{"id":3962,"date":"2015-07-16T05:14:55","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T05:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=3962"},"modified":"2015-07-16T05:14:55","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T05:14:55","slug":"how-the-largest-association-of-psychologists-in-the-us-colluded-in-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-the-largest-association-of-psychologists-in-the-us-colluded-in-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"How the largest association of psychologists in the US colluded in torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

J Wesley Boyd<\/a>, Harvard University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In November 2014, the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Association (APA) asked David Hoffman<\/a>, a former federal prosecutor, to lead an independent review of allegations that the APA colluded with government officials to sanction the use of interrogation techniques tantamount to torture.<\/p>\n

The APA asked Hoffman to investigate these allegations just weeks before the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee\u2019s report on the CIA\u2019s use of torture<\/a>, a report that raised major questions about the participation of psychologists in interrogation sessions.<\/p>\n

Hoffman was specifically asked to investigate questions about ethical guidelines issued by the APA in 2002 and 2005 that dictated when psychologists could ethically participate in national security interrogations.<\/p>\n

Hoffman\u2019s report<\/a> was leaked on July 10 and confirmed many people\u2019s (including my) worst suspicions.<\/p>\n

Here, then, is what we now know \u2013 and here is my analysis of how the country\u2019s biggest association of psychologists could choose its<\/a> \u201cethics policy based on its goals of helping [the Department of Defense].\u201d<\/p>\n

The APA and DOD: a special relationship<\/h2>\n

Hoffman has confirmed that that officials at the APA colluded with the Department of Defense (DOD) as well as the CIA to allow psychologists to participate in interrogations from the beginning of the \u201cwar on terror\u201d until Obama came into office in 2009 and rescinded authorization for enhanced interrogation techniques.<\/p>\n

Although I have been working in medical ethics for 20 years, I first became aware of and alarmed by health care personnel\u2019s participation in the use of torture a decade ago, when photos were leaked from the Iraqi prison of Abu Ghraib.<\/p>\n

More specifically, this led me to study what medical students and graduate psychology students were learning about military medical ethics and their obligations as health professionals under the Geneva Convention.<\/p>\n

It also prompted me to look at the close relationship between the Department of Defense (DOD) and the American Psychological Association.<\/p>\n

How the APA drafted its ethical guidelines<\/h2>\n

Drafting policy and ethical guidelines for psychologists is one of the central tasks the APA performs. And to craft these statements and guidelines, the APA uses panels of psychologists.<\/p>\n

The Hoffman report reveals that the collusion between the APA and government affected both the composition of panels designed to craft APA policy and the content of their proclamations.<\/p>\n

These proclamations set APA policy and, in effect, dictate what is ethically permissible or not for psychologists. The Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS) task force 2005 report<\/a> \u2013 that fully gave permission to psychologists to participate in interrogations \u2013 is an example of this.<\/p>\n

The PENS report was authored in partial secrecy and approved by a panel carefully selected by APA officials, the majority of whom had close ties to DOD. As Hoffman reveals, the PENS task force was \u201cthe result of close and confidential collaboration with certain Defense Department officials before, during, and after the task force met.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PENS report allowed psychologists to participate in interrogations if they adhered to US law, but they violated every international code of medical ethics.<\/p>\n

The point is that the way the Bush administration crafted US law flew in the face of medical ethics, allowing for detainees to be tortured, for example, because they were not \u201cprisoners of war<\/a>,\u201d and therefore not protected by the Geneva Conventions.<\/p>\n

The APA didn\u2019t change guidelines on interrogations until 2013<\/h2>\n

The APA\u2019s permissive ethical stance allowed psychologists to participate in interrogations, providing necessary cover for dubious so-called \u201cenhanced techniques\u201d to continue.<\/p>\n

In this the APA stood alone among the major organizations for health professionals in the United States. By 2006, both the American Medical Association<\/a> and the American Psychiatric Association<\/a> issued decrees prohibiting their members from participating in interrogations.<\/p>\n

If the APA had done the same and prohibited psychologists from participating, harsh interrogations and torture would have come to a screeching halt because their presence, as health professionals, provided an air of legitimacy to interrogations. And this was needed (at least in part) to confer protection against future prosecutions of the interrogators. Any interrogators who were questioned could easily point to the psychologists then present to illustrate that their methods had to be safe and ethical.<\/p>\n

In fact, the APA did not rescind the 2005 PENS report<\/a> until 2013.<\/p>\n

And even then, there remained significant holes that still allowed psychologists to be present during interrogations.
\nThe APA thwarted efforts to oppose unethical behavior and took active steps to protect the psychologists involved in the interrogation program from professional ethical complaints.<\/p>\n

In fact, it was the APA\u2019s ethics director, Stephen Behnke, who oversaw much of this effort. To top things off, unbeknownst to the APA board, Behnke himself reportedly received a Pentagon contract<\/a> to help train interrogators.<\/p>\n

And \u2013 as all of this was happening behind the scenes \u2013 the APA leadership was telling the APA general membership that the goal of the association\u2019s standards was to protect the health and welfare of the prisoners at Guantanamo.<\/p>\n

Young psychologists aren\u2019t learning military medical ethics<\/h2>\n

How could this happen?<\/p>\n

Part of the answer must lie in the fact that psychologists receive little training about the ethical duties<\/a> of health care personnel in military settings. Without that training, many of them simply didn\u2019t know better.<\/p>\n

In a paper<\/a> published last year, colleagues and I found that 74% of graduate students in psychology had received less than an hour of instruction on military medical ethics.<\/p>\n

We also found that only one-third to one-half of students in these courses could correctly answer questions about when they would be required to disobey an unethical order, for instance, according to the Geneva Conventions.<\/p>\n

The Geneva Conventions<\/a> are clear in stating that prisoners are required to give only their name, rank, branch of service and serial number to interrogators. Additionally, they should be given food, shelter and medical treatment and never humiliated, threatened or harmed in any way.<\/p>\n

The APA colluded with the DOD. Now what?<\/h2>\n

In the wake of the Hoffman report, APA ethics director Steve Behnke has gone<\/a> (whether voluntarily or not is not yet clear) and, in an official statement<\/a>, the organization has acknowledged the \u201cdeeply disturbing findings\u201d that were \u201ca failure to live up to our core values\u201d and has outlined various recommendations.<\/p>\n

The APA has also announced the departure of three other staff members<\/a>: CEO Norman Anderson, Deputy CEO Michael Honaker, and the Executive Director for Public and Member Communications Rhea Farberman.<\/p>\n

More, however, is to be done.<\/p>\n

The APA should also publicly praise those dissident psychologists who have over the last decade steadfastly protested APA\u2019s support of interrogations and torture \u2013 despite the chiding they received from the APA administration.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the APA ought to call for significant investment in in ethics education for practicing psychologists as well as psychology trainees.<\/p>\n

The fact that the United States resorted to torturing prisoners \u2013 many of whom are innocent, or in the words of the Senate Report on torture, \u201cwrongfully detained\u201d \u2013 will likely go down as one of our country\u2019s most egregious ethical lapses. The fact that a major health care association colluded in this lapse is unconscionable.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

J Wesley Boyd<\/a> is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\nRead the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J Wesley Boyd, Harvard University In November 2014, the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Association (APA) asked David Hoffman, a former federal prosecutor, to lead an independent review of allegations that the APA colluded with government officials to sanction the use of interrogation techniques tantamount to torture. The APA asked Hoffman to investigate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":3963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3964,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions\/3964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}