{"id":201040,"date":"2021-12-13T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=201040"},"modified":"2021-12-09T04:25:43","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T04:25:43","slug":"the-american-psychological-association-still-owes-guantanamos-victims-an-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/12\/the-american-psychological-association-still-owes-guantanamos-victims-an-apology\/","title":{"rendered":"The American Psychological Association Still Owes Guantanamo\u2019s Victims an Apology"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Source: Roy Eidelson<\/p><\/div>\n

Ultimately, even apologies won’t be enough for the victims of U.S. government torture. The association should also join other human rights groups in publicly calling for the permanent closure of this ignominious offshore prison.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

8 Dec 2021 – <\/em>Next month will mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In the years since January 11, 2002, nearly 800 \u201cdetainees\u201d\u2014few with any meaningful connections to international terrorism\u2014have been imprisoned there, where they have been subjected to abuse and, in some cases, torture. From the outset, members of my own profession\u2014psychologists\u2014played key roles<\/a> in operations at Guantanamo, CIA \u201cblack sites,\u201d and other overseas detention facilities. Their involvement included designing and implementing inhumane conditions of confinement and brutal techniques of interrogation.<\/p>\n

Among the most pervasive of the methods<\/a> used were solitary confinement, where prolonged isolation could extend for weeks or months, sometimes in empty cells and total darkness; sleep deprivation, in which prisoners were kept awake for days at a time by bright lights, loud music, intermittent slaps, or other noxious means; sexual and cultural humiliation, including forced nudity and sexually provocative and insulting behavior by interrogators; and the use of threats to generate fears of injury and death, ranging from snarling military dogs to confinement in coffin-like boxes to mock executions.<\/p>\n

This, then, was the context six years ago when an extensive independent investigation<\/a> uncovered compelling evidence that leaders of the American Psychological Association (APA)\u2014the world\u2019s largest organization of psychologists\u2014had failed to adequately defend the profession\u2019s fundamental do-no-harm ethical principles. Instead, they had opted to support and preserve the continuing involvement of psychologists in these operations, despite mounting reports of their complicity in \u201cwar on terror\u201d excesses. In response to the investigation\u2019s disturbing findings, the APA instituted a series of valuable ethics reforms<\/a> and apologized to its membership<\/a> and to psychologists worldwide<\/a> for having abandoned the profession\u2019s core values.<\/p>\n

But the APA\u2019s leadership has failed to issue the most important apology of all: to the hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo and elsewhere who have suffered grievous harm as the association pursued a misguided agenda. Whereas other human rights organizations decried<\/a> the Bush Administration\u2019s violations of international law and basic decency, the APA maintained that the participation of psychologists kept these much-maligned detention and interrogation operations \u201csafe, legal, ethical, and effective.\u201d<\/a> Rather than using its influence in the nation\u2019s corridors of power to demand better protection for these prisoners, the APA chose to cast doubt<\/a> on credible reports implicating psychologists in abusive and torturous treatment.<\/p>\n

An official apology from the APA to the predominantly Muslim prisoners\u2014and their families and communities\u2014who have been victimized by the cruel, inhuman, and degrading misuse of psychological practice is now long overdue. The continuing absence of such an apology raises the worrisome prospect that the APA, after all these years, still remains unwilling to fully acknowledge and accept responsibility for the dire consequences linked to its apparent prioritization of political expediency and other considerations over professional ethics and human rights.<\/p>\n

Psychologists and the APA should certainly understand the lasting impact of the extreme abuse suffered by many war-on-terror prisoners. Indeed, the deep psychic wounds of those tortured can persist<\/a> without end. Survivors of psychological torture often experience overwhelming feelings of helplessness, shame, and disconnection from other people, the result of harrowing mistreatment<\/a> at the hands of another human being. They can be haunted by posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression; by flashbacks and nightmares; and by feelings that safety and solace are impossible to achieve.<\/p>\n

These harms are vivid reminders that the victims of abuse and torture at Guantanamo deserve more than an apology. They are entitled to support for their long-term rehabilitation, and the APA should work to make this a reality. With both trauma-related expertise and considerable financial resources, the association is well-positioned to facilitate assistance to former prisoners and their families who are interested in obtaining mental health care. Substantial recurring contributions to organizations that provide relevant services should become a regular part of the APA\u2019s own annual giving. Undoubtedly, the association should also join other human rights groups in publicly calling<\/a> for the permanent closure of Guantanamo.<\/p>\n

Beyond the benefits to Guantanamo\u2019s survivors, an apology and related ameliorative actions can serve to demonstrate an ongoing commitment by the APA to remembering and repairing its past transgressions\u2014and to avoiding them in the future.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/em><\/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>, former executive director of the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, and a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/a>. Roy is the author of <\/em>Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What\u2019s Happening, What\u2019s Right, and What\u2019s Possible<\/a> and can be reached at reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ultimately, even apologies won’t be enough for the victims of U.S. government torture. The association should also join other human rights groups in publicly calling for the permanent closure of this ignominious offshore prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":115275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1052,2755,1809,133,1810,1464,260,487,950,741,1808,2646,91,86,112,1266,880,572,95,70,126,118,921],"class_list":["post-201040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-abu-ghraib","tag-american-psychological-association-apa","tag-bruce-jessen","tag-cia","tag-enhanced-interrogation","tag-guantanamo","tag-history","tag-human-rights","tag-invasion","tag-iraq","tag-james-mitchell","tag-michael-chertoff","tag-nato","tag-occupation","tag-pentagon","tag-rendition","tag-state-terrorism","tag-torture","tag-us-military","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-whistleblowing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201040","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=201040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}