Psyche, Science, and Society

Letter to APA President in response to Call for Action

May 4th, 2007

From the Comments, another letter in response to the call for protest to APA:

Dear Dr. Brehm:
You have an opportunity to make things right.  You have an opportunity to restore integrity to the APA with respect to its activities that have supported the immoral, illegal, and unethical interrogations of innocent human beings in U.S. detention centers around the world.

I ask you to push APA toward prohibiting psychologists’ involvement in the interrogations of detainees happening in Guantanamo and other detention centers.

I ask you to remove the “Nuremberg” defense (Standard 1.02) from our Ethical Principles.

I ask you to let the world know by your actions that psychologists are not a bunch of barbarians; that we truly care and are compassionate and strive to be healers not destroyers of human psyches.

What will you say to your children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren when they ask you what you did to stop the torture of human beings  in U.S. detention centers?

What would you say to the children of the detainees who have been tortured under the guidance of psychologists?

Do you have the compassion and courage to stop this evil?

Art Eccleston, Psy.D.

Entry Filed under: APA, Guantanamo, Interrogation, Law, Psychology, Torture, War Crimes