Announcing the 2026 Ralph Roughton Paper Award Winner
New York, NY – December 11, 2025 –The American Psychoanalytic Association is pleased to announce that Michael Perlman, MFA (New York, NY) has been selected as the 2026 Ralph Roughton Paper Award recipient for the manuscript Ready or Not: The Queer Experience of Being Found.
Established in 1998 in honor of Ralph Roughton, M.D., founding Chairperson of APsA’s Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues, the award originally recognized published papers that advanced psychoanalytic understanding of gay and lesbian lives. In 2007, the scope of the award expanded: in years when the prize is awarded, it now honors an unpublished manuscript that makes an original and outstanding contribution to the psychoanalytic understanding and/or treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans, or gender-variant people.
Perlman’s winning paper uses Winnicott’s theory of the hidden core self to explore how queer identity may be concealed, revealed, and negotiated within the therapeutic relationship. Drawing on clinical material, the paper illustrates how psychoanalytic technique can be adapted to work “queerly,” allowing patients to move in and out of visibility while working through conflicts surrounding sexuality.
Presentation at the National Meeting
The award-winning paper will be presented at the 2026 APsA National Meeting during Committee Sponsored Workshop #2: Gender and Sexuality, co-chaired by Carol B. Levin, M.D. (Okemos, MI) and Diana E. Moga, M.D., Ph.D. (New York, NY).
This session is designed for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and trainees who wish to deepen their clinical understanding of working with queer patients. The program is intended to satisfy the requirements of states that mandate CE/CME credits in cultural competency, though final determination rests with each state licensing board.
Award Details
The Ralph Roughton Paper Award includes:
• A $1,000 cash prize
• An invitation to present at the APsA National Meeting
• Eligibility to submit the manuscript for review by The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, where—if accepted—it will be published as the official award-winning paper
Sponsor
The award is sponsored by the Committee on Gender & Sexuality of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
