Announcing the JAPA Paper Prize (2024) and New Author Prize
New York, NY — January 31, 2026 — The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Paper Prize (2024) and New Author Prize, honoring outstanding scholarship published in the journal over the past year.
Selected through discussion and an anonymous vote of the JAPA Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors, the JAPA Prize for Best Paper has been awarded jointly to two papers that exemplify the depth, rigor, and innovation of contemporary psychoanalytic thought.
2024 JAPA Prize Recipients
The first recipient is Steven Cooper for his paper, “The Oedipal Virtual Citadel: Varieties of Isolation, Oedipal Conflict, and Cover-Up.” In this classically structured and clinically rich work, Cooper examines patients who retreat from interpersonal relationships into fantasies of self-sufficiency. Through close clinical observation, he illuminates how self-isolation can function not only as a defense against relational vulnerability, but also as a means of preserving a private source of psychic gratification rooted in fantasized Oedipal relationships.
With this award, Dr. Cooper joins a small group of authors who have received the JAPA Prize twice. He was previously honored in 1988 for his paper “Recent Contributions to the Theory of Defense Mechanisms: A Comparative View.”
Sharing the 2024 JAPA Prize are Charles Jaffe, Wilma Bucci, Bernard Maskit, and Sean Murphy for their collaborative paper, “Clinical and Research Perspectives on the Therapeutic Conversation: The Case of Ms. M.” This innovative contribution brings together clinical psychoanalysis and empirical research to closely examine the therapeutic conversation. Drawing on video-recorded and transcribed sessions, clinician self-report, and objective measures of treatment process, the authors offer a nuanced account of the emotional and symbolic texture of analytic dialogue. The editorial board recognized this paper for pointing toward promising new directions in research that remain deeply attuned to the complexity of the clinical encounter.
New Author Prize
The New Author Prize recognizes a new voice within the pages of JAPA. The award is not limited to early-career professionals or first-time authors, but instead honors authors who are new contributors to the journal, while encouraging the development of future contributors to the field.
The New Author Prize has been awarded to Lucinda Ballantyne for her paper, “The Risk of the Revelatory State.” In this reflective and elegantly written work, Ballantyne invites readers to pause amid contemporary relational discourse and reconsider the significance of interiority, privacy, and the unknowable dimensions of psychic life. She sensitively explores moments of rupture or confusion in the analytic process—moments in which patients may come into vital contact with themselves—and challenges analysts to recognize when their task is, simply, not to interfere.
On behalf of the JAPA editorial board, the American Psychoanalytic Association congratulates the 2024 prize recipients and thanks them, along with all JAPA authors, for their contributions to the vitality and future of psychoanalytic scholarship.
Award Presentation
The JAPA Paper Prize and New Author award were given at the 2026 National Meeting in San Francisco.