| The Award Process |
|
Each year the Trustees select three judges who will choose the Award recipients for that year. To keep the process independent, the identity of the judges remains confidential except to the Trustees and the other judges. A judge may be a practicing psychiatrist or psychoanalyst, a member of the academic community, a researcher intimately involved in evaluating the psychoanalytic process, or any other qualified person familiar with psychoanalytic work in the region of that year's Award. The Trust recognizes one or more individuals and/or organizations each year. Individuals whose work is closely related may share an Award. Trustees solicit nominations for the Award from the psychoanalytic community through available organizational and other Internet services and Web facilities, as well by informing the leaders of psychoanalytic societies and institutes, the editors of psychoanalytic journals, former Sigourney Award recipients, and other significant opinion-makers located in the region of the Award. After collecting nominations over a six-month period, the Trustees collate all material and submit the nominations, curriculum vitae, and accompanying support documents to the judges. Each judge, working independently, then submits to the Trustees a ranked preferential selection of candidates accompanied by the rationale for the choices. If the judges are not unanimous, the judges and Trustees then confer to achieve consensus. Upon achieving unanimity among the judges, the Trustees notify the recipients of the judges' decision and invite them to a ceremony in their honor, which is usually scheduled early in January the following year. |