[Poordogabone]

Recently the American Psychological Association (APA) unanimously voted to adopt a new policy barring psychologists from participating in national security interrogations. Reason being the Bush legacy of torture put a big ugly stain on their field of work. After all, every health worker must take the "I shall do no harm" oath.
My two bits on that, they should also be banned from working in the advertising business which heavily preys on people insecurity, angst and fear.
Then this week, a string of negative articles appeared in the (mainstream/corporate) news saying that most published psychology results are bullshit or at least are failing the replication test.
I wondered if this was merely a coincidence or a form of retaliation against the APA ruling.

[onlooker]

This is really good. For they the Psychologists were implicated in helping in interrogations during the aftermath of 911. It is shameful and at least they the APA have recognized it as such.

[PrestonSturges]

Psychology is always adapted to fit the local conditions and culture. Being "well adapted" means conforming and complying. You can find Otto Rank's early work "Beyond Psychology" online about how psychology is used to enforce compliance. This sort of thing was mentioned quite a bit by the early psychoanalysts that were also Marxists. Rank was no crackpot - 90 years later (today) we would recognize his techniques as completely modern, while anybody using Freuds techniques of that era would be regarded as a nut.

[Hawkcreek]

If I were the head of the CIA, I would have already selected some of my more sociopathic agents for training in psych at some of the prestigious universities. They can learn all the tricks and just forgo the initials after their names.

[Cog]

The science on how to interrogate prisoners is already incorporated into Army field manuals and I'm sure the CIA has a classified manual of their own. You don't need academic psychologists to get their hands dirty with this.

[evilgenius]

It turns out that story put forward in Zero Dark Thirty was manufactured from whole cloth. Under torture people will tell an interrogator what they think they want to hear. They spill the beans pretty quickly, if they know anything. If they don't they will make up something that they think their torturers want to hear. Torture is not about cracking really hard cases. It's about making those who haven't been captured yet afraid of what will happen when they are. That, and a certain form of revenge and, sometimes, fear. Those who fear usually convince themselves that torture actually works!

Imagine the entire edifice of official and bureaucratic military intelligence believing in the efficacy of torture. Imagine them all unwilling to admit it doesn't work. We all know how slowly bureaucracies come round to changing what they believe. Now, imagine what kind of pain was behind all of those code orange, or whatever color, alerts that were so widely disseminated throughout Western Culture in the days following the Iraq War.

I think the profession is saying something about this when they issue a statement like they did.

[Apneaman]

Poor, excellent insight. It would not surprise me at all if your intuition about retaliation is correct. In fact it's fitting with the mindset of torturing and the neocons MO to begin with. The torturing is as much about punishing and sending a message as anything - as you pointed out that it has long been know the information gleaned from it is not reliable. I see it as just one more part of the empire lashing out as it comes undone. Not one fucking thing they have done in the so called war on terror has worked in spite of spending trillions of dollars and wasting many lives. The neocon mentality is only good for one thing - destroying and in this world that can only lead to ruin for America. A study of empires clearly shows that they are at or near their height when pragmatic adults are in charge and use the carrot and stick effectively to win the peace while still getting more than enough of the wealth. No one and no empire gets everything they want and the lashing out and punishing has been see before in the late stage of many an empire and civilization. Also, there has been an increasing amount of folks in the psychological community that have unofficially diagnosed TPTB (corporate, gov, military) neocon neoliberal behaviour and attitude as psychopathic and more people are cluing into that. I can't imagine they appreciate that comparison.


BTW. Those interested in the inner working of the ape brain lost a great one today.

R.I.P. Oliver Sacks

[onlooker]

Great analysis Ap, particularly in the point made of how the professionals and lay people increasingly are seeing those in power as psychopathic. Most are waking up to the fact that in the end these "leaders" are dooming us more then we already are.

[alokin]

The aim of torture is to spread fear to everyone. It simply tells every citizen what could happen in case you muck up.

[efarmer]

Well, certain key behaviors are confirming my diagnosis, but this is going to take some time,
perhaps years to answer for you. The nice part, is I won't have to tell you what is going on in
the world of Psychologists, you will have an epiphany moment and just look up at me and say
that you finally know, at least know enough that it doesn't merit your concern any longer and that
you can move on. And you will thank me, and I will tell you that it is not necessary to thank me,
because I charged you every time we discussed it all along.

[Ayoob]

Recently the American Psychological Association (APA) unanimously voted to adopt a new policy barring psychologists from participating in national security interrogations. Reason being the Bush legacy of torture put a big ugly stain on their field of work. After all, every health worker must take the "I shall do no harm" oath.
My two bits on that, they should also be banned from working in the advertising business which heavily preys on people insecurity, angst and fear.
Then this week, a string of negative articles appeared in the (mainstream/corporate) news saying that most published psychology results are bullshit or at least are failing the replication test.
I wondered if this was merely a coincidence or a form of retaliation against the APA ruling.

Australia just banned homeopathy, too. If there is no evidence then there is no evidence.

[rdberg1957]

Psychology is wide-ranging field which includes research and practices in many settings. My father became a psychologist as a result of his service during World War II. He worked on the development and administration of abilities tests. He became a university psychologist who counseled college students. There has been some great research in psychology and a lot of mediocre studies which didn't add much knowledge to the world. Psychologists have been involved in the military since World War I in the US. Part of the impetus for developing the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was to identify who was homosexual to remove them from the military. What they were detecting was not homosexuality per se, but non-traditional artistic interests in males. It wasn't surprising, but it was highly distressing, to learn that some psychologists were involved in developing interrogation and torture methods. I became a psychotherapist to help people understand themselves and the people in their lives. I am part of a field which does things I don't always approve of. Some psychologists are motivated by money to attempt to control others, while others are motivated relieve suffering. I like to think I am in the latter camp, but it isn't easy to know what your impact on others actually is.

[Cog]

Illegal combatants are not recognized by the Geneva Conventions, as signed by the United States, as people afforded the protections that we give to legal combatants.

[hvacman]

Nobody understood torture like the Spanish Inquisition:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt0Y39eMvpI

[Cog]

Torture, if you want to call what we actually did to these guys torture, led us to Bin Laden. The fish ate good for a while.

[evilgenius]

Torture, if you want to call what we actually did to these guys torture, led us to Bin Laden. The fish ate good for a while.

That's total bs. The official line was that torture led us to him, but in reality it was an informant who did what he thought was right. Rooms filled with tortured people only produced new colored warnings. It was participation and trust that won out in the end.