Psychologists + Torture + Reviving Ophelia

pitu

"Reviving Ophelia" author, Mary Pipher, returned an award to the APA because they (unlike the AMA, I think) refused a resolution about the members of their professional association taking part in torture at Gitmo.
Renowned Psychologist, Author Returns APA Award over Interrogation Policy

Mary Pipher wrote: I really felt that I had a moral choice to make. And I no longer wanted to be associated with APA.

I also have been in the public eye enough that I realized if I just wrote a letter to APA, it would fall in a black hole, which in fact it did -- I’ve never had a response from them -- that I also wanted to make a few calls to people and let them know I was doing this, so that my fervent hope by my action is two things:

one, that American Psychological Association will rapidly rethink what I consider a terrible mistake and regain its position as a helping organization and regain its respect among other helping organizations, such as the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, who do not permit their members to work in many of the places psychologists are now working;

the other thing is, psychologists at this point are the only people who are giving the CIA and President Bush legitimacy for the kinds of behaviors that are occurring in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, the black sites, and so on, because when he’s asked about those things, why is this different, say, than Egypt or the Congo, his answer is, “We have a medical supervisors who are overseeing the interrogations.” In fact, psychologists are those medical supervisors.

Psychologists in Denial About Torture

Amy Goodman, Aug 21, 2007 wrote: Last weekend, the American Psychological Association rejected a moratorium that would have prevented its member psychologists from participating in interrogations at U.S. detention centers at places like Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA “black sites” around the world. Instead, the 148,000-member organization passed a resolution at its annual meeting in San Francisco banning psychologists from participating in interrogations that employ certain harsh techniques. Many psychologists within the APA feel the resolution did not go far enough.

I found her interview on the show this morning really inspiring. There was actually much more to it that what's on their rush transcript - the audio is avail free of charge on the site.
Gotta check out her writing....