The American Psychological Association Needs to Think Harder About Ethics
The Report of the APA Task Force on psychological ethics and national security has drawn scathing comments in the NY Times and now Lancet. Stephen Behnke is scrambling to do damage control. But there were problems before the report even came out.An article by Jane Mayer in the July 11/18 2005 New Yorker. "The experiment: Is the military devising new methods of interrogation at Guantanamo" raises serious questions about the appropriateness of one member of the committee and about the complicity of Marty Seligman in research refining methods of torture as well. I only recently got a chance to read the New Yorker article but found it quite troubling. It implicitly raises important questions about the integrity of the task force and the judgment of Stephen Behnke. Steve, let's hear from you.
The identifies Colonel Louie (Morgan) Banks as an administrator of the military's program of systematic research to improve the efficiency of psychological methods in breaking the will of prisoners and obtaining confessions, regardless of whether these confessions are true. The article quotes persons involved in the mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo as indicating that Banks was a consultant in specific interrogations. Banks himself is quoted as saying "I do go down to Guantanamo occasionally, PI have provided assistance" The artice indicates that Banks finds no problem in helping with interrogations, as long as the law is not broken.
Dr. Banks was a member of the APA's task force on psychological ethics and national security! What was he doing on that committee? Prior to the release of the task force report, I had written to Stephen Behnke and, noting that the Army would be represented on the task force, asked that representatives of human rights organizations be there as well. He did not respond to that specific request, but said that I would approve of the task force report. I don't approve of it and I believe that Behnke owes the membership of APA and the larger community of psychologists an explanation why someone like Banks, involved in reprehensible conduct, would be given a key role in how that conduct is judged.
As for Marty Seligman. The article indicates that he has advised the torture researchers and a spokesperson for them cites learned helplessness theory as a useful theoretical framework for their work. I am struggling to figure out the connection between positive psychology and torture. Is Marty helping these prisoners get a peak experience?
According to a separate article in the NY Review of Books, Amnesty International lists 60 alleged incarceration and interrogation methods employed in US run detention centers, including immersion in cold water to simulate drowning, forced shaving, being pissed on, and mock executions. Wow, the technology of learned helplessness has gone far beyond the insolvable anegrams and 90 decibel noises used in the 70s.
Perhaps Steve Behnke and the APA task force have given us a reason to show up at the next APA convention: to join others concerned about human rights in protesting APA's complicity in psychologists conducting research intended to improve the efficiency of methods to deprive others of those rights.
