’s work developing post-Bionian models and analytic field theory and the work of four others that has won The Sigourney Award-2022.

Mary Sigourney founded The Sigourney Trust in 1989 to recognize and promote exceptional work that advances psychoanalytic principles and their ability to better humankind.

“Our judges conscientiously ensured that the work rewarded met Ms. Sigourney’s intentions of furthering and expanding outstanding psychoanalytic thought globally. Dr. Civitarese’s work developing post-Bionian models and analytic field theory and expanding the application to meet contemporary society’s mental health needs, embodies her vision,” says Dr. Deutsch.

Civitarese’s innovative efforts have primarily focused on such themes as elaboration of Bion’s thought, the development of post-Bionian models and analytic field theory. His work extended Bion’s reformulation of the concept of “hallucinosis” in a way that deciphers and transforms this difficult Bionian concept into comprehensible psychoanalytic technique. Civitarese extends these ideas to show how human subjectivity is also intersubjective, essentially positing that mental life is rooted in co-being with others. His work has empowered the analyst to be receptive to the unconscious no longer only in terms of the I/you split but of the intersubjective we.

Part of Civitarese’s contribution is his ability to describe this shift conceptually and to evoke the experience of analytic transformation for readers in how he writes. His work emphasizes how the analytic encounter, previously focused on individual subjectivity, is enlivened and increasingly effective if it is viewed as a group process. Civitarese’s scientific, institutional, and cultural endeavors have contributed to the ongoing renovation of psychoanalysis to keep it alive and able to meet the real challenges of our times, as one of the finest instruments available to treat mental suffering and understand the mind.

“My work, although sometimes dealing with abstract and difficult concepts, is always grounded in a concern to improve the treatment of mental suffering, and I’m very proud my efforts have earned The Sigourney Award’s recognition,” says Civitarese. “Besides, psychoanalysis is a scientific discipline that can have an important impact on humanity as it makes us understand the fine social structure of subjectivity. This awareness also makes psychoanalysis (as a critical theory) a knowledge tool that can facilitate processes of mutual recognition and conflict resolution between different cultures."

Civitarese is a sought-after international lecturer and a renowned author, and his work inspires fruitful dialogue with other disciplines (philosophy, literature, narratology, neurosciences, psychiatry, aesthetics, etc.) and with classical psychoanalysis, as evidenced by a series of works dedicated to Freud's thought. Examples include his essays on the Dora case, “Formulations on the principles of mental functioning”, Nachträglichkeit, masochism and the Fort-Da game in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Civilization and its Discontent, etc.). Civitarese’s contributions have helped position Italian psychoanalysis on the international stage through his work as editor for the Rivista Di Psicoanalisi and and The Italian Psychoanalytic Annual, both Journals of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, over the four-year period 2013-2017. Additionally, along with several young colleagues he founded a non-profit cultural association, ilcampoanalitico (theanalyticfield) to expand development of psychoanalytic thinking with a focus on analytical field theory.

Beyond theoretical and clinical essays, Civitarese has written three books on contemporary art and literature, including Losing your Head: Abjection, Aesthetic Conflict, and Psychoanalytic Criticism (2015). Italian language titles include L’ora della nascita: Psicoanalisi del sublime e arte contemporanea [The Hour of Birth: Psychoanalysis of the Sublime and Contemporary Art] , which won the Gradiva-Lavarone prize for the best psychoanalytic book of the year in Italy (2020); and (with others), Psiche nasce nella stanza di amore. Nuove letture per la camera di Amore e Psiche di Palazzo Te [Psyche is Born in the Room of Love. New Readings for the Room of Cupid and Psyche at Palazzo Te], (2018), and “Blackness of Red: Anish Kapoor and the Sublimation of the Flesh”, a chapter in Anish Kapoor's recent Venice exhibition catalog.

“I have tried to re-found psychoanalytic criticism of art (cinema, painting, literature), basing it no longer on the rigid 'top-down' application of psychoanalytic categories but by establishing a dialogue marked by reciprocity: not only what psychoanalysis can say about art but also what art can say about psychoanalysis,” says Civitarese.

Barbara Sherland, J.D., Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, says, “We are proud to have received such forward-thinking and influential applications, and congratulate Dr. Civitarese in the advancements his own work has provided in extending the reach of psychoanalysis and helping improve mental health treatments available throughout the world.”

His award-winning work is added to a long list of innovative contributions advancing psychoanalytic thought that, since 1990, have been honored with The Sigourney Award. This year, he shares this honor with Dr. Jack Drescher (New York, USA), Dr. Dorothy Holmes (South Carolina, USA), Professor Alessandra Lemma (London, UK), and Dr. Edward Tronick (Massachusetts, USA), whose work also met the demanding Award criteria.

