Psyche, Science, and Society

Guantanamo: Lying to mental health staff to avoid worse conditions?

January 23rd, 2008

According to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Guantanamo prisoners lie to mental health professional (the article refers to “psychologists,” “psychiatrists,” and “psychtechs” so it is hard to know who is really involved), in order to avoid receiving worse treatment:

Gulf News UAE:Prisoners forced to lie to doctors

by Habib Toumi

Manama: Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are invariably telling psychologists that they were fine in order to avoid stricter detention conditions, Juma Al Dossary, Bahrain’s most famous inmate at the US centre, has said.

Quoted by his lawyer Joshua Bryan-Colangelo, Al Dossary said that he and the other detainees were providing positive answers to weekly questions by psychologists about their mental condition.

“Al Dossary said that all detainees have learned to report that they are fine because otherwise they will be held under even stricter conditions,” said Bryan-Colangelo who visited his client last month.

“Two psychiatrists visit Al Dossary once a week to spend a few minutes with him and ask the same questions about his condition,” the lawyer said, raising doubts about the ‘mental health care’. He said that the ‘psychtech’ saw him every day and asked the same questions: “Are you eating well?, Are you sleeping well?, Do you think about hurting yourself? and, Do you think about hurting others?”

The lawyer charged that the attention that his client was receiving at Guantanamo was ‘inadequate’.

Entry Filed under: Guantanamo, Mental Health, Psychiatry, Psychology