Pink Freud? Tune in!

Indulge me with your listening, asks Dr. Patricia Gherovici, in her recent podcast appearance with Psychoanaliterature. The Sigourney Award-2020 winner takes the audience through her work on transgender psychoanalysis, tracing its roots to the Argentinian Lacanian tradition and to “pink Freud.” 

Tune in: https://psychoanaliterature.pinecast.co/episode/99146b34/pink-freud

In the News Again: Dr. Patricia Gherovici, 2020 Winner

Dr. Patricia Gherovici, originally from Argentina, had the opportunity to highlight her work with transgender individuals in Filo.News, an Argentinian publication. Within the article’s Q&A, Dr. Gherovici articulates how she believes psychoanalysis can serve marginalized communities and so many others.

The Sigourney Award is delighted to share Dr. Gherovici’s work with Filo.News’ impressive audience of more than 500,000 monthly visitors.

Read the full text here!

Press Release for The Sigourney Award 2020

The Sigourney Award-2020 Honors Four Recipients With Distinguished Independent Prize for Advancing Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Thought

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Judges Select Psychoanalytic Work with Impact from Mexico, South Africa and the United States

Seattle, WA — Jan. 13, 2021 – A panel of distinguished judges evaluated a record number of applications received from 13 countries for The Sigourney Award-2020 and have selected four winners. Today, William A. Myerson, Ph.D., MBA, and psychoanalyst co-trustee of The Sigourney Trust, announces the work that merits winning this prestigious, independent annual award which includes a substantial cash prize.

“The accomplishments rewarded recognize the evolution of our profession and represent the courageous application of psychoanalytic thinking as it is emerging around the world,” says Dr. Myerson.

The Trust’s founder, Mary Sigourney, sought to expand psychoanalysis in the world by recognizing and promoting the most insightful work that advances psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought and its ability to benefit the public good. Judges for The Sigourney Award hold strong to the Trust’s mission and remain anonymous to support an unbiased and thorough evaluation process.

The Sigourney Award-2020 Winners (Alpha order)
Patricia Gherovici, Ph.D., is a psychoanalyst who serves as Associated Faculty for the Psychoanalytic Studies Minor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder and director of the Philadelphia Lacan Group. Originally from Argentina, Dr. Gherovici’s work with marginalized communities, began with Latinx and expanded to include gender and sexual variant people. Addressing the complexities of delivering mental health services to disenfranchised and/or impoverished communities, her work is at the forefront of a change within psychoanalysis. In a departure from traditional psychoanalysis, she has been developing a new form of psychoanalytic practice oriented toward progressive social transformations for people segregated by “oppressive notions of normalcy.” Before most people within psychoanalysis were thinking about speaking about intersectionality, Dr. Gherovici was illuminating how race, trans and queer studies intersected problematically with psychoanalysis. Her work with trans and gender nonconforming analysands has contributed to the emerging new field “transpsychoanalytics.”

Anton Oscar Kris, M.D., is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a psychoanalyst, a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and a past Executive Director of The Sigmund Freud Archives, Inc. Dr. Kris’ work has helped to sustain and grow Freud’s theories in an age that has misunderstood and challenged Freud’s relevance, while providing leadership in a careful reconsideration of them. Where necessary, Dr. Kris led discourse which criticized and corrected Freud without any trace of idealization or devaluation through careful study of Freud’s source material and method, free association. As the Archives’ Executive Director, Dr. Kris’ work included raising funds and establishing the freedom from copyright for Freud’s holographs and bringing the Archives into the public domain, publishing them on the Library of Congress website. The digitization of the Archives has exponentially expanded readership. In the first six months, the new pages received 165,000 visits. These efforts provide invaluable and unprecedented visibility of Freud and psychoanalysis, the importance of which will be apparent to future generations of analysts, scholars, historians, and the lay public around the world. Balancing a deep appreciation of psychoanalysis’ roots with a modern, humanistic approach to and adaptation of traditional Freudian concepts, Dr. Kris’ work has already influenced analysts and psychotherapists around the world.

