<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<font size="-1">
<div class="entry-date">
May 13, 2015<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/13/the-ethical-demise-of-the-american-psychological-association/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/13/the-ethical-demise-of-the-american-psychological-association/</a></small></small></b><br>
<br>
<a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/13/the-ethical-demise-of-the-american-psychological-association/#"
title="View more services" target="_blank"
class="addthis_button_expanded"></a>
<div style="float:right;">
<div style="float:right;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="subheadlinestyle"><b><big><big>Is Everything for Sale?</big></big></b></div>
<h1 class="article-title">The Ethical Demise of the American
Psychological Association</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by GEOFF GRAY</div>
<div class="main-text">
<p>The conscience of the American Psychological Association
(APA) is slowly dying as it facilitates torture, cheats its
own members, and hussles junk science boondoggles to the
defense industry. But the APA wasn’t always this way. Founded
in the late 19th century by the intellectual giant William
James and others, it had a proud history of advancing the
science of psychology, defending the rights of those served by
psychology, and promoting the interests of its members.</p>
<p>In 2005 the leadership of the APA violated its governance
rules to allow psychologists to support the Bush era torture
program. This was critical because the Justice Department had
ruled that a health professional needed to be present during
“enhanced interrogations” and because other professional
organizations such as the America Medical Association and the
America Psychiatric Association had unequivocally declared
these programs unethical and out of bounds for their members.
A national panel of human rights experts investigated a newly
released cache of emails showing the APA, with the
collaboration of the White House and CIA personnel, secretly
modified its ethics policy to keep psychologists involved in
torture. The New York Times <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/report-says-american-psychological-association-collaborated-on-torture-justification.html?_r=0"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nytimes.com']);"
target="_blank">reported</a> on the panel’s findings on its
front page late last month.</p>
<p>In its official response, the APA characterized the report as
“recirculated allegations” and <a
href="http://www.apa.org/news/press/response/new-york-times.aspx"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.apa.org']);"
target="_blank">maintained</a> that “last October we
released a statement refuting these allegations.” But this
response is a lie. The human rights experts presented new
evidence of APA support of torture and refuted earlier APA
denials. One email from Kirk Hubbard, the CIA agent overseeing
the torture program, gives a shout out to former APA president
Martin Seligman, saying he “had helped a lot over the last 4
years.” [2] Seligman had earlier denied involvement.</p>
<p>The APA describes the whole issue as a “public
misunderstanding” and it has reluctantly hired an attorney to
investigate the matter. It intends to publish its own report
after which it plans “an aggressive communications program” to
set the record straight. Sounds like they’ve already decided
what their investigators will find.</p>
<p>Deceit is baked into the APA. Over the last several decades
the compensation for APA leadership and staff has become
increasingly generous and secure as the ability of the members
to earn a living has become more precarious. During this time
the organization’s relationship to its members became
increasingly exploitative.</p>
<p>The APA recently <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/report-says-american-psychological-association-collaborated-on-torture-justification.html?_r=0"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nytimes.com']);"
target="_blank">settled a class action lawsuit</a>. For 24
years APA members practicing as clinicians thought they had to
pay a substantial special assessment that was not charged to
academic psychologists. Why did clinicians think that they had
to pay the extra assessment? Because the APA called the
special assessment “mandatory” and said clinicians “must pay.”
The APA leadership perpetrated this deception until 2011 when
a disgruntled clinician learned that the mandatory assessment
had never been approved.</p>
<p>Last month after four years and <a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/13/the-ethical-demise-of-the-american-psychological-association/%20http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/01/practice-assessment.aspx"
target="_blank">undisclosed legal expenses</a> the APA
proposed a settlement of 9.02 million dollars and agreed to
change its Orwellian member communications practices. But the
organization is not apologizing. According to its president,
one Barry Anton, Ph.D., “we do not concede that there was any
wrongdoing on our part.”</p>
<p>A professional organization should be guided by its
membership. If the members want to pay lower dues for scaled
back services that should be the end of the story. A
professional organization struggling in a legal battle with
its membership, as if it represents something other than its
membership, has clearly lost its way.</p>
<p>So what about the integrity of psychological science and
services? More spin, deception, and bullshit as the APA shills
behavioral programs to the military-security state. Building
on relationships developed while crafting torture policies,
APA and APA connected psychologists have spun off a series of
ventures noteworthy for their pseudoscientific underpinnings,
lack of real world effectiveness and high cost. Some of the
programs the APA has sponsored, abetted or profited from
include:</p>
<p>Comprehensive Soldier Resiliency Program (237 million
dollars) was developed by Martin Seligman and is now deployed
throughout the military . This program aims to prevent
stress-related mental health problems by teaching soldiers to
be more resilient and optimistic. The APA enthusiastically
promoted the program in a slew of puff pieces in its peer
reviewed flagship journal, the American Psychologist. But
independent evaluations show the program doesn’t work. An
Institute of Medicine scientific panel noted that the program
was <a
href="http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100526/full/465412a.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nature.com']);"
target="_blank">never vetted</a> for effectiveness and
could, in fact be harmful. USA Today article cites “startling
negative results.”(6) When USA Today confronted the Army,
military psychologists went back and lowered the threshold for
optimism to make the results look less bad.</p>
<p>Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (81 million). Two
psychologists, James Elmer Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, created
interrogation techniques using principals developed by the
same Martin Seligman. However, this program has not only
failed to elicit useful information via torture, it has
blackened America’s name around the world and contributed to
Middle East instability and blowback.</p>
<p>Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques, SPOT (900
million dollars). Developed by psychologist Paul Ekman, <a
href="http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/study2014/sscistudy1.pdf"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','download','http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/study2014/sscistudy1.pdf']);"
target="_blank">the program trains</a> “behavior detection
officers” to identify potential threats at US airports based
on personal characteristics, behavior and facial expressions.
To date there has not been one verified case of a successful
terrorist detection using the program.</p>
<p>The American Psychological Association poses as a
professional organization. In truth it is a racket benefiting
a few insiders. It reflects the larger society where the
accumulation of money and power is the measure of success and
the public good an afterthought; a society in which our
president lauds bankers who impoverish millions of ordinary
workers as “savvy businessmen.” The APA’s failure to fulfill
its broad social mission impoverishes us all.</p>
<p><em><strong>Geoff Gray</strong> has a Ph.D. in psychology.</em></p>
</div>
</font>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>