Virginia Ungar’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award - 2023
Dr. Virginia Ungar’s leading-edge work in “the feminine,” and in child, adolescent, and adult analysis, coupled with her leadership achievements in transforming current and future psychoanalytic training have significantly impacted the future of psychoanalysis.
Dr. Virginia Ungar Receives The Sigourney Award-2023 For Work Establishing New Psychoanalytic Training Models Incorporating Child and Adolescent Analysis
Seattle, WA — Nov. 2, 2023 – The Sigourney Award is bestowed annually as an independent prize recognizing outstanding work that advances psychoanalytic thought worldwide. An esteemed panel of anonymous judges evaluated applications from across the globe and today, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD and Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, announces work by Virginia Ungar, MD, Buenos Aires, Argentina, has earned The Sigourney Award-2023 and the international recognition and substantial cash prize that complements the honor.
“Dr. Ungar’s work established new approaches that eased clinical training in child and adolescent psychoanalysis with lasting significance for future psychoanalysts, while her leadership in creating a psychoanalytic communication network to reach those most in need meets Mary Sigourney’s vision for the continued growth and positive impact psychoanalytic thought and principles can offer humanity,” says Deutsch.
Dr. Ungar’s leading-edge work in “the feminine,” and in child, adolescent, and adult analysis, coupled with her leadership achievements in transforming current and future psychoanalytic training have significantly impacted the future of psychoanalysis. Her psychoanalytic approach established a radical new model of incorporating child and adolescent psychoanalytic training as part of an analysts' clinical curriculum. The additional training has contributed to primary prevention in childhood. Ungar has also carved out a contemporary interdisciplinary approach to “the feminine,” not limited to a female body but found in women, men, children, adults, and works of art. Her work unites gender theories born in anthropology and sociology and provides cultural context for where psychoanalytic processes take place. Ungar’s professional path led to her becoming the first woman president of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA).
To broaden psychoanalysis’ scope and fully develop its potential around the world, in 2018 Ungar crafted the program IPA in the Community. Partnering with psychoanalytic societies, international organizations, and humanitarian groups, the program supported broad demand and participation in the community. The initiative increased the visibility of psychoanalysis and engaged young professionals by working directly with teachers, professors, lawyers, social workers, doctors, and nurses to connect to the most vulnerable populations around the globe (women, children, migrants and refugees). Within these programs, Ungar emphasized how beyond the traditional practice of psychoanalysis, healthcare and other professional disciplines can leverage psychoanalytic principles to impact the challenges communities face.
To reach a wide audience IPA in the Community shared information through new media such as webinars, online resources, blogs, and a series of podcasts organized by Dr. Harvey Schwartz, counting 137 episodes and over 10,000 listens a month. Faced with the unprecedented challenges posed by a global pandemic, Ungar’s work helped hold the psychoanalytic and mental health communities together through online activities, including the acceptance of remote training during that period. Ultimately the achievements of impactful work done by analysts around the world within IPA in the Community was recognized through awards for over 20 projects.
Currently on the faculty at The University Institute of Mental Health of the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association, Argentina, Ungar published chapters of books that showcase her method of conceiving new ideas for clinical practice of psychoanalysis, therapy for children and adolescents, women and the feminine and the need for psychoanalysts to evolve by applying lessons learned from other disciplines.
“I feel honored to earn The Sigourney Award because I believe it’s the most important prize in psychoanalysis. In an unquiet world as the one we live in, the presence of psychoanalysis in the community is necessary. This brings about a process of mutual enrichment which is crucial for the growth and expansion of psychoanalysis,” says Ungar.
Ungar’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 Vittorio Lingiardi, MD (Rome, Italy); Rosine Perelberg, PhD (London, England); and Daniel Pick, PhD (London, England), whose work also met the demanding Award criteria.
Dr. Jorge Claudio Ulnik Wins The Sigourney Award-2021
Dr. Jorge Claudio Ulnik’s work focused on psychosomatic and psychodermatology to address the mind-body relationship from a psychoanalytic perspective earns The Sigourney Award-2021.
Innovative Psychosomatic And Psychodermatology Work Exemplifies Mind-Body Relationship And Earns Argentinian Dr. Jorge Claudio Ulnik The Sigourney Award-2021
Seattle, WA — Nov. 18, 2021 – The Sigourney Award annually rewards achievements that advance psychoanalytic thought with international recognition and a substantial cash prize. This year’s distinguished panel of independent judges reviewed applications from five continents. Today, William A. Myerson, Ph.D., MBA, and co-trustee of The Sigourney Trust announces Dr. Jorge Claudio Ulnik’s work in psychosomatics and psychodermatology and the work of two others have won The Sigourney Award-2021.