Helí Rafael Morales Ascencio, Ph.D., founder of the Social Foundation of Psychoanalysis in Mexico City, Mexico, is also a founding member of two other movements that include The Lacanian Analytical Network and the School of the Psychoanalytic Letter. The pioneering work of Dr. Morales addressed the lack of institutional psychoanalytic work aimed at low-income people in Mexico and illustrates how intersecting psychotherapy and activism can help survivors of violence and their families. He founded the Social Foundation of Psychoanalysis whose analysts provide care for victims of sexual violence and relatives of the 177,884 missing women in Mexico. One in three Mexican women are reportedly experiencing physical or sexual violence. The Foundation’s psychoanalytic listening clinics in Mexico City, Cuernavaca, Morelia, Puebla, and Oaxaca receive people without financial resources or hurt by sexist violence in response to the epidemic levels of physical or sexual violence. The Foundation has established a new and rare relationship between the state and psychoanalysis helping to implement support for rape victims through the Attorneys' Office for Sexual Crimes in Mexico City.

The South African Psychoanalytical Association (SAPA) of Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, is a nonprofit organization that has dramatically increased the reach of psychoanalytic thought and psychoanalysis for people with histories of apartheid, racism, and trauma in South Africa. SAPA successfully established the first psychoanalytic society accredited by the International Psychoanalytical Association on the African continent and helped deconstruct racist barriers within psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical training. SAPA president, Elda Storck, accepts the Award on behalf of the organization. Through clinical, applied, and community work, SAPA has enhanced access to psychoanalysis across all economic and demographic boundaries for South Africa’s people. Following apartheid in 1948, South Africans who wanted to train as psychoanalysts had to study abroad, an opportunity only accessible to those who had the socio-economic status and means necessary. As a result, trainees often remained abroad. Overcoming significant systemic racial and economic obstacles, SAPA graduated its first “homegrown” psychoanalysts in 2016. Currently the organization has 23 analysts (15% black), 25 candidates (33% black), an unprecedented achievement of analyst diversity in Africa and around the world.

“The unprecedented quantity and quality of the applicants’ work made the judges’ assignment particularly challenging. We hope the winning work inspires others to consider how they too can expand their work to greater benefit humanity,“ says Barbara Sherland, J.D., co-trustee of The Sigourney Trust.

Formal presentation of both 2020 and 2019 Award winners is tentatively planned for July 2021 and dependent on COVID protocols in place then.  Applications for The Sigourney Award-2021 are accepted beginning March 2021 for work completed within the past 10 years. Applicants who do not win are welcome to enter again. Visit www.sigourneyaward.org for information.

About The Sigourney Award 
The Sigourney Trust, an independent nonprofit organization established by Mary Sigourney in 1989, bestows annually The Sigourney Award as international recognition and reward for outstanding work that advanced psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought. Ms. Sigourney was a psychotherapist, publisher, and community activist who had a passionate interest in psychoanalysis and understood its ability to benefit and extend human conversation across various disciplines. To date, 133 Award Recipients from 22 countries represent her global vision. The Sigourney Award recipients’ ground-breaking work has significantly contributed to human affairs on topics ranging from clinical psychoanalysis, neuroscience, feminism, and political oppression.
 

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Patricia Gherovici, PhD, Wins Sigourney Award 2020

Psychoanalyst Patricia Gherovici’s Work With Latinx And Nonconforming Gender People Earns The Sigourney Award-2020 Prize For Psychoanalytic Achievement

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Dr. Gherovici’s work in the US earns the independent prize recognizing contributions to advancing psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought alongside work from Mexico and South Africa.

Seattle, WA — January 13, 2020 – The Sigourney Award-2020 annually rewards top work that advanced the field of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought, and this year a distinguished panel of independent judges reviewed an unprecedented number of applications from 13 countries. Today, William A. Myerson, Ph.D., MBA, and co-trustee of The Sigourney Trust announces four winners for The Sigourney Award-2020, including the work of Patricia Gherovici, Ph.D.

