{"id":110812,"date":"2018-05-14T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=110812"},"modified":"2018-05-10T15:36:38","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T14:36:38","slug":"the-american-psychological-association-speaks-out-against-gina-haspel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/05\/the-american-psychological-association-speaks-out-against-gina-haspel\/","title":{"rendered":"The American Psychological Association Speaks Out Against Gina Haspel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The APA took an important step last week.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

7 May 2018 – <\/em>The journey to redemption is long and often tempest-tossed. But the American Psychological Association (APA) took another noteworthy step last week when CEO Arthur Evans Jr. sent a\u00a0letter (link is external)<\/a> to the Senate Intelligence<\/a> Committee, expressing concern over President Trump<\/a>\u2019s nomination of Gina Haspel as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Amid heated debate over whether Haspel is qualified or appropriate for the position, the public record is clear on\u00a0two points (link is external)<\/a>: She was directly involved in the CIA\u2019s black-site torture of war-on-terror detainees, as well as the subsequent destruction of videotaped evidence of that abuse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

APA\u2019s opposition to Haspel is consistent with its stated\u00a0mission (link is external)<\/a> of advancing psychology to benefit society, improve people\u2019s lives, and promote human rights.\u00a0Dozens (link is external)<\/a> of other organizations with similar commitments\u2014including the Center for Victims of Torture (link is external)<\/a>, the\u00a0Coalition for an Ethical Psychology (link is external)<\/a>,\u00a0Physicians for Human Rights (link is external)<\/a>,\u00a0Psychologists for Social Responsibility (link is external)<\/a>, and\u00a0Torture Abolition and Survivors Support International (link is external)<\/a>\u2014have also weighed in strongly against the Haspel nomination.<\/p>\n

For health<\/a> professionals, this stance reflects a shared understanding<\/a>: Torture is a barbaric assault on human dignity, and it is therefore intrinsically and profoundly\u00a0psychological.\u00a0For survivors, the demons of deep psychic wounds continue\u00a0without end. Overwhelming feelings of\u00a0helplessness, brokenness, and disconnection from other people are the direct result of having been subjected to agonizing abuse and humiliation<\/a> at the hands of another human being. Haunting flashbacks and\u00a0nightmares<\/a> are abiding reminders that safety and solace are exceedingly difficult if not impossible to attain.<\/p>\n

But the APA\u2019s rejection of Haspel as CIA director speaks even louder given the association\u2019s past failure to stand as a bulwark against the kind of abusive detainee treatment she oversaw. In the immediate aftermath\u00a0of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,\u00a0Vice President Dick Cheney\u00a0told (link is external)<\/a> the nation that the Bush Administration would work \u201cthe dark side,\u201d spend time \u201cin the shadows,\u201d use \u201cany means\u00a0at our disposal,\u201d and make certain that \u201cwe have not tied the hands of our intelligence communities.\u201d APA\u2019s leaders responded by reaching out (link is external)<\/a> directly to the Department of Defense (DoD) and the CIA, explicitly \u201coffering psychologists\u2019 expertise to decision-makers\u201d in these and other related agencies.<\/p>\n

That began a years-long, ill-conceived odyssey for the APA. Those at the helm repeatedly steered the organization into perilous and turbulent waters, eschewing the safe harbor and terra firma of the profession\u2019s bedrock do-no-harm ethics<\/a>. They did so to ensure that psychologists would always be essential participants in the government<\/a>\u2019s burgeoning detention and interrogation operations. Despite facile, reassuring claims that these operations were \u201csafe, legal, ethical, and effective (link is external)<\/a>,\u201d they were brutal and ruthless. One APA member, James Mitchell, designed and implemented the CIA\u2019s gruesome torture techniques. Other APA members were stationed at Guantanamo Bay, where DoD\u00a0torture (link is external)<\/a> and abuse took place.<\/p>\n

The APA\u2019s misguided choices, over more than a decade, have been chronicled in numerous\u00a0statements (link is external)<\/a>,\u00a0articles (link is external)<\/a>, and detailed\u00a0reviews (link is external)<\/a>\u2014and most extensively in the 2015\u00a0Hoffman Report (link is external)<\/a>. Following that report, the association\u2019s\u00a0governing council overwhelmingly approved a\u00a0resolution (link is external)<\/a> that banned psychologists from involvement in national security interrogations and affirmed that psychologists present at Guantanamo and similar international sites are in violation of APA policy unless they are working directly on behalf of the detainees or providing treatment to military personnel.<\/p>\n

This redemptive course correction has been buffeted by headwinds from a faction of psychologists\u2014including some members of the military intelligence establishment\u2014who have\u00a0aligned themselves with those implicated in the\u00a0institutional betrayal (link is external)<\/a> that characterized APA\u2019s troubled past. Their efforts aimed at turning back the clock have included lawsuits, ethics complaints, and\u00a0proposals<\/a> to reverse the recent reforms and remove the Hoffman Report from the APA\u2019s website. Even more extreme, some of these critics\u00a0argue (link is external)<\/a> that the APA has become \u201ca willing co-conspirator to the likes of al Qaeda and ISIS.\u201d<\/p>\n

In key ways, then, the APA\u2019s opposition to Gina Haspel\u2019s nomination is important symbolically even if its immediate\u00a0practical impact proves limited. It comes at a fraught time when forces both within and beyond the association are moving to advance regressive policy prescriptions that are likely to endanger the cause of human rights and respect for human dignity. That is more than reason enough to applaud this action, while at the same time remaining vigilant about darkening clouds that may yet again threaten APA in the months ahead.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Roy Eidelson is a member of the TRANSCEND Network<\/a> and was a member of the American Psychological Association for over 25 years, prior to his resignation. He is a clinical psychologist and the president of Eidelson Consulting<\/a>, where he studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility<\/a>, associate director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College, and a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/a>. Roy can be reached at reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 psychologytoday.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The APA took an important step last week. In key ways, the APA\u2019s opposition to Gina Haspel\u2019s nomination is important symbolically even if its immediate practical impact proves limited. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":110813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}