APA: Denunciation and Accommodation of Abusive Interrogations: A Lesson for World Psychology

Abstract

In the wake of the air attacks on the United States in September 2001, counterterrorism policy in the George W. Bush Administration involved psychologists in design and implementation of abusive interrogations of foreign detainees. The American Psychological Association (APA) has firmly declared psychologist involvement in torture unethical, while simultaneously creating loopholes to accommodate psychologists’ involvement. We explain this contradiction in terms of the historic rise of United States psychology in military settings and the resulting institutional entanglements. We close with a recommendation for an ethical and instrumental contribution of psychological expertise to national security interrogations. We appeal to international readers to take a lesson for world psychology from the tragedy of APA facilitation of abusive interrogations.

Keywords

• american psychological association
• interrogation
• ethics
• torture
• history of psychology