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Jack Drescher’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2022

Pioneering Work on Gender and Sexuality Earns American Jack Drescher, MD, The Sigourney Award-2022

Seattle, WA — Nov. 16, 2022 – Annually, The Sigourney Award bestows international recognition and a substantial cash prize for outstanding work that advances psychoanalytic thought worldwide. A prestigious panel of judges carefully reviewed applicants from across the globe and today, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD and Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust announces the winners of The Sigourney Award-2022. Dr. Jack Drescher’s landmark work in the areas of gender and sexuality receives the prize along with four additional, extraordinary recipients.

“Mary Sigourney established The Sigourney Award to recognize and promote exceptional work that advances psychoanalytic principles and their ability to better humankind. Dr. Drescher’s impactful work in the areas of gender and sexuality fulfills her vision by helping  improve lives of individuals other than patients, and expertly translating the complexity of psychoanalytic thinking into jargon-free language accessible to a wider public audience,” says Dr. Deutsch.

Drescher’s pioneering work has brought innovation to psychoanalytic treatment and theory—specifically, major, critical re-thinking based on solid scientific evidence and what is actually known rather than outdated assumptions about gender and sexuality. His work has also demonstrated how cultural biases about human sexuality and gender are embedded in analytic theories. During the past decade Drescher has focused psychoanalytic theory and attention on harms done by efforts to change a person’s homosexual orientation and by de-pathologizing sexual orientation and gender identity.

“I’ve long devoted my professional efforts to help psychoanalysis (re)engage with gender and sexuality in the 21st century. I wish to thank the Mary Sigourney Trust judges for recognizing my work’s psychoanalytic perspective in acknowledging complexity, history, multi-determined motivations, contradiction and the role of anxiety in shaping beliefs about gender and sexuality,” says Drescher.

A Training and Supervising Analyst at the William Alanson White Institute, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Senior Psychoanalytic Consultant for Sexuality and Gender at Columbia University’s Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, and an Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, Drescher’s scholarly work and media communications to the general public have had an international impact on changing both psychoanalytic attitudes and public policies towards gender and sexuality. A notable example is his contribution to the recent revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) that helped end decades of diagnostic pathologizing of sexual and gender identities.

His work has managed to shift psychoanalytic thinking about LGBTQ+ people and brought psychoanalytic sensibilities into conversations outside of psychoanalysis fostering a sea change in psychoanalytic organizations’ perspectives on gender and sexuality. His work has also contributed to actions in 20 U.S. states and nearly 30 countries to ban conversion therapies for LGBTQ+ people, and notably, his publications were cited by India’s supreme court in its decision to abolish laws criminalizing homosexuality.

Drescher served on the Honorary Scientific Committee of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2)

and contributed to the chapters on gender and sexuality. In recent years, he has reached across the globe on these subjects through speaking engagements in Brazil, Chile, China, France, Great Britain, India, Israel, Iran, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, and Portugal. His scholarly works further teachings with translations into Italian, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Finnish, and German.

He explains that Freud, and much of early psychoanalytic theorizing, conflated the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity. Much of that history involved claims of finding the “causes”— and sometimes purported cures—of homosexuality. Yet, the contemporary scientific position is that the “causes” of any sexual orientation or gender identity are unknown. Drawing upon that perspective, his work demonstrates how cultural biases about human sexuality and gender are embedded in analytic theories. He challenges clinicians to rethink the limits of what is possible to discover in analytic treatments. For example, analysts and analysands are not discovering what “causes” homosexuality or “gender identities” in their practices. They are instead co-constructing narratives based on the meanings of those concepts to the two participants.

“We have been astounded by the contributions made by our 2022 recipients. Their purposeful and impactful advancements for the field of psychoanalysis propel its positive impact and importance across the world and we celebrate their accomplishments and hope this recognition inspires others to exceed expectations to better the human condition,” says Barbara Sherland, J.D., Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.

Drescher’s award-winning work is added to a long list of innovative contributions advancing psychoanalytic thought that, since 1990, have been honored with The Sigourney Award. This year, he shares this honor with Dr. Giuseppe Civitarese (Pavia, Italy), Dr. Dorothy Holmes (South Carolina, USA), Professor Alessandra Lemma (London, UK), and Dr. Edward Tronick (Massachusetts, USA), whose work also met the demanding Award criteria.

