the Hans W. Loewald Memorial Award


Hans W. Loewald (1906-1992) was a practitioner, scholar, and teacher with a deep respect for the history and complexity of psychoanalytic thought. He was also an innovator who was willing to challenge prevailing wisdom and to extend the boundaries of psychoanalytic knowledge.

Loewald’s Collected Papers (1980) and his volumes on Psychoanalysis and the History of the Individual (1978) and Sublimation (1988) endure as seminal explorations of psychoanalytic theory and process, creativity, and culture.

As the International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education (IFPE) evolves, so too does our definition of the Hans W. Loewald Memorial award, and we propose this updated description: 

IFPE has established the Hans W. Loewald Memorial Award to recognize extraordinary contributions to psychoanalytic education in the most inclusive sense, such as contributions from the arts and other fields, that promote the animating values and insights of psychoanalysis as understood by IFPE.

Past Recipients of the Award

2023 Rabbi Sharon Brous, The Amen Effect

2022 Carol Gilligan, Ph.D., In a Human Voice

2020 Kimberlyn Leary, Ph.D., MPA, Leading for Equity

2019 Joshua Levy, Ph.D., Analytic Stalemate and Psychoanalytic Supervision

2018 George H. “Mike” Allison, M.D., Michael Allison on behalf of George H. “Mike” Allison, M.D.,
Psychoanalytic Love Acts: The Generativity of George H. “Mike” Allison

2017 Alison Bechdel, The Psychochronology of Everyday Life

2015   Deborah Britzman, Distinguished Research Professor, FRSC, On the Psychoanalytic Situation of Friendship: the case of Mrs. K and Richard

2014   Thomas H. Ogden, M.D., Reading Loewald: Oedipus Reconceived

2013    Arnold D. Richards, M.D., Psychoanalysis of the Left and Far Left

2012   Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D.,   From Mind to World, From Drive to Affectivity: A Phenomenological–Contextualist Psychoanalytic Perspective

2011    Richard A. Isay, M.D., Opposing Anti-Gay Bias in The American Psychoanalytic Association:  A Personal Odyssey

2010   Judith Viorst 

2009   Michael Eigen, Ph.D., Wordlessness

2008   Robert J. Lifton, M.D.

2007    Mark Solms

2006    Christopher Bollas, What is Theory? (Published in The Freudian Moment by Karnac Books UK in 2007)

2005     Ethel Spector Person, M.D.  Revising Our Life Stories

2004    GIFRIC

2003    Andrew Samuels, Ph.D. 

2002    Thomas Szasz, M.D. , The Cure of Souls in the Therapeutic State

2001     Paul Roazen, Ph.D., The Importance of the Past

2000    John Gedo, M.D.

1999    James S. Grotstein, M.D., "The Stranger Within Thee": Who Is the Unconscious?

1998    Joyce McDougall, Ed.D. 

1997    Stanley A. Leavy, M.D. , Psychoanalysis as Askesis

1996    Peter L. Giovacchini, M.D.,  Changing Clinical Orientation, Humor and the Transitional Space

1995    Jessica Benjamin, Ph.D. , Psychoanalysis as a Vocation

1994    Merton Gill, M.D., The Current Scene in Psychoanalysis

1993    Lawrence Friedman, M.D., Ferrum, Ignis, and Medicina: Return to the Crucible