Dr. Virginia Ungar’s Work Featured in the News
The Sigourney Award-2023 recipient, Dr. Virginia Ungar, shared her winning work with children and adolescents on Arash’s World Podscast.
She shares their unique difficulties and challenges, especially having to deal with some of the drawbacks of technology and the current state of the world in this podcast and video.
Winners In The News
Dr. Jack Drescher’s work and four fellow 2022 recipients featured in Tap Magazine.
A profile of Dr. Drescher’s professional journey is shared along with summaries of all 2022 recipients’ work noted in a recent Tap Magazine article.
Click Here to Read the Article
Daniel Pick’s Work Featured on International Podcast
History and psychoanalysis meld together in the work of The Sigourney Award-2023 recipient, Daniel Pick.
Tune into Arash’s World Podcast as Professor Pick discussed these topics as well as his book, Brainwashed: A New History of Thought Control.
The Sigourney Award-2023 Recipients Are Announced!
Distinguished judges evaluated submissions from an exceptional pool of global applicants and four recipients’ work merited the prestigious award. Please join us in congratulating (in alphabetical order) The Sigourney Award-2023 recipients: Vittorio Lingiardi, MD (Rome, Italy); Rosine Perelberg, PhD (London, England); Daniel Pick, PhD (London, England); and Virginia Ungar, MD (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
Robin Deutsch, PhD, Analyst Co-Trustee, The Sigourney Award Trust and Barbara Sherland, JD, Attorney Co-Trustee applaud the groundbreaking work achieved by the recipients and offer thanks to all who shared their own incredible work for consideration.
The Sigourney Award-2023 Honors Four Recipients for Outstanding Work Advancing Psychoanalytic Principles Globally
Distinguished Panel of Judges Select Extraordinary Psychoanalytic Work By Individuals From Argentina, Italy, and the United Kingdom
SEATTLE, WA – Nov. 2, 2023 -- The Sigourney Award Trust annually rewards achievements that advance psychoanalytic thought and principles worldwide with international recognition and a substantial cash prize. This year, distinguished judges evaluated exceptional submissions and selected four whose work, during the past ten years, merits winning The Sigourney Award-2023. Robin A. Deutsch, PhD and Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, announces the recipients, including: Vittorio Lingiardi, MD (Rome, Italy); Rosine Perelberg, PhD (London, England); Daniel Pick, PhD (London, England); and Virginia Ungar, MD (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
Mary Sigourney founded The Sigourney Award Trust in 1989 to recognize and promote exceptional work that advances psychoanalytic principles and their ability to better humankind. The 2023 recipients’ achievements are infused with uncommon interdisciplinary approaches and distinct psychoanalytic perspectives seeking to mitigate human suffering based on sexual and gender identity, race, or religion, and oppression by authoritarian regimes.
"Each of the recipients’ work has helped elevate the awareness and beneficial impact of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thinking globally, supporting Mary Sigourney's intended vision,” says Dr. Deutsch. "Our international assembly of judges, each respected for their professional contributions, identified the work that most closely fulfills Ms. Sigourney's directives and offers new pathways to positively impact humanity through psychoanalysis.”
Work Meriting The Sigourney Award-2023 (In alphabetical order)
Vittorio Lingiardi, MD (Rome, Italy)
Professor Vittorio Lingiardi’s pioneering work in psychodynamic diagnosis and LGBTQ+ issues demonstrates an ability to bridge the gap between the richness and complexity of psychoanalytical clinical practice and the need for empirical soundness; all the while finding novel ways to extend psychoanalysis’ reach and effect. On these topics he has been able to reach key audiences through books, articles, editorials, TV programs, and social networks. A psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and full professor at Sapienza University of Rome, Lingiardi splits his clinical practice focus on working with patients from marginalized groups and serving people with personality and interpersonal problems. His research in the LGBTQ+ field has helped change a "classical" and often pathologizing psychoanalytic viewpoint. He helped formulate and publish the Italian guidelines, endorsed by the National Board of Italian Psychologists, for psychotherapy and counseling with LGBTQ+ patients and has often spoken publicly in defense of minoritized groups and families’ civil rights to increase social acceptance.
