The Gradiva® Awards, hosted annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP), celebrate works that represent progress in the psychological arts and letters. The 2025 nominations . This year there are again a number of Jungian colleagues who have been nominated for their contributions.

In the Journal Article category, Susanne Short offers a poignant ecological and literary meditation in her piece, Who Shall Soothe these Feverish Children? Drawing on Walt Whitman’s poem Passage to India and the nature writing of Rick Bass, Short explores the psychological necessity of reconnecting with the earth. Her work addresses the restlessness of the modern  psyche, that is caught in a cycle of technological expansion and environmental crisis, and proposes that nature serves as a primary cooling force and a source of humility. By integrating literary analysis with clinical depth, Short suggests that our survival depends on a psychological return to the organic roots of the world.

The evolution of gender theory is another major theme among this year’s Jungian nominees. Robert Tyminski’s article, Humanizing Different Archetypal Expressions of Gender Expansiveness, which was notably awarded the Michael Fordham Prize, challenges the field to move beyond binary and pathologising views of gender. Tyminski advocates for a “mosaic-like” clinical approach that recognizes gender fluidity as a natural, humanised archetypal expression rather than a clinical problem to be solved. Complementing this is Benjamin Swogger’s work, Anima and Animus in Jung’s Time and Ours, which traces the historical development of these concepts. Swogger argues for a modern revision that de-emphasises rigid gender stereotypes, instead viewing the anima and animus as functional relational links between the conscious mind and the vastness of the unconscious.

In the Digital Media category Thomas Singer is nomiated for his Substack which has become a vital platform for exploring Cultural Complexes. Singer applies Jungian insights to the intersection of psychology, politics, and culture, examining how collective traumas and group identities function as autonomous forces in the modern psyche. His work serves as a digital “inner sociology,” helping readers navigate the polarised social landscape by identifying the archetypal patterns lurking beneath political discourse. This nomination highlights the evolving nature of the field, as analysts move from the private consulting room into the public digital square to address the world.

Finally, the Documentary, Movies and Play category features the evocative “Eranos: A Play” by Murray Stein and Henry Abramovitch. This dramatisation brings the historic 1947 Eranos conference to life, placing the audience in Ascona, Switzerland with the cast of characters. In the wake of World War II’s devastation, the play depicts C.G. Jung, Erich Neumann, and others as they use the I Ching and dialogue to confront the problem of evil. The work serves as both a historical record and a living demonstration of active imagination. Together, these nominees honor the spirit of the Gradiva by ensuring that Jungian thought continues to step forward into the light of contemporary reality.

Established to recognise works that advance psychoanalytic understanding through literature, art, and research, the awards are named after the famous Roman bas-relief of a walking woman—the “Gradiva”  which is the Latin for “she who steps forward”. This image became a cornerstone of psychoanalytic history after Sigmund Freud wrote a famous analysis of Wilhelm Jensen’s novella Gradiva, using the figure as a metaphor for the analytic process of uncovering the past to enable psychological movement. 

You can see a full list of all categories and nominees, here.