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Dorothy E. Holmes’ Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2022

Groundbreaking Work Examining Race within Psychoanalysis Earns American Dorothy E. Holmes, PhD, The Sigourney Award-2022

Seattle, WA — Nov. 16, 2022 –  The Sigourney Award is presented annually to reward work that advances psychoanalytic thought and principles worldwide, meriting international recognition and a substantial cash prize.  Robin A. Deutsch, PhD and Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, is announcing today that Dr. Dorothy E. Holmes’ landmark work examining race within psychoanalysis, and the work of four others, has earned The Sigourney Award-2022.

“By examining systemic racism and its role in psychoanalysis, Dr. Holmes is inspiring open discussion of discriminatory practices that impact racial equity in psychoanalytic treatment and training,” explains Dr. Deutsch. “Mary Sigourney’s intentions were to encourage and recognize significant contributions in advancing psychoanalytic principles and their ability to better humankind and we’re proud to honor Dr. Holmes’ groundbreaking work which meets these distinctive criteria.”

Dr. Holmes’ work observes that race is an essential lens for psychoanalytic understanding because racism has endemic intrapsychic and cultural effects, including traumatic ones. These effects are accessible in treatment wherein psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic institutions resist knowing and theorizing the deleterious impacts of racism and their resistances. Her work catalyzed open discussion of discriminatory practices in society and in psychoanalysis, and their harm about which psychoanalysis has traditionally been silent, both clinically and institutionally. Rather than seeing race as an obstacle to deeper work, Holmes posited that when race is acknowledged and addressed, it may lead to more just practices in therapy and beyond. Her efforts demonstrated that personal and organizational wellness cannot be achieved unless all aspects of one's identity are claimed, resolved, and embraced, including though not limited to racial identity. Applying clinical and organizational uses of psychoanalytic thinking holistically, Holmes’ methodology has helped address systemic racism within psychoanalytic organizations and promote racial equity. She even ventured into psychoanalytic institutional protests designed to maintain racism as a "sleeping dog" employing liberatory psychoanalytic principles and tools to understand racism clinically and institutionally.

“My body of work demonstrates that psychoanalysis has the conceptual and clinical tools to
understand systemic racism and how it operates intra-psychically and behaviorally, in the individual
and in psychoanalytic institutional practices,” says Dr. Holmes. “My work also demonstrates that
this understanding is necessary to promote robust wellness in patients, white and of color, and in psychoanalytic organizations for them to promote racial equity by reducing attachment to white privilege.”

Reaching beyond the traditional patient/analyst setting, Dr. Holmes applies her approach in her social justice commitment. Her recent psychoanalytic equity work theorizes the intrapsychic and institutional elements of resistance to recognizing the central role of race in society in general and in psychoanalysis (e.g., use of primal defenses against recognition of racial hatred, clinging to white privilege).

Her thought leadership in challenging institutional psychoanalysis and encouraging the field to engage in self-examination and active change led the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) to create The Holmes Commission on Racial Equality in the American Psychoanalytic Association, for which Holmes serves as its distinguished chair.  The commission now investigates “systemic racism and its underlying determinants embedded within APsaA and independent psychoanalytic institutions,” and offers “remedies for all aspects of identified racism” in psychoanalytic institutions across different
governing bodies.

She is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas and IPTAR, Training and Supervising Analyst, Emerita, the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, Professor and PsyD Program Director Emerita, George Washington University, and a member, emerita, of Black Psychoanalysts Speak. Holmes articulates the necessity for psychoanalysis to understand racist hatred that is carried widely in the culture and individually, and she shows that persistent racial unknowing is practiced in psychoanalytic institutions through silence, political intimidation, and disappearing in the face of repeated painful racial enactments.

“Our independent panel of distinguished judges have the difficult task of identifying the most outstanding contributions among our international applicants, and we honor their professional guidance as we strive to fulfill Mary Sigourney’s intent to reward work that significantly advanced psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic principles worldwide. We welcome The Sigourney Award-2022 recipients to our esteemed roster and look forward to recognizing novel advancements of others in the coming years,” says Barbara Sherland, J.D., Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.

Dr. Holmes’ award-winning work is added to a long list of innovative contributions advancing psychoanalytic thought that, since 1990, have been honored with The Sigourney Award. This year,
she shares this honor with Dr. Giuseppe Civitarese (Pavia, Italy), Dr. Jack Drescher (New York, USA), Professor Alessandra Lemma (London, UK), and Dr. Edward Tronick (Massachusetts, USA), whose work also met the demanding Award criteria.

