Psychologists group still rocked by torture debate

(The following is the APAs response to Salons July 26 article on psychologists and interrogations. It has been reformatted by Salon from an email.)

APA Response to Salon.com

June 26, 2006

The following summarizes a number of inaccuracies and biased reporting contained within the Salon.com article, "Psychological Warfare" (posted July 26, 2006)

* The article opens by suggesting that the APA is facing an "internal revolt" against the Association's current policy on the role of psychologists in military interrogations. The reality is that APA's Council of Representatives endorsed the current policy at its last meeting. (February 2006) Furthermore, it is expected that the Council will consider adoption of a second resolution at its upcoming meeting in New Orleans. The new resolution reaffirms APA's position against torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in all circumstances. This new resolution has the support of a broad group of APA constituencies from the Division of Peace Psychology to the Division of Military Psychology. (Note: the fact of this Resolution was brought to the Salon author's attention, yet no mention of the Resolution is made in the article and the author apparently made no attempt to reach anyone involved in the drafting of the Resolution.)

* The article's premise is one of guilt by association. It implies that anyone who has been present at any facility in which inappropriate activities occurred was therefore involved in unethical behavior. In fact, it is a matter of public record that one of the psychologists on the PENS Task Force intervened to stop abusive behavior. Once again, the reporter fails to report this information.

* The article identifies a "psychologist" as an opponent of APA's policy and quotes this psychologist as saying that psychologists should not be involved in "inherently harmful" interrogations. This statement, rather then being in opposition to APA policy, is in total agreement with it. APA's policy is first and foremost grounded in the "do no harm" principle of the APA ethics code.

* The article cites a number of examples of prisoner treatment that are clearly unethical and would be condemned by APA. For example, subjecting an individual to "extreme psychological distress" by forcing an individual to wear a leash and "to perform dog tricks." Such treatment is a clear violation of the PENS guidelines. If information is brought to APA that a psychologist/APA member was involved in any such activities, an ethics investigation would be opened.

* In terms of the membership of the PENS Task Force and any undue influence of the U.S. military -- the PENS Report was a consensus document. It openly reports on the three areas where consensus could not be reached amongst the Task Force members. The Report was reviewed by the APA Ethics Committee, adopted as APA policy by the APA Board of Directors and later endorsed by the over 160 person APA Council of Representatives. Furthermore, the next step in the process, the all important step of defining terms and applying the PENS guidelines to real world situations, has been turned over to the APA Ethics Committee by the Task Force itself. (Yet another fact that the author fails to mention in the article, even though it was called to his attention.) The Ethics committee is comprised of psychologists and a public member from a broad range of professional areas, including academics and practitioners. It should also be noted that two non-military members of the Task Force quoted in the article have each stated that they did not find the contributions of the military members of the Task Force problematic.

* The article states that APA has kept the names of the Task Force members secret. This is totally false. In reality, the names and composition of the Task Force is public information. The names and biographical statements of each of the Task Force members are, and have been for some time, available through the APA website.

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