Paul Graves Myerson Award

Presented by Abigail McNally on 5/30/2026

It is my great honor to present this year’s Paul Graves Myerson Award to MIP’s immediate Past President, Frances Lang, LICSW.

The language describing this award speaks of “forthright and unstinting commitment to MIP,” of “intellectual contributions to the field of psychoanalysis,” and of “courage, vision, openness to ideas, and plainspoken voice.” Our award recipient embodies all of these qualities in extraordinary ways.

Frances completed her psychoanalytic training at PINE — the Psychoanalytic Institute of New England, East — an institute known for its emphasis on neo-Freudian approaches and modern conflict theory. As David Kemmerer beautifully noted in his nomination of her, when Frances first arrived at MIP in 2009 as a faculty member, she was technically “a total outsider.” And yet, for so many of us who encountered her in those early years, she never once felt like an outsider. To meet Frances was to meet someone who immediately made you feel inside something with her, even if you had just met.

I personally first encountered Frances as the faculty member for my Culture course here at MIP. She began that class with a poem that has remained with me ever since: Kenneth Koch’s “One Train May Hide Another.” The poem captures the psychoanalytic sensibility that behind every apparent conflict, every symptom, every visible struggle, there is often another layer — another train moving just behind the one we can see. Over the years, I have come to experience that poem as quietly hovering behind Frances’s leadership style and behind her analytic mind itself. In Mary McDonald’s nomination of Frances for this award, she shared my awe for Frances’ remarkable capacity to “look SO closely at the matter, that it became significant in a whole new way.” I think many of us have had that exact experience with her — whether as students, colleagues, supervisees, or fellow Board members; Frances’ heartfelt and almost innocent curiosity for looking more closely, more deeply, has truly been contagious.

Mary also reflected on studying Fairbairn with Frances and described how she illuminated difficult theoretical diagrams with such clarity that “if that reputedly grumpy Scottish genius had been there, he’d be proud.” Mary’s comment captures something essential about Frances as both analyst and teacher: she does not simplify complexity by flattening it. Rather, she enters deeply into it and somehow helps others find themselves inside it and looking around with wonder rather than overwhelmed and defeated by it.

That same intellectual depth has extended beyond the classroom and into the broader psychoanalytic conversation. Caleb Englander recently reminded the Coordinating Committee of Frances’s remarkable 2017 book review in JAPA on Charlotte Beradt’s The Third Reich of Dreams — a haunting collection of dreams gathered during the rise of Nazi Germany. Frances’s engagement with the text was so thoughtful and compelling that it contributed to the book being brought back into print. I think this accomplishment says something important about Frances: she has always possessed an unusual capacity to recognize psychologically and culturally important material, to stay close to difficult truths, and to help others see what might otherwise remain hidden or forgotten.

And it was precisely this quality that became so important during Frances’s presidency…. She courageously stepped into leadership during an extraordinarily difficult period — politically, socially, institutionally, and personally for many of us. We were emerging from the exhaustion and disorientation of the pandemic, while MIP itself was struggling with painful divisions, low morale, and longstanding tensions that had become increasingly difficult to ignore.

David recalled Frances’s stated shock at the tensions and animosities that were present at Board meetings when she first joined a number of years ago. Yet, what is remarkable is that she did not retreat from that experience. Instead, as David wrote, “she leaned in.” With an unexpectedly hopeful, yet realistically honest stance, she believed in change even when many felt despair. This capacity for hopefulness without denial became one of the defining features of her leadership.

Three years ago, Frances addressed the Board and spoke honestly about what she called the “Two MIPs”: the deeply creative, intellectually alive, open-minded institute we all cherish, and another side shaped at times by painful power struggles, ruptures, and forms of institutional injury. In naming both realities simultaneously, Frances modeled something profoundly analytic: the capacity to hold complexity without collapsing into idealization or condemnation.

She launched her presidency with a vision of cultivating an “Ethic of Care.” And importantly, this was not merely rhetoric. Frances continuously modeled this ethic in her kindness, her willingness to hear differing perspectives, her reverence for every voice, and in her unusually democratic leadership style, often even sweetly turning to us board members to ask if we’d felt we were ready to move on to the next agenda item.

But beneath that gentleness was tremendous courage….. Together with colleagues across the institute, Frances helped create spaces where difficult truths could finally be spoken more openly and thoughtfully. From a series of Town Halls on anti-black racism and power abuse to supporting the Ombudspersons’ creation of a Listening and Sharing Space, she helped guide MIP through deeply uncomfortable but necessary conversations about power, institutional culture, accountability, and repair. Those conversations were not always smooth, and they were certainly not easy. But Frances remained remarkably steady throughout them — thoughtful, ethical, curious, and deeply committed to preserving what was most valuable about MIP while helping us evolve into a healthier, more transparent, and kinder organization.

But, beyond all of these institutional accomplishments, I want to speak personally for a moment…. Frances has simply been an extraordinary person to work with. She answers emails at midnight. She joins urgent calls without hesitation. She listens carefully. She takes criticism with the highest degree of maturity I have ever encountered. She gives constructive feedback in ways that are truly constructive. Her steadiness has helped many of us remain steadier ourselves.

Mary wrote that when Frances engaged a problem, “the level of her interest made the problem feel smaller and me feel bigger.” I cannot think of a more moving description of genuine leadership — or genuine analytic presence.

So Frances, thank you.

Thank you for your integrity, your humility, your intelligence, your courage, and your care. Thank you for helping this institute navigate an extraordinarily difficult chapter with humanity and vision intact. Thank you for reminding us, by the way you think, teach, lead, and listen, why psychoanalysis matters — and why community matters.

I truly believe MIP would not be where it is today without your stewardship, and it is with enormous gratitude and admiration that we present you with the 2026 Paul Graves Myerson Award.