OK I'll have a go at that. I'm very busy at the moment (like most of
you I'm sure) so if anyone else fancies having a go at it that would be
great, but otherwise I'll try and put something out by the end of the
weekend.
Mark
Frederic Stansfield wrote:
> I agree with Keith Venables that the issue as to how British
> psychologists should relate to the APA following its rule change on
> government use of psychology should be put on the agenda of the
> meeting on 16th. October.
>
> In addition, Mark Burton is right to suggest that a letter should be
> prepared for "The Psychologist". I think it should publicise the APA
> rule change in the specific context of saying that the BPS should seek
> to ensure that all psychological organisations from other countries
> with which it is associated, not just the APA, respect the
> requirements of international agreements on human rights. We also need
> to think how this letter would relate to other campaigning within the
> BPS. A letter sent by the end of this month might appear in December.
> How would this tie in with getting items onto the AGM Agenda etc? I
> suspect it might be wise to have a good number of signatures,
> including "names" on the letter as the BPS tends to have a policy of
> "letting sleeping cats lie".
>
> Can I suggest that the next step is for Mark to prepare a draft letter
> and put it round for Discussion on-line, with a deadline for comments
> after which he can do a definitive text?
>
>
>
> */Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]>/* wrote:
>
> i can't get to London on 16th October but wish to support any
> effort to get psychologists critiquing our discipline and practice
> and promoting social justice - so good luck with the launch and
> yes I feel this should be on the agenda.
>
> Thanks to Mark for informing us about the position of APA on the
> matter of torture.
>
> Annie
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List on behalf of
> Venables,Keith (Children and Younnger Adults)
> Sent: Sun 10/09/2006 12:03
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: More on APA and psychological torture by US military
>
> The Psychologists for Social Responsibility Launch takes place in
> London on 16th October (6.00 - 8.00, Lucas Arms, Gray's Inn Road).
>
>
>
> Should this be on the agenda?
>
>
>
> Keith Venables
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Beehalf Of Frederic
> Stansfield
> Sent: 10 September 2006 11:52
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] More on APA ans psychological
> torture by US military
>
>
>
> I agree that it is odd psychologists need to be told not to
> torture people and outrageous if they are involved in practices
> such as Mark Burton describes.
>
> However, to consider this a little more try thinking the other way
> round. What methods are legitimate for an intelligence officer to
> interrogate a prisoner with information? If the officer has
> somebody in hs custody who, say, he has good reason to believe
> knows about a plot to fly a plane into a skyscraper and kill
> thousands of innocent people it is obvious that (s)he will wish to
> find out information from the prisoner to prevent this event from
> happening. Sexual humiliation based on the prisoners' culture
> clearly goes too far - apart from the moral objecton and probably
> being ineffective its long term results are worse than any
> short-term gain. But surely the intelligence officer should not be
> limited to asking name, rank and number?
>
> We can talk about this issue, but the question is what
> psychologists should do about it. One posibility is for members of
> the British Psychological Society to raise this at the Annual
> Conference (either in a session or by putting an item for
> consideration at the AGM) or to press for the BPS to act through
> its committee structure relating to Psycholgical Societies
> internationally.
>
> Mark Burton wrote:
>
> It is odd, but the problem is deeper than that. The torture used
> in Abu Graib, Guantánamo Bay, Bagrahm etc. has its roots in the
> CIA funded experiments on sensory deprivation done by Hebb and
> others. The methods entered CIA handbooks used in Vietnam, Chile
> and Central America by the US and its proxies and. The torture
> methods used today in the 'war of terror' are these same methods
> although now augmented by additional violent methods such as the
> use of dogs and by sexual humiliation based on assumptions about
> Arab/Islamic culture and 'self inflicted pain' (i.e. being forced
> to stay in stress positions). The issue here is not so much that
> we have to tell psychologists not to torture but that military
> psychologists and psychiatirists are indeed deeply involved in the
> practice. The problem then is not that the APA isn't telling
> people torture is wrong but that it is legitimating that torture
> through the Nuremburg defence (only obeying orders), just as the
> Reagan and Bush regimes legitimated that torture by defining it as
> 'not torture'. We have to be concerned about this because of the
> pervasive influence of US psychology. Just as we learned as
> undergraduates about sensory deprivation in courses on perception,
> without any connection made to the purpose and application of that
> research (at least if you learned your psychology as long ago as
> me!), so we can expect a corrosion of the ethics of the discipline
> worldwide unless the current collaborationist APA position is
> exposed and denounced.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> Craig Newnes wrote:
>
> Isn't it odd that psychologists need to be told not to torture people?
>
> Craig
>
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