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Alessandra Lemma’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2022

Inventive Theoretical and Clinical Work Addressing Contemporary Issues Earns UK Professor Alessandra Lemma The Sigourney Award-2022

Seattle, WA — Nov. 16, 2022 – The Sigourney Award, founded in 1989, annually rewards outstanding work that represents a significant contribution to psychoanalysis and brings innovation to the field of psychoanalytic treatment or theory. Recipients receive international recognition and a substantial cash prize and this year, a panel of distinguished judges evaluated work from extraordinary international applicants. Today, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD and Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust announces UK Professor Alessandra Lemma’s inventive theoretical and clinical psychoanalytic contributions has earned The Sigourney Award-2022 along with four additional recipients’ work.

“Professor Lemma’s work embodies Mary Sigourney’s intention to promote and expand the benefits of psychoanalytic thinking worldwide. Our notable panel of judges deemed her interdisciplinary approach addressing contemporary social and psychological challenges, especially those directed at youth and those suffering from depression, deserved the prize for her superior efforts and professional results,” says Dr. Deutsch.

Professor Lemma’s inventive theoretical and clinical contributions address contemporary issues such as body modifications, transgender identities, and the impact of new digital technologies on the mind and body, especially applied in youth mental health. Lemma has disseminated her analytic knowledge world-wide, thus promoting psychoanalysis outside the confines of institutes and providing fresh psychoanalytic approaches to treatment in the UK and Europe. Addressing a deep understanding of how modern identity finds its way through our physical self, her work explains widespread social phenomena in young people (e.g., tattooing and cosmetic surgery), broadening the scope of thinking about what drives people to modify their bodies. By translating clinical insights into everyday discourse, Lemma brings the ‘person in the street’ along and introduces them to the unconscious fantasies of modern teens.  

In addition, her approach to depression, Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT), builds on her work to define the essence of a psychoanalytic approach to brief psychotherapy, providing a template for the only psychodynamic approach recognized by the UK National Health Service. DIT is remarkable for being the sole publicly funded brief psychodynamic approach delivered within the British socialized health system and is now available free to patients. DIT has contributed to safeguarding the provision of a psychoanalytic intervention in the UK publicly funded health service where these interventions are under threat and the model is now offered in the Americas, Asia, Australasia, and Europe.

“My work has been driven by a commitment to taking psychoanalysis off the couch and into the wider world creating opportunities for interdisciplinary dialogue, for understanding pressing contemporary social questions and clinical challenges, and for improving access to psychoanalytic interventions through the development and evaluation of a new brief therapy model that has enabled more clinicians to be trained to reach more patients in more countries around the world,” says Lemma.

Lemma, a Doctor of Clinical Psychology, tackles controversial issues in mental health, particularly focused on youth, that concern opinion leaders, young people, and the broader public. She has actively promoted interdisciplinary dialogue through her integration of psychoanalysis and ethics to support best clinical practice and balanced debate and through her editorial work for ten years as General Editor of the New Library of Psychoanalysis book series (Routledge), which encouraged psychoanalytic theoretical pluralism and the application of psychoanalysis beyond the consulting room. As an author, her Introduction to the Practice of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2015) brings psychoanalysis to psychotherapists around the world. Her writings offer a diverse range of application without losing analytic depth as in her book, The Digital Age on the Couch (2017), that spans exploring the impact of new technologies on sexual developmental in adolescence to their impact on how clinicians practice. Her theoretical contributions have focused primarily on the experience of embodiment. Highly cited in the past decade, her academic work including articles and books is translated into 10 languages. She is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society, Visiting Professor, Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London, and a Consultant at the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families.

Her leadership as the Independent Chair of the ‘Scope of Practice and Education’ project which oversaw the development of an evidence-based framework to inform the training requirements, competences, and ethical practice standards for 60,000 psychotherapists/counselors across the UK, helped improve quality standards of psychotherapy training.

“Our mission is to answer the intentions set forth by Mary Sigourney when she founded this Trust. Professor Lemma’s contributions are germane to contemporary problems, and have created opportunities for interdisciplinary dialogue, which enhances the perceived relevance of psychoanalysis to everyday life. We applaud her work and encourage others to share their own advancements through applications for The Sigourney Award-2023,” says Barbara Sherland, J.D., Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.

Lemma’s award-winning work is added to a long list of innovative contributions advancing psychoanalytic thought that, since 1990, have been honored with The Sigourney Award. This year, she shares this honor with Dr. Giuseppe Civitarese (Pavia, Italy), Dr. Jack Drescher (New York, USA), Dr. Dorothy Holmes (South Carolina, USA), and Dr. Edward Tronick (Massachusetts, USA), whose work also met the demanding Award criteria.

