What
You're Missing in our subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter
Special Issue: the Collapse of America
Paul Craig
Roberts gives CounterPunchers the definitive data on what is
happening to jobs in America. Not just blue collar jobs. Middle-class,
white collar jobs. Roberts'
stunning probe is the first true picture of what the U.S. economy
is fast becoming and of the savage class wars that lie ahead.
Plus Mike
Ferner on what it really means to investigate war crimes in Iraq. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers
each month! But
remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the
print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription
to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find
anywhere else, or by making a donation towards the cost of this
online edition.
Remember contributions are tax-deductible.Click
here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please:Subscribe
Now!
The American Psychological Association
Meets Dr. Mengele
APA
Confab Whitewashes Torture by Shrinks
By Dr. TRUDY BOND
Even as the unindicted war criminal
Donald Rumsfeld persists in the totally-discredited fiction
that the U.S. military doesn't torture, the American Psychological
Association (APA) provides cover for its uniformed professionals
to continue to devise torture plans for inmates at Guantanamo,
Abu Ghraib and perhaps other secret prisons of the far-flung
American empire. Mimicking the Pentagon lie model, the APA
recently uttered a gratuitous self-serving pronouncement that
participation in torture by its psychologist members is forbidden,
while at the same time failing to modify its more permissive
Code of Ethics to reflect such high piety.
The APA Council passed an updated
Resolution
on Torture at their recent annual convention. In the press
release from APA,
the Resolution reaffirmed
"the organization's absolute
opposition to all forms of torture and abuse, regardless of
the circumstance. . . The Association unequivocally condemns
any involvement by psychologists in torture or other forms of
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This APA
policy applies to all psychologists in all settings. The resolution,
approved on August 9, 2006, further underscored the duty of
all psychologists to intervene to stop acts of torture or abuse
as well as the ethical obligation of all psychologists to report
such behavior to appropriate authorities."
"'Our intention is to
empower and encourage members to do everything they can to prevent
violations of basic human rights -- at Guantanamo Bay or anywhere
else they may occur," said Gerald P. Koocher, PhD, President
of the American Psychological Association. 'It is not enough
for us to express outrage or to codify acceptable practices.
As psychologists, we must use every means at our disposal to
prevent abuse and other forms of cruel or degrading treatment.'"
Such is the basis of all the
press releases coming from the convention. A good sound byte,
a sweet-smelling smoke screen, or in military parlance, a great
psyops.
Mark Benjamin had written
a 2-part trailer in Salon of what was to occur at the APA convention
when psychologists across the country rose en masse to protest
the role of psychologists in the torture process in our current
military, which has been given the green light by Rumsfeld,
Bush and Gonzales to ignore the Geneva Convention.
The mutiny never occurred.
We won't know whether it was due to the fact that Lt. Gen.
Kevin C. Kiley, the Army's surgeon general, was present at the
Council's meeting to discourage antitorture sentiment, or the
fact that the Resolution simply served to appease the APA members
who didn't understand the reality of what was occurring. It
is apparent, however, that the highly-touted "Resolution
on Torture" is worthless in the face of the equivocal APA
Ethical Code.
In his article in the July/August
2006 volume of the Monitor
on Psychology, Stephen Behnke, JD, PhD and director of APA's
Ethics Office, stated "APA derives its position from Principle
A, "Do No Harm," in the Ethical Principles of Psychologists
and Code of Conduct (2002), and from Principle B, which addresses
psychologists' responsibilities to society. By virtue of Principle
A, psychologists do no harm; by virtue of Principle B, psychologists
use their expertise in, and understanding of, human behavior
to aid in the prevention of harm."
"Principle B of the Ethics
Code, Fidelity and Responsibility, states that psychologists
'are aware of their professional and scientific responsibilities
to society.' Psychologists have a valuable and ethical role
to assist in protecting our nation, other nations, and innocent
civilians from harm, which will at times entail gathering information
that can be used in our nation's and other nations' defense
. . . The Task Force looked to the APA Ethics Code for fundamental
principles to guide its thinking. The Task Force found such principles
in numerous aspects of the Ethics Code, such as the Preamble,
'Psychologists respect and protect civil and human rights' and
'[The Ethics Code] has as its goals the welfare and protection
of the individuals and groups with whom psychologists work';
Principle A, Beneficence and Nonmaleficence, 'In their professional
actions, psychologists seek to safeguard the welfare and rights
of those with whom they interact professionally and other affected
persons'; . . .
The Task Force concluded that
the Ethics Code is fundamentally sound in addressing the ethical
dilemmas that arise in the context of national security-related
work."
And thus the psychologists
have endorsed the Orwellian groupthink process, that by repeating
the mantra that Pentagon psychologists don't torture but are
busily safeguarding the nation's defense, they can believe that
psychologists are not aiding torture. Perhaps Orwell's survivors
should sue APA for copyright infringement.
To verify the reality that
the recent Resolution on Torture did not supersede the Code
of Ethics, or in other words the reality that psychologists were
fully empowered by APA to participate in any form of torture
as long as they believed it was in the realm of national defense,
I wrote to Dr. Behnke requesting a clarification. In response
to my question, "Did the new resolution passed by APA at
the convention erase Principle B as referred to in your article
in the Monitor, which addresses psychologists' responsibilities
to society?", Dr. Behnke cheerfully responded, "Hi
Dr. Bond, Not at all--this Resolution was intended to update
the 1986 Resolution Against Torture. Have you had a chance
to read it? APA's press release can be found at: http://www.apa.org/releases/notorture.html."
To rub more salt in the wounds
of the tortured prisoners, on the last morning of the conference,
APA Council of Representatives voted to suspend all rules and
regulations in order to commend military psychologists for their
many significant contributions and sacrifices, and to direct
Dr. Koocher to convey thanks and support in an individual letter
to each. Apart from the tragic irony in this action, it is
quite clear that APA knows the names and locations of those
psychologists specifically involved in torture.
Perhaps a letter of commendation
is not enough. I propose that APA create the "Mengele
Award" for those psychologists who have sacrificed so much
to protect their nation in the "war on terror" by
assisting in torture for prisoners of Guantanamo, Bagram and
Abu Ghraib. Even though Dr. Mengele was not a psychologist,
he made valuable contributions to the science of torture which
no doubt has been inspiration to some of our own APA members.
As psychiatrists have refused to participate in torturing others
in any form including devising torture, there won't be much
competition.
Dr. Trudy Bond is a psychologist in Toledo, Ohio.
She has been a member of APA for 28 years though soon to resign
in protest (if not kicked out first). She can be reached at
armordilo@aol.com
Now
Available
from CounterPunch Books!
The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
CounterPunch
Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid?
CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair
are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues,
as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call
CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.
