Psyche, Science, and Society

William Alanson White Institute psychoanalytic institute adopts interrogations resolution

January 9th, 2008

The Council of Fellows of the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology has adopted the following statement entitled Proclamation on Psychologists’ and Other Professionals’ Participation in Coercive
Interrogation, Torture and Related Activities. They have posted it online as a Petition and are seeking signatures.

The central statement here:

Those who seek to help and to heal cannot also be coercive interrogators. Practitioners who participate in coercive interrogations undermine the integrity and trust upon which therapy is based. The damage done by the few complicit practitioners compromises the efficacy of all practitioners, including those who resist such participation; it dismantles the essential principle that the practitioner will have the sufferer’s best interest as the highest priority and will never depart from this principle.

This is a different argument than heretofore presented by other opponents of participation in these interrogations. It gets to the core identity of being a helping profession in a way that arguments about settings that violate human rights do not.

Here is the complete statement:

Proclamation on Psychologists’ and Other Professionals’ Participation in Coercive Interrogation

Description/History:
Psychologists have participated and continue to participate in illegal and unethical coercive interrogations and related activities in detention centers at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

The American Psychological Association has thus far declined to condemn such participation in absolute terms.

This is in contrast to most other professional organizations including the American Psychiatric Association.

Petition:

Proclamation on Psychologists’ and Other Professionals’ Participation in Coercive Interrogation, Torture and Related Activities

We, the undersigned psychologists and allied professionals are committed to the rights of and respect for the dignity of all individuals.

As such, we oppose the direct or indirect participation of psychoanalysts, psychologists and other mental health practitioners in the coercive interrogation, torture or other potentially harmful, non-consensual use of human beings.

In contrast to the current position taken by the American Psychological Association, we call upon psychologists and other professionals to renounce and condemn the direct or indirect participation in torture, coercive interrogation and related activities wherever they may take place, regardless of whoever may claim their necessity or legality.

Psychoanalysts, psychologists and all members of the helping professions must be vigilant regarding the immorality of participating in contexts within which the essential ethical principle of doing no harm is set aside.

We condemn participation in activities in which psychoanalytic or psychological knowledge is used to exploit any person. Psychoanalysts, psychologists and other helping professionals know that they must treat fellow human beings ethically and with dignity and respect, even under conditions of dangerous adversity.

Those who seek to help and to heal cannot also be coercive interrogators. Practitioners who participate in coercive interrogations undermine the integrity and trust upon which therapy is based. The damage done by the few complicit practitioners compromises the efficacy of all practitioners, including those who resist such participation; it dismantles the essential principle that the practitioner will have the sufferer’s best interest as the highest priority and will never depart from this principle.

We, the undersigned, urge psychologists and other professionals to refrain from any and all participation, either direct or indirect, in the coercive interrogation, torture or non-consensual use of human beings and we urge them to speak out against such misconduct wherever and whenever it may arise.

Signed (with institutional affiliations provided for purposes of identification only),

[This Statement was written by a Task-force of the Council of Fellows of the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology consisting of Anton H. Hart, PhD (Fellow and Task-force Chair), Jacqueline T. Ferarro, DMH, Elizabeth B. Hegeman, PhD, and Stefan R. Zicht, PsyD. It received final revision and approval for distribution by the Fellows on December 17th, 2007]

Go sign here.

Entry Filed under: APA, Guantanamo, Interrogation, Mental Health, Psychoanalysis, Psychology, Torture