Additionally, Lingiardi’s work focused on “resuscitating” the word diagnosis in psychoanalytic culture and clinical practice. He and Nancy Williams co-edited the second edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2). Their revisions embedded an empirically based psychoanalytic approach to diagnosis and placed personality and its traits in a broader psychoanalytic diagnostic framework. Closely interconnected with the patient's mental functioning and symptomatology, grounded in research, and systematized in the PDM-2, the Manual now reaches an international audience in multiple languages.
Rosine Perelberg, PhD (London, England)
Professor Rosine Perelberg’s open-minded work coalesces psychoanalytic thought and social anthropology expertise to offer a forward-looking framework for the understanding of temporality, sexuality, and antisemitism. Offering an innovative interpretation of paternal and maternal functions, in both clinical practice and social phenomena, as well as a psychoanalytic understanding of the Shoah (Holocaust) her work emphasizes the relevance of psychoanalytic insights in navigating contemporary societal challenges. Perelberg’s integration of British clinical traditions with French, American and Latin American conceptual psychoanalysis has profoundly influenced international psychoanalysis’ ability to acknowledge and learn from the varying application.
A practicing psychoanalyst and visiting professor at the University College London, Perelberg’s clinical work is innovative, poetic and rigorous. An acclaimed author, Perelberg’s work is informed by her anthropological training with topics focused on phantasies of origin, exploring the infantile‘s unconscious drives related to the symbolic functions of the maternal and paternal. The distinction between the murdered father and the dead father plays a crucial role in enhancing understanding of pressing social and political issues. In Sexuality, Excess and Representation she offers a ground-breaking psychoanalytic framework for the understanding of bisexuality and sexual difference. Under her leadership as president of the British Psychoanalytical Society (2019-2022), her international influence helped guide protocols for virtual teaching and practice of psychoanalytic work virtually through the pandemic. Her seven-minute film, The Empty Couch, created at the onset of the pandemic had great social impact as it amassed nearly 5,000 views.
Daniel Pick, PhD (London, England)
Professor Daniel Pick’s engaging and interdisciplinary work has investigated how psychoanalytic thought has been mobilized to face some of the most dire political challenges of modern times. Drawing on clinical experience and humanities studies expertise, his projects have mapped the extent and impact of clinical involvement in wartime intelligence, debates on denazification and the Cold War, and the consolidation of post-war liberal democracy. Over the last decade, his work as an historian and a psychoanalyst generated new information and discussion about unconscious processes inside the mind, and at work between people. Moreover, it has illuminated how demagogues and other mind manipulators harness the passions of crowds (on the street and online).
In an era of political catastrophes, his research has helped underscore how psychoanalysis is shaped by history and can deepen interpretations of historical processes. Ranging across debates on fascism, brainwashing, totalitarianism, populism, groupthink, conspiracy theory, online radicalization, and advertising, Pick’s findings are communicated through non-traditional pathways integrating film, books, radio documentaries, podcasts, and more. His work delves into unfamiliar sources and considers afresh the historical consequences of Freud’s “revolution in mind.” Through his books Brainwashed: A New History of Thought Control (2022) and The Pursuit of the Nazi Mind: Hitler, Hess, and the Analysts (2012), he shows how psychoanalysis and the serious study of history can engage with each other. Pick’s work is part of a wider endeavor by historians exploring, explaining, applying, and/or historically contextualizing psychoanalysis.
Virginia Ungar, MD (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
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. 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). 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.
"The Sigourney Award’s tenets have not changed. With Mary Sigourney’s direction and a wholly independent perspective, we annually reward exemplary work completed in the recent 10 years by a group, organization or individual. We hope future applicants and nominees are inspired by our recipients’ accomplishments and continue to pursue their own original approaches to positively impact the value and reach of psychoanalytic principles," says Barbara Sherland, JD, Attorney Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust.