“Our founder, Mary Sigourney, intended to recognize and promote outstanding work that advances psychoanalytic thought and its ability to better humankind worldwide. Dr. Ulnik’s work reinvigorating medical and clinical interest in psychosomatic psychoanalytics exemplifies Mary’s vision,” says William A. Myerson, Ph.D., MBA, the Trust’s psychoanalytic co-trustee.
The innovative psychosomatic and psychodermatologic work developed by Dr. Jorge Ulnik exemplifies the important work being done on the mind-body relationship from a psychoanalytic perspective. Dr. Ulnik is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and Associate Professor of Pathophysiology and Psychosomatic Diseases (School of Psychology), and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health (School of Medicine) at the Buenos Aires University in Argentina. His work represents an innovation that continues the work of Freud (“the skin is the erogenous zone par excellence”) and pioneers such as Enrique Pichón-Rivière, Max Schur, Didier Anzieu, Esther Bick, and others. At the psychosomatic dermatology center founded by Dr. Ulnik, dermatologists refer patients to psychoanalytic therapy, continuing and strengthening psychoanalytic perspectives into areas primarily thought of as medical. Dr. Ulnik's work has helped to revitalize psychosomatic research, theory, and practice in Latin America, Spain, and Russia.
These concepts are taught at the Buenos Aires University, and widespread in social networks, medical publications, and congresses, and are of interest to psychoanalysts working with infantile mental states, attachment disorders, and somatic disorders.
“We live in times of bubbles, shells and screens. All of them insufficient wrappings – a kind of second skin – as a defense against the social and affective distancing that has been imposed on us. On the contrary, the recognition of the Sigourney Award will enable us to break barriers and continue building bridges between psyche and soma that can be crossed by physicians and patients, thus achieving a closer, more humane and personalized medical practice and a greater well-being in patients. At the same time, it leads us to continue working and researching to restore psychoanalysis to the place that general practitioners and specialists need it to occupy together with them in the difficult task - and art - of healing,” says Dr. Ulnik.
His work also reached Europe, North America, Australia, South Korea, and Israel, revitalizing interest in research and promoting awareness of psychoanalysis’ importance in the treatment of somatic diseases. The work encouraged doctors and patients to work with psychoanalysts and advanced psychoanalytic understanding of emotional engagement expressed by the body and specially by the skin. Presentations of this work in many cities where psychoanalytic approaches are not integrated into medical practices have supported the importance of psychoanalysis in treating psychosomatic disorders, and helped doctors and general practitioners to understand the mind-body connection. His book, Skin In Psychoanalysis (2007), translated in four languages and published in five countries, further shares this work’s benefits.
Apart from clinical work, Dr. Ulnik’s work includes development of film debates, conducting a Spanish cycle of cinema and psychoanalysis in London celebrating the 100th anniversary of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. These activities directed to the general public were then replicated in medical circles, TV, and Internet, facilitating a better knowledge and understanding of psychoanalysis and promoting it as a method for the deep comprehension of the human mind and the mind-body relationship.
According to Dr. Ulnik, millions of patients worldwide suffer from psychosomatic disorders and meanwhile, the study of psychosomatics has faded in many analytical institutes. Consequently, young analysts may not value the important contribution that psychoanalytic psychosomatics has made in theory and practice of analysis. The intention of his work is to revive interest in this vital area. His work expands audiences, by not only helping patients with skin or other somatic diseases, but by understanding why an allergy arises after a traumatic event, a psoriasis after a separation, etc. It advances in the understanding of the body language of the early childhood, in the symbiotic bonds of disorganized attachment, in the massive identifications, in the role of the own image and that of the others in the human psyche.
This award-winning work adds to a long list of innovative contributions advancing psychoanalytic thought that, since 1990, have been honored with The Sigourney Award, an independent international prize. This year, work by the Massachusetts-based nonprofit, Erikson Institute For Education, Research, and Advocacy of the Austen Riggs Center, and Maryland-based physician-psychoanalysts, Dr. David Scharff and Dr. Jill Savege Scharff, was also deemed award-worthy.
“We are encouraged to receive and reward the diverse submissions which represent the expansion of reach and impactful role of psychoanalytic thought around the world,” says Barbara Sherland, J.D., attorney co-trustee of The Sigourney Trust.
This year’s winning work will be highlighted with individual videos on The Sigourney Award website in early 2022. Applications for The Sigourney Award-2022 will be accepted in March 2022 for work completed between 2011 and 2021. The Sigourney Award includes a substantial cash prize.