ISSTD News

Annual Awards

2017 Annual Award Nominations Now Open


The ISSTD Awards Committee is currently accepting nominations for ISSTD Annual Awards and for ISSTD Fellow status to deserving recipients. Below please find information regarding the ISSTD awards categories and links to the Annual Awards and Fellow nomination application forms. The deadline for award nominations is December 31, 2016 at 11:59PM EST.

ISSTD ANNUAL AWARDS CATEGORIES
Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest recognition given to an individual or individuals who have contributed over a generous span of time to the field of dissociation and/ or trauma and the ISSTD.

Cornelia B. Wilbur Award

The Cornelia B. Wilbur Award is given to an individual for outstanding clinical contributions to the treatment of dissociative disorders. Examples are (a) furthering the availability of diagnosis and treatment of dissociative disorders , (b) clinical research in diagnostic or treatment modalities, including treatment outcome, (c) advances in diagnostic instruments or diagnostic criteria, (d) diagnostic studies in various populations, or (e) new treatment techniques.

Morton Prince Award for Scientific Achievement

Given to an individual who has made outstanding cumulative contributions to research in the area of dissociative disorders.

David Caul Award

The David Caul Memorial Award is given for the best published or non-published paper, thesis, or conference abstract written by a resident or trainee in the field of dissociation and/or trauma.

Distinguished Achievement Award

Given to individuals who have distinguished themselves in the ISSTD.

Media Award-Audio/Visual

The Media Award is given to an individual or organization for the best-written written media (e.g., books, newspapers) and best audiovisual media (e.g., films, television, videos) that deal with dissociation and/or trauma.

Pierre Janet Writing Award

Given to an individual for the best clinical, theoretical, or research paper in the field of dissociation and/or trauma within the past year.

New in 2017! Sándor Ferenczi Award

Given for the best published work in the realm of psychoanalysis related to trauma and dissociation in adults and/or children.

Student Award

The Student Award is presented to a trainee (i.e., undergraduate, graduate, pre-graduate intern or postgraduate resident) for: (a) outstanding service to the Society; (b) an exceptional contribution to or innovation in clinical or service delivery in the field of dissociative disorders; or (c) an exceptional contribution to or innovation in training in the field of dissociative disorders.

ISSTD Fellow
Fellow status may be awarded to individuals who have been members for five years or more, who have made outstanding contributions to the diagnosis, treatment, research, or education in the dissociative disorders field and to the Society.
Please link to the following forms for your nominations:
PROCEED TO ANNUAL AWARDS NOMINATION FORM

PROCEED TO FELLOW STATUS NOMINATION APPLICATION

Submissions of all nominations and recommendations must be received by January 31, 2017, 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.

THE SÁNDOR FERENCZI AWARD

The Sándor Ferenczi Award has been created to both recognize Ferenczi’s seminal contribution to the study of trauma and dissociation as well as to honor the best work published during the last year in psychoanalysis related to trauma and dissociation in adults and/or children.

A Hungarian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Sándor Ferenczi (1873-1933) was unique in recognizing the role of chronic childhood abuse and dissociation in his patients. He tried to adapt his psychoanalytic approach to the reality of this chronic traumatization. Ferenczi wrote, for instance:

“When the child recovers from such an attack [of sexual abuse], he feels enormously confused, in fact, split–innocent and culpable at the same time–and his confidence in the testimony of his own senses is broken.
… If the shocks increase in number during the development of the child, the number and the various kinds of splits in the personality increase too, and soon it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain contact without confusion with all the fragments each of which behaves as a separate personality and yet does not know even of the existence of the others.” S. Ferenczi (1933, pp. 162, 165; quoted by Hainer, 2016, pp. 62-63)

Near the end of his life, Ferenczi was maligned by members of the local psychoanalytic society, including Freud, and became an outcast. In a book chapter paying tribute to his unique and pioneering contributions, Margaret Hainer (2016) states:

“[T]he overriding reason for Ferenczi’s disappearance was the controversial nature of his last writings: the development of a dissociated model of the mind and a different clinical approach that were far in advance of his time–so much so that the works that were held as evidence of his craziness are the very ones that are now seen as prescient, contemporary, and powerful.” Hainer ( 2016, p. 66)

Ferenczi’s insights are now reflected and built upon in modern psychoanalysis, even while his contributions still generate some controversy. The Awards Committee feels it is very timely that ISSTD is able to honor both Sándor Ferenczi and the writings of like-minded contemporary psychoanalytic authors.

Reference
Hainer, M. L. (2016). The Ferenczi paradox: His importance in understanding dissociation
and the dissociation of his importance in psychoanalysis. In E. Howell & S. Itzkowitz (Eds.), The dissociative mind in psychoanalysis: Understanding and working with trauma (pp. 57-84). New York: Routledge.

The Awards Committee