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Edward Tronick’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award-2022

Seminal Work on Repairing Relational Disruptions Earns Edward Tronick, PhD, The Sigourney Award-2022

Seattle, WA — Nov. 16, 2022 – The Sigourney Award annually rewards achievements within the recent decade that advance psychoanalytic thought and principles and their ability to benefit humankind. This year, a panel of distinguished judges evaluated work from an extraordinary pool of international applicants seeking the prestigious Award and substantial cash prize. Robin A. Deutsch, PhD and Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust announced today that Dr. Edward Tronick’s seminal work on repairing relational disruptions has won The Sigourney Award-2022 along with four additional recipients.

“Dr. Tronick’s work in developmental psychoanalysis revises the psychoanalytic understanding of infancy and development to one involving disorganization and repair,” says Dr. Deutsch. “His pivotal work and that of others honored this year are important illustrations of the psychoanalytic contributions our organization’s founder, Mary Sigourney, sought to encourage and reward,” she adds.

Dr. Tronick’s seminal work focused on the concept of repair of relational disruptions as a major change process in psychological development and the healing of psychological illness. It elaborates on his original model of mutual regulation. A Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and Chief Faculty Early Relational Health Fellowship, Tronick published more than 80 papers representing cutting-edge contributions to understanding biological and scientific advances in physiology, genetics, and epigenetics from 2011-2021.

Building upon his Still-Face Paradigm work, he developed a new experimental paradigm for evaluating the effects on the infant of  mildly stressing the mother. Tronick’s contributions offer psychoanalysts a scientific basis for the link between relational experience in the dyad and psychological health or illness in the individual. His work has generated the concept of the 'something more' in analysis as meanings made not conveyed by language or narrative. His work has reimagined both the infant and the analysand as more pro-active and co-creative than the passive model of both had suggested. The transference involves continuously operating implicit neurosomatic forms of meaning: the something more. The paradigm shifts our view of development and analysis to a discordant process of active agents engaged in finding shared meanings. A recent book co-authored with Claudia M. Gold, MD, The Power Of Discord: Why The Ups And Downs Of Relationships Are The Secret To Building Intimacy, Resilience, And Trust (Little Brown. 2020) raises the profile of psychoanalysis and the broader application of psychoanalysis.

“I am passionate about bringing a deeper understanding of psychoanalysis to benefit people and other fields of study. My Face-to- Face Still-Face paradigm has evolved and exemplifies that commitment, providing a critical tool for the study of human growth and development of dyadic systems that lasts,” says Tronick. “I appreciate receiving The Sigourney Award and the renowned recognition it offers for my work,” he adds.

Currently, Tronick is Head Faculty in an Early Relation Health Fellowship at UMass Chan Medical School  and teaches up to 10 sessions on various developmental topics over two years, including topics of Repair and Buffer Models of Development, Cross Cultural Development, Attachment, Dyadic States of Consciousness Theory, Dyadic Therapy, ASD and Sensory Integration, Infant Development, and Newborn Assessment.

In the past decade, Tronick has presented to large audiences of professionals from more than 40 countries including ranging from The Australian Childhood Foundation Conference, “Childhood Trauma: Understanding the basis of change and recovery”; UMass Boston and NPR News’ Ideas Boston  Keynote/Plenary Address, Early Childhood Development “Repair and Relationships”; Reach Grenada / St. George's University with “Meaning Making and Development”; to the Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Eastern and Southern Norway where he presented “The bridge between attachment and trauma” and the ISC International 2018 Attachment and Trauma Congress presenting “Multilevel Meaning Making, Relational Regulation and Stress” in London.

“It is inspiring to learn about the momentous work being done to advance the benefits and expand the reach of psychoanalysis, and I believe our founder, Mary Sigourney, would whole-heartedly agree with the distinguished judges decisions to honor all of our 2022 awardees whom we induct into this revered community,” says Barbara Sherland, J.D., Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust. “We believe recognizing their efforts will encourage others to consider sharing their own work for consideration in our upcoming Sigourney Award applications,” she adds.

Dr. Tronick’s award-winning work is added to a long list of innovative contributions advancing psychoanalytic thought that, since 1990, have been honored with The Sigourney Award. This year, he shares this honor with Dr. Giuseppe Civitarese (Pavia, Italy), Dr. Jack Drescher (New York, USA), Dr. Dorothy Holmes (South Carolina, USA), and Professor Alessandra Lemma (London, UK) whose work also met the demanding Award criteria.

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