Hall of Honor

The past quarter-century has seen an explosion of research in prenatal and perinatal psychology, resulting in new ways of thinking about the complex connections between early experience, developmental outcomes, the impact on the epigenome, on our health, social or personal relationships and peaceful collaboration. The implications for everyone have been huge. It’s time to celebrate some of this progress by noting the work of early pioneers, practitioners and researchers around the world who have made discoveries, mused on the implications of those discoveries, and made those discoveries accessible to others.

At the Prenatal Sciences Partnership Global Congress in the fall of 2022, conversations began about creating a Hall of Honor to maintain the spirit and values of those who pioneered this paradigm of earliest development since 1920. The early participants in these conversations hoped that the creation of such a Hall of Honor might not only save the teachings of the pioneers–allowing them to become a beacon of light and an inspiration for others–but also to encourage new work in areas never imagined before. Posthumous awards were presented at the 2022 Global Congress to Gabriela Ferrari, Lloyd deMause, Joseph Chilton Pearce, Peter Fedor Freybergh and David Chamberlain. Honor was given to Ludwig Janus and Otto Rank. Of course, the list is long. In the middle of all this international and trans-disciplinary sharing of thought, Thomas Verny and Olga Gouni conceived the notion of designing a system of more permanent acknowledgements. The Hall of Honor was born. 

Despite the fact that we live in different countries, speak different languages, and represent different academic/ professional and cultural/religious backgrounds, it is likely our hearts and minds are more similar than dissimilar: we believe that our pre/perinatal experiences matter, and we share a goal of better health for both children and grownups.

The Hall of Honor Board consists of: Thomas Verny, Ludwig Janus, Olga Gouni, Michael Trout, Julie Gerland, Moffat Ossoro, Nese Karabekir and Kate White.