The American Psychological Association (APA) has since the early post 9-11 days been enmeshed in a controversy over the role of psychologists in torture and the related ethical issues. A key part of the dispute was a 2005 report, finally retracted in 2013, known as PENS (“Psychological Ethics and National Security”).
A recent report that was commissioned by APA is quite damning (see “Psychologists Shielded U.S. Torture Program, Report Finds,” Risen, New York Times, 2015). The APA report was commissioned after a book by James Risen (2014) alleged collusion between APA and various government entities so that torture could be deemed acceptable.
Even before the APA report was revealed on July 10, 2015, apparently somewhat prematurely, the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology did its own analysis, and essentially came to the same conclusions as in the report by Hoffman et al. (2015) just submitted to APA (see als0 this news report). Members of the Coalition have been critical of APA’s role in torture long before Risen’s (2014) book (e.g.,
Below is a list of books, articles, and web pages that are addressing this issue. Contributions to the list are encouraged.
Disclosure: I am a fellow of two APA divisions (Psychology of Women; Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues), and am not technically a “psychologist” but rather a psychology professor and psychological scientist. I signed a petition in 2011 calling for the annulment of APA’s 2005 PENS.
Margaret L. Signorella (msignorella@psu.edu)
Books
Mayer, J. (2008). The dark side: The inside story of how the war on terror turned into a war on American ideals. New York, NY: Doubleday.
Risen, J. (2014). Pay any price: Greed, power, and endless war. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Articles
Ackerman, S. (2015, July 11). US torture doctors could face charges after report alleges post-9/11 ‘collusion.’ The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jul/10/us-torture-doctors-psychologists-apa-prosecution
APA (2005, July 5). Report of the APA Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security. Retrieved from http://apa.org/news/press/releases/2005/07/pens.aspx and http://apa.org/pubs/info/reports/pens.pdf
APA (2014, March 7). APA informs federal officials of policy changes related to detainee welfare and interrogation in national security settings.
APA (2015). Timeline of APA policies & actions related to detainee welfare and professional ethics in the context of interrogation and national security. Retrieved from http://apa.org/news/press/statements/interrogations.aspx
Emails show American Psychological Association secretly worked with Bush Admin to enable torture. (2015, May 5). Democracy Now. Retrieved from http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/5/emails_show_american_psychological_association_secretly
Flaherty, C. (2014, October 21). ‘Pay any price.’ Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/21/psychology-group-objects-books-portrayal-its-role-post-911-torture
Hoffman, D. H., Carter, D. J., Lopez, C. R. V., Benzmiller, H. L., Guo, A. X., Latifi, S. Y., & Craig, D. C. (2015, July 2). Report to the special committee of the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Association. Independent review relating to APA ethics guidelines, national security interrogations, and torture. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/09/us/document-report.html
Risen, J. (2015, April 30). American Psychological Association bolstered C.I.A. torture program, report says. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/report-says-american-psychological-association-collaborated-on-torture-justification.html
Risen, J. (2015, July 10). Psychologists shielded U.S. torture program, report finds. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/us/psychologists-shielded-us-torture-program-report-finds.html