2025 Application Window Opens March 1

The application period for The Sigourney Award-2025 is open March 1, 2025 – July 31, 2025.

Overview of Award Process

The Sigourney Award welcomes applications from around the globe each year. The Trust recognizes that the applicant pool includes extremely accomplished individuals and organizations, with contributions spanning decades. However, The Sigourney Award recognizes only work which has been produced during the most recent ten years. For the 2025 award, only work produced from 2015 through 2024 will be considered.

The completed application should clearly communicate what is outstanding or innovative about the applicant/nominee’s recent work and articulate that work’s impact. Each application question is intended to facilitate the judges’ understanding of the work’s contribution to one or more of the judging criteria.

• Applicants (organizations, teams, and individuals) apply online 

• Completed applications received by the application due date, are reviewed by an independent panel of judges who determine that year’s work. 

• Applicants are contacted regarding their status in November.  

Applicant Categories

There are three application categories: individual, team, or organization. Each category describes how the work being submitted for the award was produced. All Applicants must complete an application, including those who have been nominated

Individual -  work conducted by a sole individual.

Team - work conducted by a group of individuals, or a committee within an organization.

Organization - work conducted for or by a for-profit or not-for-profit organization. 

Nominations

Nominator - A Nominator is a person who proposes the work of an individual, team, or organization for The Sigourney Award. Nominators answer a series of questions about the work’s impact in the form of an online letter. The Letter of Nomination and a request to complete an application is forwarded to a Nominee.

Nominee - The Nominee is responsible for completing an application using the application link in the Nominator's email. The link will include the Letter of Nomination for the Nominee to read before completing the application.

Definition of Roles

• Applicant or Nominee – Individuals, teams, or organizations may apply directly, or they may be nominated by a third party. Nominees complete the same process as any other applicant.

• Nominator – A person who proposes the work of an individual, team, or organization by answering a series of questions about the work’s impact in the form of an online letter. Nominators and Supporters respond to the same series of questions. 

• Application Collaborators – Anyone the primary applicant adds to the application, who can then contribute to the application (team members, organization members, nominators, or supporters).

• Supporter – A person who answers a series of questions about the work’s impact in the form of an online letter. Nominators and Supporters respond to the same series of questions.

Who is Eligible?

• Organizations, teams, and individuals from all regions, across the globe are eligible for the Award. 

• Applicants whose work represents a significant contribution to psychoanalysis and/or psychoanalytic principles, over 10 years preceding the award year. Proposed work or work still in progress is not eligible. 

• Applicants whose work uses psychoanalytic principles to transform the human experience for the better, and/or

• Applicants whose work applies psychoanalytic principles beyond psychoanalysis, including but not limited to art, journalism, medicine, science, and social justice

• Previous applicants who do not win are encouraged to apply again for work completed within the 10-years prior to the Award year.  

The Trust encourages and seeks broad diversity among its applicants and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), sex, gender, gender expression or identity, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, or military status. 

Who is Not Eligible?

• Applicants may not be currently serving or have served during the preceding year as an officer of any national or international psychoanalytic association. 

• Applicants may not be currently serving or have served as a Trustee of The Sigourney Award Trust. 

• Past Award Recipients are not eligible to submit applications in future award years.  

• Applicants whose artistic work nominated pushes beyond conventional boundaries of contemporary psychoanalytic theory or practice and has influenced or increased awareness of psychoanalytic thought or principles in unconventional ways.

Application Process

The application questions are designed to help the international panel of judges assess the merits and impact of the applicants’ work. Each individual applicant, team, or organization is asked the same questions. Because submissions vary widely in terms of style, scope, medium, aim, and application, it is up to the applicant and their supporters to provide the judges with clear and detailed information about the work’s relevance, context, and implications.

Applications must be complete and submitted online by the application due date. All theoretical orientations are welcome to apply.  While applications are expected to be clear and articulate, the applications are not judged on writing style, grammar, or spelling to ensure that international applicants are not slighted due to English being a second language.

We encourage applicant’s materials to be submitted in English. However, the Trust welcomes submissions by any individual, team, or organization conducting groundbreaking work anywhere in the world and in any language supported by Google Translate. Please note that the evaluation of submissions will mainly be conducted in English using Google Translate, except when a judge is multilingual.

Nominations

Nominations are welcome, however a nomination is NOT necessary to apply for the Award. All submissions follow the same application process, responding to a series of questions, whether the work is nominated or submitted directly by an applicant. The consistent process for all applicants helps ensure the Award process is equitable.

Letters of Nomination count as one of the three online letters of support required for each application. Nominators submit the nomination electronically. The nominee is notified via email to review the nomination and complete the application process.

Click the link on the Apply page to nominate the work of an individual, team, or organization.

Letter of Support Form

Three Letters of Support are requested as part of the online application. After completing a summary paragraph, applicants provide contact information for their supporters. The supporter will receive a link via email. On the online portal, the supporter responds to a series of questions regarding the applicant's work. Once the form is complete, the supporter acknowledges that the information written is correct and true and then presses the submit button. The online letter of support will automatically be attached to the applicant's application for the judges to review.

Judging Process

Each year, following the application close date of July 31, a panel of three to five independent judges meet to review all completed applicant applications and determine that year’s recipients. Judges are appointed by the Trustees; their identity is strictly confidential. The judges evaluate applicants based on stated criteria and an objective scale. 

The application questions are designed to help the international panel of judges assess the merits and impact of the applicants’ work. Each individual applicant, team, or organization is asked the same questions. Because submissions vary widely in terms of style, scope, medium, aim, and application, it is up to the applicant and their supporters to provide the judges with clear and detailed information about the work’s relevance, context, and implications.

Submitted work may belong to a wide variety of fields. Work will be assessed in terms of one or more of these criteria:

• advancing The Sigourney Award's vision and mission

• enriching psychoanalytic thought, techniques, applications, practices, or institutions

• enhancing the cultural and social impact of psychoanalysis

• facilitating collaborations or dialogues between psychoanalysis and another discipline

• creating work in any form of art that resonates with or casts a new light upon psychoanalysis, in any of its aspects

• expanding the reach of psychoanalytic principles, treatment, or thought generally, or in a specific region, group, or cultural context

• increasing positive public awareness of psychoanalytic principles

Our 2024 Recipients

Award Overview and Benefits  

The Sigourney Award invests in the future of psychoanalysis by rewarding outstanding work that: 

• represents a significant contribution to psychoanalysis and/or psychoanalytic principles, and/or

• brings innovation to the field of psychoanalytic treatment or theory and/or

• applies psychoanalytic principles beyond psychoanalysis, including but not limited to art, journalism, medicine, science, and social justice

Award

• Recipients receive a substantial cash award.

• The award amount of the award varies each year based on a number of variables, including the annual number of recipients and tax requirements.

• Recipients may use their award in any manner they choose.

Recognition

Join a remarkable group of prize Recipients.

• Awards are announced to the global psychoanalytic community.

• Recipients are listed on The Sigourney Award website with a photo and an overview of their work.

• Awards are also announced on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other web-based forums.

• A press release announcing annual Recipients is distributed to press, professional groups, and each Award Recipient.