The American Psychoanalytic Association has awarded Stephen Sonnenberg, M.D., of The University of Texas at Austin with its Distinguished Service Award.
The award is presented to an association member who has rendered exceptional service to the association and has made important and lasting contributions to the profession and science of psychoanalysis.
Sonnenberg, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, is an adjunct professor in the School of Architecture and in the College of Liberal Arts Plan II Honors Program. He is also fellow-in-residence at the university’s Humanities Institute and a faculty member of the Human Dimensions of Organizations, both in the College of Liberal Arts. He is a faculty fellow in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement and is affiliated with the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice.
For more than four decades, Sonnenberg has devoted himself to clinical psychoanalysis, as both a healing art and a humanities discipline. His research interests focus on the points of intersection between psychoanalysis and areas such as war, violence, psychic trauma and post-traumatic psychological disorders, addiction and the treatment of addiction, decision-making, architecture and design, and education and effective teaching methods.
“Dr. Sonnenberg is a practitioner ever-striving to master his craft, a hard working humanities scholar, a committed researcher, an innovative teacher and a community minded public intellectual,” said Robert Pyles, M.D., president of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
Sonnenberg was educated at Princeton University, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the University of Wisconsin, the National Institute of Mental Health and the Baltimore-DC Institute for Psychoanalysis
Teaching and conducting research in the School of Architecture, the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Law, Sonnenberg works to actualize his belief that psychoanalysis can be a unique catalyst promoting interdisciplinary collaborations involving the liberal arts, the natural sciences and various forms of professional education.
Sonnenberg is currently directing and overseeing a Veterans Community Park and Pavilion Project to serve the Austin community. The project is sponsored by the School of Architecture, the Humanities Institute, the Rapoport Center and the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement.
The American Psychoanalytic Association is a professional organization of psychoanalysts with approximately 3,300 members. The association is composed of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, educators, researchers and students who have an interest in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy.
