Thanks to All Supporting Campaign to Pressure APA on Interrogations

Crossposted at NION and Invictus

Voltaire began his campaign to stop torture practices left over from the days of the Inquisition when he was already well into his 70s. I'm only in my 50s, so I figure I have a lot of catching up to do. (Of course, our torture practices are left over from our own version of the Inquisition... the Cold War.)

I have a link to yet another new letter from a psychologist to the Sharon Brehm at the American Psychological Association (APA). It was posted over at Stephen Soldz's Psyche, Science, & Society.

Dear Dr. Brehm:

You have an opportunity to make things right.  You have an opportunity to restore integrity to the APA with respect to its activities that have supported the immoral, illegal, and unethical interrogations of innocent human beings in U.S. detention centers around the world.

I ask you to push APA toward prohibiting psychologists' involvement in the interrogations of detainees happening in Guantanamo and other detention centers.

I ask you to remove the "Nuremberg" defense (Standard 1.02) from our Ethical Principles.

I ask you to let the world know by your actions that psychologists are not a bunch of barbarians; that we truly care and are compassionate and strive to be healers not destroyers of human psyches.

What will you say to your children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren when they ask you what you did to stop the torture of human beings  in U.S. detention centers?

What would you say to the children of the detainees who have been tortured under the guidance of psychologists?

Do you have the compassion and courage to stop this evil?

Art Eccleston, Psy.D.

For those of you who don't know yet, Sharon Brehm is the new President of the American Psychological Association (APA). The APA remains the only health-care related association that continues to allow its membership to participate in national security interrogations such as occur or did occur at Guantanamo Bay Naval Prison, at Abu Ghraib, Baghram, and numerous other sites.

The interrogations that took place, and continue to take place at these prisons, are notorious for using techniques of psychological torture that require the participation of medical and mental health personnel. We have a special opportunity to squelch the participation of psychologists, who have been crucial to Pentagon and CIA staffing at interrogation sites, and slow down, if not stop much of the torture practices the U.S. is undertaking. How? By supporting the moratorium being promoted by APA membership to stop participation in national security interrogations abroad. For more on the hows and whys behind this campaign, read the original call here.

Much thanks to all who have promoted and helped circulate this call to action. I intend to keep the pressure on all the way to the APA convention in San Francisco this August. If you want to know more how to help, e-mail me at sfpsych at gmail dot com. (Spelled out because the spam situation is getting out of hand.)

Write or call the APA:

American Psychological Association
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
[phone]
[phone]

Write and call, now. Let them know how upset you are.

Send an email to the Public Affairs Office of the APA, expressing your outrage:

[e-mail]

Phone the Ethics Office directly at [phone] or use APA's toll free number [phone], extension 5930, and give them a piece of your mind.

And finally, write to the President of the APA, Dr. Sharon Stephens Brehm. Be nice, be polite, but be firm (this is true for ALL communications).

Dr. Brehm has a web page, Ask the President. Follow the link to leave an email message directly for her.

If we apply enough pressure, it might make the APA stand up and take notice. If you are a Daily Kos diarist or front pager, you might want to help and make this fight yours, too. And, don't forget to write your congressman/congresswoman and senator, too!

WE CAN DO IT!

We don't have to be powerless. We aren't helpless. Write, call, email today. Copy this diary's URL and send it to your friends.

I want to see APA inundated with thousands of messages saying "Stop torture. Stop psychologist participation in coercive interrogations.

•  We will win this fight

  We will not forget the men and women locked away in holes away from the world, studied and examined to exacerbate their fears, to deprive them of basic stimuli, to deprive them of sleep, to make them psychotic, to control them and reduce them to something less than human.

  You CAN help. Write the letter to Brehm, noted at the link above, or email the public affairs office of the APA.

  Come August, when we WIN the call for a moratorium against psychologists participation in such barbarism, YOU will know you helped accomplish something important.

  Let's make history.

  by Valtin on Sun May 06, 2007 at 06:01:10 PM PDT

  •  Excellent Valtin!

    Highly recommended!

    Iraq Moratorium

    by One Pissed Off Liberal on Sun May 06, 2007 at 07:06:32 PM PDT

•  Great work, Valtin

  I just sent another letter.  It's very distressing to see APA take this unethical stand--most of the psychologists I know think, when faced with a difficult issue, "well, what does the APA code say?"

  Last time APA was in SF it was on the front page of the Chron--lots of jokes about 35K psychologists in town, etc.  But the SF Chronicle will surely be more interested in this story.  This has the making of real front-page news.  

  by rocketito on Sun May 06, 2007 at 06:49:25 PM PDT

  •  You make a VERY good point

    It is not too early to get them interested in this.

    I'll try on my own, and through the SF Psychological Association, but... anyone out there have media contacts at the Chron?

    by Valtin on Sun May 06, 2007 at 07:24:05 PM PDT

    •  No Chron connections here

      but another suggestion would be to see if you can get in touch with Patricia Keith-Spiegel, who has written more than one book on ethics for psychologists.  I believe she was part of the development of one of the early iterations of the code, too.  She has a wealth of knowledge, and is a very kind person too.  She used to be at Ball State U in Indiana, but I think she may have retired.  

      It would be pretty persuasive if she would give a strong quote about this or write APA about it.  

      Also, I wonder if APAGS has a stance on this--they'll be younger people, being grad students, and perhaps more politically active.  

      by rocketito on Sun May 06, 2007 at 08:18:19 PM PDT

      •  Psi Chi chapters might be a good resource too

        especially those in SF or going to SF.  Chapter addresses can be found at the Psi Chi website, I think.  