Dr. Patricia Gherovici is a psychoanalyst who serves as Associated Faculty for the Psychoanalytic Studies Minor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder and director of the Philadelphia Lacan Group. Originally from Argentina, Dr. Gherovici’s work with marginalized communities began with Latinx and expanded to include gender and sexual variant people. Addressing the complexities of delivering mental health services to disenfranchised and/or impoverished communities, her work is at the forefront of a change within psychoanalysis. In a departure from traditional psychoanalysis, the new form of psychoanalytic practice she has been developing is oriented toward progressive social transformations for people segregated by “oppressive notions of normalcy.” Before most people within psychoanalysis were thinking about speaking about intersectionality, Dr. Gherovici was working to illuminate how race, trans and queer studies intersected problematically with psychoanalysis. Her work with trans and gender nonconforming analysands has contributed to the emerging new field “transpsychoanalytics.”

“Dr. Gherovici’s work supports Award founder Mary Sigourney’s goal of rewarding innovation in the field that advances psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought to benefit humanity,” says Dr. Myerson.

Her award-winning book The Puerto Rican Syndrome (2010) opened a more sustained conversation about psychoanalysis and community and directly inspired collective work such as the 2014 Symposium: Psychoanalysis in El Barrio at the New School for Social Research, as well as the PEP WEB documentary Psychoanalysis in El Barrio (2016) and her co-edited collection Psychoanalysis in the Barrios: Race, Class and the Unconscious (2019). She also authored Please Select Your Gender: From the Invention of Hysteria to the Democratizing of Transgenderism (2017). All of these works challenged the assumption that psychoanalysis is only effective for those who can afford it, directly referencing her work, which advocates for transcending barriers of money, class, gender, sexuality and race.

“I am honored to be selected as a winner of [The Sigourney Award-2020]. After years of listening to marginalized people who did not feel heard and pushing for their inclusion within psychoanalysis, I hope this award will lend visibility to the efficacy and emancipatory potential of psychoanalysis for Latinx and gender nonconforming communities.,” says Dr. Gherovici. “For a long time, I have been saying that psychoanalysis needs a sex-change. It also needs a social change. The recognition granted by this distinction proves that this change is happening. I would like to express my gratitude to the panel of judges and to The Sigourney Trust for their commitment to improving the world through psychoanalysis and for their support of my vision,” she adds.

The winning work of 2020 adds to a long list of innovative contributions advancing psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought that, since 1990, have been honored with The Sigourney Award. This year, three additional prizes were awarded to recognize work by Anton Oscar Kris, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a psychoanalyst, Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society, and past Executive Director of the Sigmund Freud Archives; Heli Rafael Morales Ascencio, Ph.D., founder of the Social Foundation of Psychoanalysis in Mexico City, Mexico and a founding member of three movements on psychoanalysis including the School of Psychoanalytic Letter, the Psychoanalysis Social, and The Lacanian Analytical Network; and the South African Psychoanalytical Association (SAPA), a nonprofit organization based in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Our judges were incredibly impressed by the breadth of work submitted for consideration this year, and we’re proud of the ground-breaking contributions and exceptional advancements in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought that earned The Sigourney Award-2020,” says Barbara Sherland, J.D., co-trustee, The Sigourney Trust.

The Sigourney Award-2021 applications will be accepted online beginning March 2021. The Sigourney Award evaluates work completed within the recent 10 years, and applicants whose work does not win are welcome to enter again. The Sigourney Award includes a substantial cash prize. Visit www.sigourneyaward.org for information and stay updated via social platforms for The Sigourney Award on Facebook and LinkedIn @SigourneyAward.

About The Sigourney Award 
The Sigourney Trust, an independent nonprofit organization established by Mary Sigourney in 1989, bestows annually The Sigourney Award as international recognition and reward for outstanding work that advanced psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought. Ms. Sigourney was a psychotherapist, publisher, and community activist who had a passionate interest in psychoanalysis and understood its ability to benefit and extend human conversation across various disciplines. To date, 133 Award Recipients from 22 countries represent her global vision. The Sigourney Award recipients’ ground-breaking work has significantly contributed to human affairs on topics ranging from clinical psychoanalysis, neuroscience, feminism, and political oppression.

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