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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
As a member of the American Psychological Association for nearly three decades, I am deeply ashamed that my association officially supports psychologists engaging in torture. Of course, those responsible for this policy will contort language and truth in an effort to label it something else - "consultation" on "interrogation," though chillingly clinical, sounds like a neutral activity. But when these "consultations" involve advising the military on things such as the best means to make use of a person's fears and vulnerabilities, on the use of methods such as sleep deprivation and the sexual assault of prisoners to break them down, there is no more honest word than "torture" to describe what they are engaged in. Essentially, the APA is endorsing its members committing war crimes.
Just consider for a moment how you would feel if you were being interrogated by the Gestapo, and you knew that behind the two-way mirror there were Nazi psychologists scrutinizing your every move and gesture and advising the interrogators how to more effectively break you down. Would you see them as somehow benign or neutral figures, just "advisors," as though they'd dropped by to help the Gestapo keep the plumbing working? Or would you know in your heart that those psychologists were as guilty of the crimes being committed against you as the men wielding the truncheons?
I will not be able to continue my membership in the APA unless its policy in support of torture is changed immediately. I know that many of my colleagues must feel the same.
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