        Apologies if you've thought of all this already.  You're doing great work!

        by rocketito on Sun May 06, 2007 at 08:22:15 PM PDT

      •  Thanks for this and the idea just below

        If I'm not mistaken, Keith-Spiegel co-wrote one of the classic texts on ethics of psychology with Gerald Koocher. The irony is that Koocher is very much a proponent of the status quo re interrogations and the APA. When he was president of the APA a couple of years ago, he stridently derided the anti-torture activists within APA in a column in the APA Monitor.

        I think it would be very interesting to talk to Dr. Keith-Spiegel. I will move on this tomorrow. Thanks.

        by Valtin on Sun May 06, 2007 at 09:15:03 PM PDT

        •  She wrote the first modern ethics in psy text

          And when she had to assign it in her ethics class because there was no other to assign, she figured out what her royalty was on each book and gave each student back a dollar so that she wasn't profiting from assigning her own book.

          I don't know what her stance on this is, but she is so scrupulous and empathic with regard to ethics and really worth a conversation with, at least.

          by rocketito on Mon May 07, 2007 at 06:54:57 AM PDT

•  Valtin,

  You know,as always, that I am with you.

  Torture is ALWAYS wrong, no matter who is doing it to whom.
  For Dan,
  Heather

  by Chacounne on Sun May 06, 2007 at 07:12:17 PM PDT

•  Valtin

  Would it be possible to get an APA member to make a YouTube video explaining all this? If so, we could send that link out across the 'net and hopefully, get bunches more letters.

  by Rippen Kitten on Sun May 06, 2007 at 07:38:28 PM PDT

  •  RK, could you write Soldz?

    I think he may have the video capability and the tech know-how. Also, he may have some ready-made videos of himself talking.

    I earlier posted a YouTube McCoy presentation. Very didactic, and professorial, but a veritable college course on the history of the intersection between the intelligence services and the psychological sciences.

    This is a GREAT idea, btw, and I'll also write to him and tell him your suggestion.

    by Valtin on Sun May 06, 2007 at 07:47:47 PM PDT

    •  Yes, I'll write to him

      I owe him an email anyway. The McCoy video is wonderful and if we just connect directly with APA, I think it'll have a huge impact.

      By the way, so we aren't playing tag here and at NION, the Gmail invitations are from me.

      by Rippen Kitten on Sun May 06, 2007 at 08:14:46 PM PDT

•  done. thanks, Valtin.

  Dear Dr. Brehm,

  The American Psychological Association denigrates its mission, to say the very least, in failing to expressly  prohibit its members from participating in national security interrogations.  In fact, under the current vile circumstances, in which physical and psychological torture are routine methods used for intelligence gathering, to say it "denigrates the mission" of medical professionals and research scientists is beyond inadequate.  As a psychologist and stress physiologist versed in the functions and proximate mechanisms of the stress axis, including the profound and lasting consequences of over-stimulation on brain, and as someone who publishes regularly in APA and other journals, it is my confident professional view that current policy represents an alignment with the worst manifestations of animal impulses imaginable.  I urge you to reconsider APA's policies, and to minimally realign them with a "Do no harm" philosophy more akin to the policies of the American Medical Association.  The circumstances under which APA would resist adopting such basically humane standards are beyond reckoning.   We can do much, much better.  Thank you for your consideration.

  Sincerely,

  by Compound F on Sun May 06, 2007 at 08:21:38 PM PDT

  •  Wow!

    by Valtin on Sun May 06, 2007 at 09:16:01 PM PDT

    •  Posted before I could write the comment!

      I guess I was so excited reading your excellent and powerful letter that my fingers ran ahead of me.

      Compound F, this is truly the kind of letter I was looking for. How can APA not be affected by letters like these (although I don't expect all to be as good as this one, and a few of the others I've read and posted).

      Do I have permission to quote from this at other times and places?

      by Valtin on Sun May 06, 2007 at 09:18:11 PM PDT

      •  Valtin,

        Your efforts are to be commended here.  Thank you for calling to our attention and reminding us of the gross negligence of APA on this matter.

        by Compound F on Sun May 06, 2007 at 11:51:08 PM PDT

•  Thanks as ever, Valtin...

  for your excellent work against torture.

  My source tells me that the APA has a kind of cordonded-off sub-organization for military psychology, that might be more impervious to pressure. However, that said, the discipline is of course full of empathetic people, and overall, such a campaign as this stands a great chance of moving things significantly, and even of outright success.

  However, I see from this that you're also a member (of the APA), and so you likely are aware of my "news." However, I don't see the distinction in your diary, and I don't know if this nugget ultimately makes any difference or not.

  Anyway, thanks again, take care, and best of luck to all of us, in our efforts to stop this national nightmare.

  by Immigrant Punk on Sun May 06, 2007 at 09:09:38 PM PDT

  •  Yes, IP

    I think you're talking about the Society of Military Psychology (SMP), also known as Division 19 of the American Psychological Association (which has a federated structure, with divisions representing military psychology, peace psychology, clinical psychology, history of psychology, neuropsychology, cross-cultural society, experimental psychology, and on and on).

    I wrote about SMP in my somewhat recent diary, Just in: Military Psychologists Oppose Torture Moratorium.

    Thanks for the nice thoughts and the suggestion. Just because I'm in APA doesn't mean I know everything that goes on there. I need feedback from people like you.

    by Valtin on Sun May 06, 2007 at 09:22:05 PM PDT