Greenspan Receives Sigourney Award

Psychiatrist Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D., of Bethesda, Md., is the recipient of the 2004 Mary S. Sigourney Award for distinguished contributions to psychoanalysis.

The award was presented to Greenspan, a pioneer in the field of infant and child development, at a dinner meeting of the Mary S. Sigourney Award Trust in New York earlier this year. Newell Fischer, M.D., president of the American Psychoanalytic Association, presented the award.

The award was established by psychotherapist Mary Singleton Sigourney to recognize distinguished contributions by individuals and organizations to the field of psychoanalysis.

In accepting the award, Greenspan called on the field of psychoanalysis to meet the challenge of biological reductionism and what he called“ anti-humanistic ways of conceptualizing human and mental functioning.”

He said that rather than offering insights into how biological phenomena become experienced at different psychological levels, the new biological reductionism seeks to describe human functioning solely in terms of biological systems or surface behaviors.

“What's missing from current approaches is a consensus regarding basic assumptions of what constitutes a human mind,” he said. “Is it simply symptoms, behaviors, biochemical and physiologic patterns, or is it also fundamental relationships, affective experiences, wishes, and various levels of feelings and conflicts?”

Greenspan said developmental studies of children and infants had revealed that a number of capacities comprise the human mind. These include the ability to form relationships and engage in sustained intimacy, to experience and express a wide range of deeply felt affects, and to construct a sense of self and others.

More information about the award and award recipients is posted online at<www.sigourney.org/history.aspx>.▪