Vittorio Lingiardi’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award - 2023
Dr. Vittorio Lingiardi’s pioneering work in psychodynamic diagnosis and LGBTQ+ issues demonstrates an ability to bridge the gap between the richness and complexity of psychoanalytical clinical practice and the need for empirical soundness; all the while finding novel ways to extend psychoanalysis’ reach.
Dr. Vittorio Lingiardi’s Work Supporting Complex Psychodynamic Diagnoses
With Empirical Soundness Earns The Sigourney Award-2023
Seattle, WA — Nov. 2, 2023 – The Sigourney Award-2023 bestows international recognition and a substantial cash prize for outstanding work that advances psychoanalytic thought worldwide. Annually, a prestigious panel of judges carefully reviews applicants from across the globe and today, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD and Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, announces Vittorio Lingiardi, MD, Rome, Italy, as one of four international recipients presented this year’s prestigious prize.
“Professor Lingiardi’s extensive scholarly work and public engagement elevates the standing of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thinking in his home country as well as abroad, embodying Mary Sigourney’s defined commitment to disseminating psychoanalysis’ benefits in and outside of the confines of the consulting room,” said Deutsch.
Professor Vittorio Lingiardi’s pioneering work in both psychodynamic diagnosis and LGBTQ+ issues demonstrates an ability to bridge the gap between the richness and complexity of psychoanalytical clinical practice and the need for empirical soundness; all the while finding novel ways to extend psychoanalysis’ reach and effect. On these topics he has been able to reach key audiences through books, articles, editorials, TV programs, and social networks. A psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and full professor at Sapienza University of Rome, Lingiardi splits his clinical practice focus on working with patients from marginalized groups and serving people with personality and interpersonal problems. His research in the LGBTQ+ field has helped change a "classical" and often pathologizing psychoanalytic viewpoint. He helped formulate and publish the Italian guidelines, endorsed by the National Board of Italian Psychologists, for psychotherapy and counseling with LGBTQ+ patients and has often spoken publicly in defense of minoritized groups and families’ civil rights to increase social acceptance.
Additionally, Lingiardi’s work focused on “resuscitating” the word diagnosis in psychoanalytic culture and clinical practice. He and Nancy Williams co-edited the second edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2). Their revisions embedded an empirically based psychoanalytic approach to diagnosis and placed personality and its traits in a broader psychoanalytic diagnostic framework. Closely interconnected with the patient's mental functioning and symptomatology, grounded in research, and systematized in the PDM-2, the Manual now reaches an international audience in multiple languages.
During the past decade, Lingiardi’s research concentrated on three key elements: 1) enhancement of psychodynamic diagnosis, therapeutic alliance, and case formulation emphasizing the importance of patients for “who they are” not “what they have;” 2) depathologization of non-heterosexual and non-cis-normative conditions; and 3) dissemination of psychoanalytic constructs and culture to a wide audience including non-specialists, with a focus on public interventions concerning psychoanalysis and social culture, mental health, public health strategies, and the rights of sexual minorities. His work tries to free the diagnostic formulation from a simple labeling process in order to develop the concept of case formulation, as each patient is at once unique but also referable to a clinical category.
His work has reached key audiences through articles, editorials, TV programs, widely published books, and social networks. Lingiardi’s weekly column, “Psycho” for the magazine il Venerdì di Repubblica, features reviews of film’s impact as it pertains to the psychological subjectivity of the viewer. His essays – for example, “Diagnosis and Destiny” (2018) and “Archipelago N. Variations on Narcissisms” (2021) – have a poetic style. Lingiardi is also a poet, with two published books of poetry, titled My Confusion is Precise in Love (2012) and Alterations of Rhythm (2015). His psychological literary essay Mindscapes (2017) won the Viareggio-Giuria Award, a major Italian literary prize.
“They say psychoanalysis is dying but one of the most exciting things about this discipline is that she can psychoanalyze herself and learn from her own errors. She is always evolving so it's impossible to switch off the energy of psychoanalysis,” Lingiardi says, adding, “Winning The Sigourney Award is one of the happiest moments in my career, and I want to acknowledge the commitment and support of my colleagues and collaborators.”
