Patricia Gherovici, PhD, Wins Sigourney Award 2020
/Psychoanalyst Patricia Gherovici’s Work With Latinx And Nonconforming Gender People Earns The Sigourney Award-2020 Prize For Psychoanalytic Achievement
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Dr. Gherovici’s work in the US earns the independent prize recognizing contributions to advancing psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought alongside work from Mexico and South Africa.
Seattle, WA — January 13, 2020 – The Sigourney Award-2020 annually rewards top work that advanced the field of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought, and this year a distinguished panel of independent judges reviewed an unprecedented number of applications from 13 countries. Today, William A. Myerson, Ph.D., MBA, and co-trustee of The Sigourney Trust announces four winners for The Sigourney Award-2020, including the work of Patricia Gherovici, Ph.D.
Dr. Patricia Gherovici is a psychoanalyst who serves as Associated Faculty for the Psychoanalytic Studies Minor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder and director of the Philadelphia Lacan Group. Originally from Argentina, Dr. Gherovici’s work with marginalized communities began with Latinx and expanded to include gender and sexual variant people. Addressing the complexities of delivering mental health services to disenfranchised and/or impoverished communities, her work is at the forefront of a change within psychoanalysis. In a departure from traditional psychoanalysis, the new form of psychoanalytic practice she has been developing is oriented toward progressive social transformations for people segregated by “oppressive notions of normalcy.” Before most people within psychoanalysis were thinking about speaking about intersectionality, Dr. Gherovici was working to illuminate how race, trans and queer studies intersected problematically with psychoanalysis. Her work with trans and gender nonconforming analysands has contributed to the emerging new field “transpsychoanalytics.”
“Dr. Gherovici’s work supports Award founder Mary Sigourney’s goal of rewarding innovation in the field that advances psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought to benefit humanity,” says Dr. Myerson.
Her award-winning book The Puerto Rican Syndrome (2010) opened a more sustained conversation about psychoanalysis and community and directly inspired collective work such as the 2014 Symposium: Psychoanalysis in El Barrio at the New School for Social Research, as well as the PEP WEB documentary Psychoanalysis in El Barrio (2016) and her co-edited collection Psychoanalysis in the Barrios: Race, Class and the Unconscious (2019). She also authored Please Select Your Gender: From the Invention of Hysteria to the Democratizing of Transgenderism (2017). All of these works challenged the assumption that psychoanalysis is only effective for those who can afford it, directly referencing her work, which advocates for transcending barriers of money, class, gender, sexuality and race.
“I am honored to be selected as a winner of [The Sigourney Award-2020]. After years of listening to marginalized people who did not feel heard and pushing for their inclusion within psychoanalysis, I hope this award will lend visibility to the efficacy and emancipatory potential of psychoanalysis for Latinx and gender nonconforming communities.,” says Dr. Gherovici. “For a long time, I have been saying that psychoanalysis needs a sex-change. It also needs a social change. The recognition granted by this distinction proves that this change is happening. I would like to express my gratitude to the panel of judges and to The Sigourney Trust for their commitment to improving the world through psychoanalysis and for their support of my vision,” she adds.
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 Anton Oscar Kris, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a psychoanalyst, Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society, and past Executive Director of the Sigmund Freud Archives; Heli Rafael Morales Ascencio, Ph.D., founder of the Social Foundation of Psychoanalysis in Mexico City, Mexico and a founding member of three movements on psychoanalysis including the School of Psychoanalytic Letter, the Psychoanalysis Social, and The Lacanian Analytical Network; and the South African Psychoanalytical Association (SAPA), a nonprofit organization based in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Our judges were incredibly impressed by the breadth of work submitted for consideration this year, and we’re proud of the ground-breaking contributions and exceptional advancements in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought that earned The Sigourney Award-2020,” says Barbara Sherland, J.D., co-trustee, 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.