APA Rules on Interrogation Abuse-Psychologists' Group Bars Member Participation in Certain Technique

Psychologists' Group Bars Member Participation in Certain Techniques

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 20, 2007; Page A03

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19 -- http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/American+Psychological+Association?tid=informline">The American Psychological Association ruled Sunday that psychologists can no longer be associated with several interrogation techniques that have been used against terrorism detainees at U.S. facilities because the methods are immoral, psychologically damaging and counterproductive in eliciting useful information.

Psychologists who witness interrogators using mock executions, simulated drowning, sexual and religious humiliation, stress positions or sleep deprivation are required to intervene to stop such abuse, to report the activities to superiors and to report the involvement of any other psychologists in such activities to the association. It could then strip those professionals of their membership.

The move by the APA, the nation's largest association of behavioral experts, is a rebuke of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies. Many of the techniques deemed unacceptable have been widely reported to be used at military facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as in Iraq and at various CIA detention centers.

But it also has practical effects. Psychologists who have their membership revoked can lose their license, since many state licensing boards require psychologists to be in good standing with the national association.

Also ruled out of bounds are the exploitation of prisoners' phobias, the use of mind-altering drugs, hooding, forced nakedness, the use of dogs to frighten detainees, exposing prisoners to extreme heat and cold, physical assault and threatening the use of such techniques against a prisoner or a prisoner's family.


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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901513.html?hpid=nation

Interrogators in Gauntanamo had been leaning on pychologists, because other branches of medicine disapproved.

Anyone else notice that -- am I wrong?

from an informative parent thread that is active-this is a brief note about Harry Harlow, Abraham Maslow, Frank Olson and Louis Jolyon West all at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (btw, UW-Madison bacteriologists Ira Baldwin and Edwin Fred were fundamental in setting up Fort Detrick/US biological warfare programs. Frank Olson was "recruited" for that by Ira Baldwin)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x21683#21699

that is directly related to this topic. Excerpted from Millett's 1994 book "The Politics of Cruelty"
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Torture/RecentPoliticsCruelty_TPOC.html

"It Can't Happen Here", yet it has.