Lingiardi’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 Rosine Perelberg, PhD (London, England); Daniel Pick, PhD (London, England); and Virginia Ungar, MD (Buenos Aires, Argentina), whose work also met the demanding Award criteria.
Rosine Perelberg’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award - 2023
Professor Rosine Perelberg’s open-minded work coalesces psychoanalytic thought and social anthropology expertise to offer a forward-looking framework for the understanding of temporality, sexuality, and antisemitism.
Professor Rosine Perelberg Wins The Sigourney Award-2023 For Work Establishing a Creative Dialogue Between Psychoanalysis And Social Anthropology To Address Temporality, Sexuality and Antisemitism
Seattle, WA — Nov. 2, 2023 – Annually, The Sigourney Award 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 across the globe and today, Robin A. Deutsch, PhD and Analyst Co-Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust, announces Rosine Perelberg, PhD, from London, England, as one of four international recipients presented the prestigious prize.
“Professor Perelberg’s interdisciplinary work incorporating social anthropology and principles of psychoanalytic thinking to positively influence the lives of countless people around the world reflects Mary Sigourney’s commitment to raising the visibility of psychoanalysis and its benefits for society,” said Deutsch.
Professor Rosine Perelberg’s open-minded work coalesces psychoanalytic and social anthropology expertise to create a forward-looking framework for the understanding of temporality, sexuality, and antisemitism. Offering an innovative interpretation of paternal and maternal functions, in both clinical practice and social phenomena, as well as a psychoanalytic understanding of the Shoah (Holocaust), her work emphasizes the relevance of psychoanalytic insights in navigating contemporary societal challenges. A practicing psychoanalyst and visiting professor at the University College London, Perelberg’s clinical work is rigorous, innovative, and poetic. Perelberg’s integration of British clinical traditions with French, American and Latin American conceptual psychoanalysis has profoundly influenced international psychoanalysis’ ability to acknowledge and learn from the various applications.
An acclaimed author, Perelberg’s work integrates her anthropological training with topics focused on phantasies of origin, exploring the infantile unconscious drives related to the symbolic functions of the maternal and paternal. The distinction between the murdered father and the dead father plays a crucial role in enhancing understanding of pressing social and political issues. In Sexuality, Excess and Representation she offers a ground-breaking psychoanalytic framework for the understanding of bisexuality and sexual difference. Under her leadership as president of the British Psychoanalytical Society (2019-2022), her international influence helped guide through the pandemic the protocols to continue the teaching and practice of psychoanalytic work virtually. Her seven-minute film, The Empty Couch, created at the onset of the pandemic had great social impact as it amassed nearly 5,000 views.
In the last 10 years, Perelberg has published five books which have been translated into seven languages, among them, Psychic Bisexuality: A British-French Dialogue, which brought a fresh and nuanced notion of bisexuality to mainstream psychoanalysis and to universities. The book earned the Best Edited Book Prize for 2019 by the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis.
Perelberg completed her master's degree in social anthropology at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, before receiving her PhD in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics, University of London.
“I was astonished to learn I’d won The Sigourney Award. It feels like an award one aspires to win; it is the most important professional achievement I’ve earned to date – a huge honor,” says Perelberg.
Her 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); Daniel Pick, PhD (London, England); and Virginia Ungar, MD (Buenos Aires, Argentina), whose work also met the demanding Award criteria.
Daniel Pick’s Work Wins The Sigourney Award - 2023
Professor Daniel Pick’s engaging and interdisciplinary work has investigated how psychoanalytic thought has been mobilized to face some of the most dire political challenges of modern times.
Professor Daniel Pick Earns The Sigourney Award-2023 For Work Exploring How Psychoanalytical Thought Can Be Mobilized To Face Modern Political Challenges
Seattle, WA — Nov. 2, 2023 – The Sigourney Award is bestowed annually for outstanding work that advances psychoanalytic thought worldwide, honoring recipients with international recognition and a substantial cash prize. 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 that Daniel Pick, PhD, London, England is among the four recipients whose work earns The Sigourney Award-2023.
