Referendum on Torture: Debate Over Role of Psychologists in Military Interrogations Comes to a Head at APA Annual Convention

After years of debate and several resignations from the association, APA members are now voting on a referendum that could make any participation in coercive prisoner interrogations a violation of their code of ethics.

Dissident psychologist Steven Reisner, a co-founder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, is also one of the leading candidates for the APA Presidency. He spoke out forcefully at Saturday’s rally in Boston.

This year’s convention comes on the heels of a string of revelations that psychologists played a key role in designing the CIA’s so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.

Last week, lawyers for Afghan Guantanamo prisoner Mohammad Jawad asserted a psychologist had recommended a month-long isolation program that allegedly drove Jawad to attempt suicide. But the psychologist refused to testify, invoking the military equivalent of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

We’re joined by three guests who support the referendum resolution.
Stephen Soldz is a faculty member at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and a co-founder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology. He blogs at psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog. Brad Olson is a faculty member at Northwestern University and also a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology. They join us now from Boston. We’re also joined from Washington, DC by Leonard Rubinstein, the executive director of Physicians for Human Rights.

Meanwhile California became the first state in the nation to officially condemn the participation of health professionals – including psychologists – in coercive interrogations of prisoners in the so-called war on terror.

Senate Joint Resolution 19 which passed in the state legislature on Thursday instructs the state’s licensing boards to inform California health professionals that they may one day be subject to prosecution if they participate in interrogations that do not conform to international standards of treatment of prisoners.

The resolution was introduced by Democratic State Senator from Los Angeles Mark Ridley-Thomas. Senator Ridley-Thomas joins us now on the phone from Los Angeles.

Brad Olson, Assistant Research Professor at Northwestern University. He is a founding member of the Psychologists for an Ethical APA.

Leonard Rubinstein, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights.

Stephen Soldz, Psychoanalyst, Psychologist, Researcher and Activist. He is a faculty member at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and a co-founder of the Psychologists for an Ethical APA.

Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, Democratic State Senator from Los Angeles. Introduced Senate Joint Resolution 19 to prevent California health professionals from participating in coercive interrogations.

Related Links

• Blog of Stephen Soldz
• Psychologists for an Ethical APA

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