Every year, the American Psychoanalytic Association honors those who have written about or taught psychoanalysis in an exceptional way. We extend congratulations to the award winners recognized at the Winter 2007 Meeting.
The 2006 Award for Excellence in Journalism was given to Jerry Adler, Claudia Kalb, and Anne Underwood for their work on “Freud Is NOT Dead” in the March 27, 2006, issue of Newsweek. Underwood did the reporting on the story, which was written by Adler. Kalb wrote a sidebar story about Freud as a pioneering neuroscientist.
Only journalists for non-trade publications are eligible for the Award for Excellence in Journalism. Over the years, however, the Committee on Public Information has worked with exceptional trade journalists, and found two such journalists worthy of special recognition. A Special Recognition Award was presented to Carl Sherman, who writes for Clinical Psychiatry News, and Joan Arehart-Treichel, who reports for Psychiatric News (a publication of the American Psychiatric Association). Arehart-Treichel's award was for an article she wrote about Freud's contributions, 150 years after his birth, to present-day psychoanalysis and psychiatry.
The CORST Essay Prize in Psychoanalysis and Culture was granted to Kevin Groark for his essay “Placing the Self: Dreaming, Discourse, and Disavowed Volition among the Tzotzil Maya of Highland Chiapas, Mexico.”
Andrea Celenza received the Karl A. Menninger Memorial Award for her paper, “The Threat of Male-to-Female Erotic Transference.” In this paper, Celenza wrote about her analysis of M and the various dimensions of erotic transference as they unfolded in his treatment. She emphasized “how traditional socio-cultural gender stereotypes may cause female analysts…to subtly foreclose the impending threat of intense erotic transference due to the fear of outwardly directed male aggression.” Celenza's paper was published in the Fall 2006 issue of JAPA.
The 2006 Scientific Paper Prize was awarded to Ephi Betan, Amy Kegley Heim, Carolyn Zittel Conklin, and Drew Westen for their paper, “Countertransference Phenomena and Personality Pathology in Clinical Practice: An Empirical Investigation.” In this study, they subjected a fundamental psychoanalytic concept to empirical investigation and validated its significance for clinical work. They identified eight distinct dimensions of countertransference, offering a complex, nuanced picture of clinicians' reactions to their patients. They also found significant correlations between these countertransference responses and patients' personality pathology, supporting the idea that the clinician's reactions are useful to the diagnostic understanding of a patient's interpersonal dynamics.
APsaA especially wants to encourage the work of candidates, as they carry the future of analysis with them. Selected for the Affiliate Council Scientific Paper Prize was Catherine Terri Lee for her paper, “Romantic Mirroring and Erotic Transference in the Female Analytic Dyad.” Lee presented the point of view that female homoerotic transference may reflect an attempt by the analysand at developmental repair in the original love relation with her mother. She suggested that the female analyst confronts gender-specific challenges to address her counterresistance to the homoerotic transference. Unrecognized counterresistance will hamper analytic understanding and therapeutic response to this potentially healthful initiative by the patient.
While the awards emphasize excellence in psychoanalytic writing, the American Psychoanalytic Association recognizes that excellence in teaching is equally important. The following analysts were awarded the Edith Sabshin Teaching Award:
Deena Adler,
Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia
Stephen Marmer,
California Psychoanalytic Society
Aimee Nover,
Baltimore Washington Center for Psychoanalysis
Regina Pally,
New Center for Psychoanalysis
Beth Seelig,
Atlanta Psychoanalytic Society
William Thornton,
Dallas Psychoanalytic Society
Kathryn Zerbe,
Oregon Psychoanalytic Society
The selection of award winners from among so many talented candidates and graduate analysts is a daunting task for those entrusted with this duty. It remains, however, a labor of love and an ongoing indication of APsaA's commitment to excellence now and in the future.
A. Michele Morgan, M.D., chairs the Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity. She is a graduate of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute and has a private practice in Detroit.