“Professor Pick’s interdisciplinary work skillfully intertwines history, humanities, and clinical psychoanalytic practice to shape new conversations that can benefit greater society. This fully supports Mary Sigourney’s mission to reward work that promotes the advantages of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thinking to improve the world around us,” said Deutsch.
Professor Daniel Pick’s engaging and interdisciplinary work has investigated how psychoanalytic thought has been mobilized to face some of the most dire political challenges of modern times. Drawing on clinical experience and humanities studies expertise, his projects have mapped the extent and impact of clinical involvement in wartime intelligence, debates on denazification and the Cold War, and the consolidation of post-war liberal democracy. Over the last decade, his work as an historian and a psychoanalyst generated new information and discussion about unconscious processes inside the mind, and at work between people. Moreover, it has illuminated how demagogues and other mind manipulators harness the passions of crowds (on the street and online).
In an era of political catastrophes, his research has helped underscore how psychoanalysis is shaped by history and can deepen interpretations of historical processes. Ranging across debates on fascism, brainwashing, totalitarianism, populism, groupthink, conspiracy theory, online radicalization, and advertising, Pick’s findings are communicated through non-traditional pathways encompassing film, books, radio documentaries, podcasts, and more. His work delves into unfamiliar sources and considers afresh the historical consequences of Freud’s “revolution in mind.”
His books explore ways that patients may at times feel themselves to be faced by a draconian superego authority or seek to exert powerful control over the mind of the analyst; and yet, his writings also show how profound psychic change can come about in the process. In Brainwashed: A New History of Thought Control (2022) and The Pursuit of the Nazi Mind: Hitler, Hess, and the Analysts (2012), he shows how a serious study of history can engage with psychoanalysis. Pick’s work is part of a wider endeavor by historians exploring, explaining, applying, and/or historically contextualizing psychoanalysis.
Recognized as a leader integrating history and psychoanalysis, Pick has received a senior investigator award from the Wellcome Trust for a team-based project between 2014 and 2021 on the history of brainwashing. In collaboration with others, he was also granted a public engagement award under the auspices of Birkbeck College, University of London. These grants totaling over one million pounds enabled Pick to conduct sustained research, collaborate with others, and facilitate doctoral students, post-docs, associated scholars, clinicians, documentary filmmakers, and others to inquire into and debate “hidden influence” in culture, commerce, and politics.
His projects help illuminate the value of Freudian thought for understanding group psychology in conditions of tyranny as well as liberty, and the risks of “wild analysis,” political misapplications, and commercial exploitations.
“I’ve always been interested in the applications of Freudian thought and historizing psychoanalysis. I have contemplated how ‘the talking cure’ was grounded in a particular history and have suggested how it can speak to contemporary dark times. Psychoanalysis is a resource not only for therapy and theorizing the mind but can also consider the passions unleashed in mass conflict, war, and other forms of human destructiveness. When looking at conflicts, in minds, or in societies psychoanalysis does not hold all the answers. However, it invites us to ask crucial questions about the role of unconscious processes, defenses, and phantasy and remains as relevant today as in Freud’s time,” says Pick.
Pick’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 Vittorio Lingiardi, MD (Rome, Italy); Rosine Perelberg, PhD (London, England); and Virginia Ungar, MD (Buenos Aires, Argentina), whose work also met the demanding Award criteria.
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.
Mark Solms’ Work Featured in Podcast
Sigourney Award recipient (2011) and renowned South African psychoanalyst Mark Solms recently spoke with RobinsonErhardt as a guest on “Robison’s Podcast.”
Tune in to this YouTube show focusing largely on neuropsychoanalysis: youtube.com/watch?v=xw1s27…
The Sigourney Award at IPA 53rd Congress
We proudly hosted a private gathering of luminaries in the psychoanalysis world during the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) 53rd Congress.
We celebrated The Sigourney Award recipients from 2019-2022 and introduced previous recipients present in Cartagena. What a wonderful evening!
Special thanks to all of the guests who joined us. Thank you, too, to our guest hosts, Ines Bayona (Sigourney Advisory Council) and Claudio Eizirik (2011 Sigourney Award recipient), who effortlessly stepped in to help us welcome, introduce and congratulate those responsible for the impactful work the Award has recognized throughout the years.
