Gradiva Awards (National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis) for Best Edited Book: The Spectre of the Other in Jungian Psychoanalysis

The awards were inspired by Freud’s essay “Delusions and Dreams in Jensen’s Gradiva” (1907(1905)), in which he stated:

“Creative writers are valuable allies and their evidence is to be prized highly, for they are apt to know a whole host of things between heaven and earth of which our philosophy has not yet let us dream … they draw upon sources which we have not yet opened up for science.”

In 1994, Robert Quackenbush proposed these awards for the best published, produced, or publicly exhibited works that advance psychoanalysis. Recalling Freud’s words, NAAP established the Gradiva® Awards to honor our “valuable allies,” including writers, artists, producers, directors, publishers, and others. The winners of the first Gradiva® Awards were announced at the 1995 annual NAAP conference, and included a revival of Moss Hart’s play “Lady in the Dark,” with Kitty Carlisle Hart accepting the award on behalf of her late husband, and Judith E. Daykin accepting an award as Executive Director for the play produced by Encores!

Quackenbush designed and rendered in woodcut the symbol for the awards (now a registered trademark for NAAP) and this was in turn etched on brass plates then mounted on wood. Quackenbush based his rendering on a wall plaque that hung in Freud’s office––a plaster copy of an ancient Roman, marble bas-relief that is displayed in the Vatican Museum.

The sculpture represents a young woman, attired in clothing of the period, stepping along in a charming gait. The image inspired a short novel by Wilhelm Jensen titled Gradiva, a version of Shaw’s Pygmalion, in which a young man falls in love with the image of the girl on the bas-relief and names her Gradiva. He dreams that she lived in Pompeii during the eruption of Vesuvius and he wants to save her. After, while exploring ruins in Italy, he sees in real life the Gradiva of his dreams walking among the columns.

“I could identify with Freud’s words,” says Quackenbush. “I know about the power of being in touch with my unconscious as a professional artist, writer, and psychoanalyst. That was my motivation for wanting to establish the Gradiva® Awards at NAAP: to call forth recognition and appreciation of artists, writers, musicians, poets, filmmakers, and publishers who have made significant contributions to the psychoanalytic community.”

While fear may remain in the minds of those who shun psychoanalysis for what they think might kill their art, the Gradiva® Awards confirm that exploration of the unconscious may do just the opposite, making psychoanalysis a fertile ground for ideas and new works.