Helí Rafael Morales Ascencio, Ph.D, Wins The Sigourney Award 2020
/Mexico City Psychoanalyst Helí Rafael Morales Ascencio Wins The Sigourney Award-2020 Prize For Psychoanalytic Achievement
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Dr. Morales’ pioneering work provides treatment for those who have previously had little or no access to psychoanalytic care in Mexico and is recognized alongside award-winning work from South Africa and the United States.
Seattle, WA — January 13, 2020 – The Sigourney Award-2020 rewards annually groundbreaking and innovative work that advanced the field of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought to benefit humankind. This year an unprecedented number of applicants vied for the Award’s international recognition and a substantial cash prize.
Today, William A. Myerson, Ph.D., MBA, and co-trustee of The Sigourney Trust announces four winners of The Sigourney Award-2020 including the work of Heli Rafael Morales Ascencio, Ph.D., founder of the Social Foundation of Psychoanalysis in Mexico City, where analysts are trained to care for victims of sexual violence and the relatives of over 177,000 missing women in Mexico.
“Dr. Morales’ expansive body of work in Mexico encompasses psychoanalysis, education, community activism, and social justice to provide care for victims of physical and sexual crimes, who have previously had little or no access to psychoanalytic care,” says Dr. Myerson. “This work exemplifies founder Mary Sigourney’s goal of rewarding work that advances psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought across many applications,” he adds.
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 psychoanalysis 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 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.
"For me, being awarded this important award means an honor and a commitment. This motivates me and challenges me to continue working hard in the different fields of intervention involving psychoanalysis: conceptual, writing, editorial, research and radical clinic. The award will also allow us to continue to support, in various cities in Mexico, the Psychoanalytic Listening Clinics that receive low-income people and, one of the fundamental points of the social foundation's commitment to Psychoanalysis, to provide psychoanalytic listening to violent women and relatives of missing persons," Dr. Morales said.
Dr. Morales also authored Another History of Sexuality as well as seven other books, and presented Psychoanalysis with Art at the Prado Museum in Madrid and the Museum of Fine Arts in Mexico. He has also worked with other psychoanalysts to create a new training proposal for analysts carried out in different cities of Mexico and which includes three topologically linked dimensions: social ink of study, supervised clinical practice and personal analysis.
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 Patricia Gherovici, Ph.D., a psychoanalyst and Associate Faculty for the Psychoanalytic Studies Minor at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-founder and director of the Philadelphia Lacan Group; Anton Oscar Kris, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a psychoanalyst, a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and past Executive Director of the Sigmund Freud Archives; and the South African Psychoanalytical Association (SAPA), a nonprofit organization based in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Today, psychoanalysis embraces a range of philosophies, modern clinical theories, social advocacy, culture, art, and research. The Sigourney Award honors the expansion and connection of psychoanalysis to many fields of study and experience through the independent Award,” says Barbara Sherland, J.D., co-trustee for 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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