Dr. Jack Dresher, 2022 Recipient, Celebrates LGBTQ+ Evolution
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the American Psychiatric Association’s removal of homosexuality from its Diagnostic Manual. Sigourney Award-2022 recipient Dr. Jack Drescher is a member of the LGBTQ Committee of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry and recognized for his work in the field of gender and sexuality identity.
In this recent Psychology Today column, he addresses the historic evolution of thinking and monumental changes in therapy approach and cultural adaptation worldwide.
Read the full article here : https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychiatrys-think-tank/202304/it-is-now-50-years-since-gay-people-were-cured
Winner Dr. Jack Drescher in the News
The Sigourney Award often inspires media interest for winners, and most recently, Dr. Jack Drescher shared his reflections on the work that earned him The Sigourney Award-2022.
In this recorded video interview with Leah Kuntz, associate editor for Psychiatric Times, you’ll hear about the impact of receiving the award, and then you’ll find his personally, written essay submitted separately.
Visit the link below to learn about Dr. Drescher’s accomplishments and impactful work addressing gender and sexuality.
Link to video interview and personal essay.
Winner Dr. Giuseppe Civitarese in the News
The Psychiatric Times asked Dr. Giuseppe Civitarese to reflect on his contributions to psychoanalysis and his journey to receiving The Sigourney Award-2022 for his work.
Dr. Civitarese shared “I was nominated in previous years by some colleagues of fame and had not won The Sigourney Award. I did not apply again until a North American colleague, Caron Harrang, nominated me…”
Read the full article HERE.
Winner Dr. Jack Drescher In the News
Our recipients receive media attention from around the globe, and this week, we’re pleased to share a podcast spotlighting Dr. Jack Drescher, a Sigourney Award-2022 winner.
In this episode of Arash’s World Podcast based in Canada, Dr. Drescher participates in an in- depth discussion about Psychoanalysis, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation.
Tune in to the Podcast HERE.
Winners in the News
Professor Alessandra Lemma (UK) introduces her work rewarded with The Sigourney Award-2022 in this Psychiatric Times profile.
Meet Professor Lemma in a personal video and written essay in which she describes the work she’s achieved over the past decade, and shares what winning the independent Sigourney Award means to her, professionally and personally.
Free Event
Sat., Jan. 7th, "After Vienna: A conversation with Otto Kernberg, MD, and Thomas Kohut, PhD," is the first of an important roundtable series. There’s still time to participate.
“From Despair To Hope: The Holocaust, Immigration, and Psychoanalysis in North America” is an part of an important series presented in collaboration between the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center and the Sigmund Freud Museum honoring the late Anton O. Kris, MD.
Sat., Jan. 7 at 12 p.m. ET
Winners in the News
Pioneering work by Dr. Edward Tronick, one of the Sigourney Award-2022 recipients, is included in this writer’s description of human connection.
This feature in The Orion discusses interesting influences on social exchange.
Winners in the News
Dr. Dorothy Evans Holmes, a Sigourney Award-2022 recipient, leads a free CE/CME course through The Erikson Institute of Austen Riggs Center.
The Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center, a Sigourney Award-2021 recipient, presents Dr. Dorothy Evans Holmes’ lecture, “Journeying Toward Racial Equity in North American Psychoanalysis. Registration is required. CE/CME credit for these courses is available for those with an MD, PhD, PsyD and social workers at this time. Registration is required.
Winners in the News
Dr. Jack Drescher, a recipient of The Sigourney Award-2022, adds his expert commentary to this feature surrounding gender dysphoria in @medpagetoday.
"What we're seeing is there's more people presenting and clinicians are using the diagnostic code more often," Drescher told MedPage Today.
Press Release for The Sigourney Award-2022
A panel of distinguished judges evaluated work from an exceptional pool of global applicants to honor five recipients whose work merits the prestigious, independent prize, The Sigourney Award-2022.
The Sigourney Award-2022 Honors Five Recipients For Outstanding Work Advancing Psychoanalytic Principles Globally
____________
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.