Press Release for The Sigourney Award 2019 Winners
/Seattle, WA — July 9, 2020 – The Sigourney Trust has presented its highly prestigious Sigourney Award 2019 to four remarkable recipients in the international psychoanalytic community. While the formal spring 2020 presentation in Vienna was cancelled due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the recipients are being personally congratulated and honored with a substantial cash prize and award for work completed.
“We continue to be impressed by the quality of work being put forth by our international applicants and congratulate this year’s award recipients,” says Dr. William A. Myerson, PhD, MBA, co-trustee of The Sigourney Trust. “We are proud to maintain Mary Sigourney’s original intent to reward innovative work and hope this distinctive acknowledgement continues to inspire those embracing psychoanalysis – both seasoned and emerging in experience – to apply from around the world for reward and recognition,” he adds.
The 2019 winners join a long list of the world’s top talent who, since 1990, have been honored with The Sigourney Award. The Award honors recipients’ recent past work, not future work, as judges look for a substantial body of outstanding work during the last ten years. A nominee's accomplishments should be insightful or ground-breaking, advance the understanding or evolution of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought, and advance the public good.
Recipients of The Sigourney Award - 2019:
Dr. Rodolfo Moguillansky's work has played a pivotal role in developing and expanding psychoanalysis in Argentina and throughout Latin America. While serving as rector of the Instituto Universitario De Salud Mental de APdeBA (IUSAM), Dr. Moguillansky helped lead efforts to attain full academic accreditation for the university’s psychoanalytic training program. Built on the International Psychoanalytic Association’s tripartite training model, the University’s fully accredited program has helped solidify psychoanalysis’ position as a legitimate area of study in Latin America and has attracted students from across South America.
A not-for-profit charitable organization based in Germany, Partners in Confronting Collective Atrocities (PCCA) is unique in its location of pain and guilt within the group, rather than in the individual. While PCCA is a community-based psychoanalytic and social welfare enterprise led by psychanalysts from various countries, it also attracts and recruits many non-analysts. PCCA seeks to positively impact the residual effects of trauma and atrocities on individuals, communities, and national groups. PCCA represents the extension and application of psychoanalysis to the sphere of social reality and offers a fruitful way of dealing with large scale trauma, beginning with the Holocaust and extending to other atrocities, victims, and perpetrators.
Work by Siri Gullestad, PhD, has profoundly impacted the evolution and acceptance of psychoanalysis as a scientific discipline in Norway. A researcher, theoretician, educator and a powerful public voice, Gullestad developed a highly innovative psychoanalytic theory that was applied to both university training and clinical treatment. A well-respected spokesperson for psychoanalysis, she is skillful at communicating the relevance of unconscious conflict and fantasy to the general public.
Dr. Henri Parens’ innovative research work in the United States has focused on a psychoanalytic approach to the understanding and treatment of aggression. Working with caregiver/children dyads, Dr. Parens and his colleagues documented their hypothesis that caregivers could be taught optimal ways to handle the emergence of aggression in children and this approach could improve the children’s lives. Dr. Parens and his colleagues used real life moments to help teach parents and caregivers how to respond in ways that would enhance their children’s emotional development. Focusing on the caregiver’s role in shaping the child’s capacity to manage their own aggression and teaching care givers new ways of responding at moments of real urgency between caregiver and child, Dr. Parens is able to teach new and alternative ways to handle aggression.
“The work of these award recipients represents Mary Sigourney’s vision of how psychoanalysis can serve humanity worldwide,” said Dr. Myerson. “Today, psychoanalysis embraces a range of philosophies, modern clinical theories, social advocacy, culture, art, and research. The Sigourney Trust honors the expansion and connection of psychoanalysis to many fields of study and experience through The Sigourney Award,” he added.
Applications for The Sigourney Award 2020 are being accepted through Sept. 15, 2020. Visit www.sigourneyaward.org for information and find The Sigourney Award on social platforms including Facebook and LinkedIn @SigourneyAward.
About The Sigourney Award
Established by Mary Sigourney in 1989, The Sigourney Award offers independent, international recognition and a substantial cash prize for outstanding work that advances 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, 129 Award Recipients from 21 countries represent her global vision. The Sigourney Award recipients’ ground-breaking work has significantly contributed to human affairs on topics ranging from neuroscience to feminism.