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American Psychological Association Rejects Torture
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by John Braun, W A M M
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In a mail-in balloting procedure completed on September 16, 2008, the membership of the American Psychological Association (APA) voted to prohibit APA members from providing consultation to interrogators in coercive interrogations of detainees. Specifically, it prohibits APA members from working in settings where “persons are held outside of, or in violation of either International Law (e.g., U.N. Convention Against Torture, Geneva Conventions) or the U.S. Constitution.” The vote was 8,792 in favor of the prohibition and 6,157 against it. The vote, as APA’s bylaws require, will become the association’s policy at its next annual meeting in August 2009.
What is so significant about this APA membership vote is that, in the period of one year, it reversed the decision of APA’s leadership group (168-member policy-making body). At the association’s annual meeting in August 2007, this leadership group passed a resolution that allowed the presence of psychologists at coercive or “enhanced” interrogation sessions of detainees. There is, of course, considerable evidence that some psychologists were not only present at coercive interrogation sessions of detainees, but actually advised the interrogators. In his extensively researched book Torture and Democracy (2007), Darius Rejali specifically identifies a group of psychologists known as the Behavioral Science Consultation Team (BSCT, or ‘Biscuit’), who he concludes “advised the interrogators” (p. 401).
Membership opposition to the 2007 resolution was swift and strong. Other professional groups also criticized the resolution. Notable among members who opposed it was Dr. Mary Pipher. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Reviving Ophelia and a recipient of APA’s Presidential Citation. She returned the Presidential Citation and made this powerful statement:
“I cannot accept the August 10, 2007 Reaffirmation of APA’s Position Against Torture. . . . Under this motion psychologists will be allowed to continue working on interrogation teams that are not subject to the Geneva Conventions. This motion places our organization on the side of the CIA and Department of Defense and at odds with the United Nations, the Red Cross, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Medical Association. With this reaffirmation we have made a terrible mistake.”
There are important lessons to be learned from APA’s membership vote reversing its leadership position. First, it is clear that APA’s leadership did not represent its own membership in its 2007 resolution. As Scott Horton wrote in the November 18, 2007, issue of Harper’s Magazine, “the organization’s leadership which is filled with individuals with unmistakable financial and business ties to the U.S. Government has misled the membership in an effort to protect the Bush Administration and its torture practices.” Second, APA’s 2008 membership vote demonstrates again the importance of citizen action. Change most often comes from the bottom up, not from the top down. Third, while APA’s leadership violated the association’s own code of ethics, its membership upheld it.
The words of the late Rabbi Abraham Heschel come to mind: “A few are guilty. All are responsible.” Many thanks to the American Psychological Association’s membership for being responsible.
John Braun is an active participant in the weekly vigils/demonstrations held at Alliant Techsysterms in Eden Prairie and on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge. He was one of the founders of the St. Joan of Arc/WAMM Peacemakers group in June, 1996, which, for the past year, has focused on Torture. He is a retired Clinical Social Worker with special training in mental health and chemical dependency. |
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© 2008 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete December 2008/January 2009 Index - click here
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