Articles by Roy Eidelson
We found 74 results.
The American Psychological Association Is Abandoning Its Commitment to Human Rights by Refusing to Speak Out on Palestine
Roy Eidelson | Mondoweiss – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2024
23 Oct 2024 – The American Psychological Association claims to “prioritize human rights advocacy,” but if its leaders want to truly honor that commitment they must recognize and address the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza today.
→ read full article
Weaponizing Antisemitism 101: A Back-to-School Special
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2024
23 Sep 2024 – For anyone — including a Jew like myself — who hasn’t stubbornly closed their eyes and covered their ears over the past eleven months, one thing should be obvious: it’s simply absurd to label outrage, protest, and despair over the plight of Palestinians in Gaza as “antisemitism.” Period.
→ read full article
A Call for Retraction: The Recent American Psychologist Article on Antisemitism
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jul 2024
25 Jun 2024 – It is disappointing and distressing to see that the American Psychologist has published an article titled “The American Psychological Association and Antisemitism: Toward Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.” In my view, the article should be retracted, and I will explain why.
→ read full articleGuantanamo: An Enduring Stain
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jan 2024
11 Jan 2024 – The infamous U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay turns 22 today. Then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld chimed in, “To be in an eight-by-eight cell in beautiful, sunny Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is not inhumane.” Since then, 780 Muslim men and boys have been detained there; 30 still remain imprisoned today. The article also includes a list of books and films that I found very valuable.
→ read full articleWill the American Psychological Association Ever Join the Ceasefire Call?
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jan 2024
2 Jan 2024 – The shocking numbers of Palestinian civilians, many of them children, subjected to death, displacement, disease, starvation, and more—grow larger every day. Calls for a humanitarian ceasefire still can’t be heard in the APA, which failed to oppose the abuse of U.S. war-on-terror prisoners and the involvement of psychologists in that abuse.
→ read full articleProfessional Psychology 22 Years after 9/11
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Oct 2023
26 Sep 2023 – The American Psychological Association, US psychology’s most prominent voice, still seems unwilling to do anything that could jeopardize its carefully nurtured ties to the military-intelligence establishment. This needs to change.
→ read full article
American Psychological Association: Doing Harm
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Sep 2023
30 Aug 2023 – I’m excited to share the news that my book Doing Harm: How the World’s Largest Psychological Association Lost Its Way in the War on Terror has now been published!
→ read full articleThe American Psychological Association Takes Another Step—Backward
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Aug 2023
17 Aug 2023 – Operational psychologists are primarily involved in non-clinical activities linked to national security, national defense, and public safety. Their largest source of employment is the military-intelligence establishment, which includes the Department of Defense and the CIA.
→ read full article
Doing Harm: How the World’s Largest Psychological Association Lost Its Way in the War on Terror
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jun 2023
Roy Eidelson’s searing and important book tells a sordid chapter in the APA’s history, offering a cautionary tale about how professional organizations can stray to the ‘dark side’ in a climate of fear and conformity.
→ read full articleCensorship at the American Psychological Association
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 May 2023
There’s more than a little irony in the APA’s decision to quash Arrigo’s article; it examines the damage and danger of letting military-intelligence interests covertly interfere in the proper functioning of psychological science.
→ read full articleRon DeSantis: Yet another Cog in Guantanamo’s Torture Machine
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Apr 2023
17 Apr 2023 – There have been troubling revelations about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — a leading 2024 GOP presidential aspirant — concerning his conduct at Guantanamo Bay. Of particular note, DeSantis was at Guantanamo in 2006 during the brutal forced-feeding of prisoners engaged in a mass hunger strike.
→ read full articleApology and Reparation: Two Steps the American Psychological Association Should Take Today
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2022
28 Jul 2022 – A brief update on the call for the APA to apologize to the victims of U.S. war-on-terror prisoner abuses and make recurring financial contributions to organizations that provide support for torture victims and their families.
→ read full articleGroups Call for American Psychological Association to Apologize and Provide Support to Victims of War-on-Terror Prisoner Abuses
Submitted by Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2022
On 25th Anniversary of UN International Day in Support of Torture Victims [26 Jun], Psychology and Human Rights Organizations Demand Action from APA
→ read full articleThe “Operational Psychology Professional Practice Guidelines” Are Deeply Flawed — the American Psychological Association Needs Your Comments
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2022
24 Jan 2022 – My deep concerns about the ‘Guidelines’ that will soon be considered for adoption by the APA. The period for online comments has begun and extends until 15 Feb. I would like to briefly share some thoughts about why this is important and deserving of readers’ attention.
→ read full articleThe American Psychological Association’s “Psychology PAC” Must Do Better
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 – Since the APA promotes itself as the leading voice representing psychology in the US, it seems important for Psychology PAC to explain the rationale for its contributions to the candidates identified above. Given that today’s GOP has become a virulent anti-democratic force, it’s hard to see how these donations can be justified.
→ read full articleThe American Psychological Association Still Owes Guantanamo’s Victims an Apology
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2021
Ultimately, even apologies won’t be enough for the victims of U.S. government torture. The association should also join other human rights groups in publicly calling for the permanent closure of this ignominious offshore prison.
→ read full articleU.S. Psychology’s Unfinished Journey from 9/11
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Sep 2021
3 Sep 2021 – As the upcoming anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the APA’s ethics reforms that constrain the involvement of psychologists in national security detention and interrogation operations still remain in place. But they are fragile and under assault. Particularly worrisome in this regard is the growth of a specialized domain within “operational psychology”—one where individuals are targeted for harm rather than healing; where voluntary informed consent is absent; and where activities are conducted in classified settings beyond the ready reach of outside ethical oversight.
→ read full articleRumsfeld Then, DeSantis Now: The Lies That Bind
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Aug 2021
10 Aug 2021 – In particular, three “political mind games” stand out. First, “It’s a False Alarm”: when others raise doubts about your plan, offer overconfident assurances of success. Second, “Don’t Blame Us”: when your rosy predictions are proven wrong, deny that anything could have been done to prevent the setbacks. And third, “They’re Misguided and Misinformed”: when you’re questioned about falling short, attack the media for purportedly misrepresenting events.
→ read full articlePsychologists Should Now Lead the Call to Close Guantánamo
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Feb 2021
“Considering the violence that has happened at Guantánamo, we are sure that after more than nineteen years, you agree that imprisoning people indefinitely without trial while subjecting them to torture, cruelty, and degrading treatment, with no meaningful access to families or proper legal systems, is the height of injustice. That is why imprisonment at Guantánamo must end.” Both the history and the ethics of our profession point the way forward.
→ read full article
Black Lives Matter: Resisting the Propaganda of Status Quo Defenders
Roy Eidelson - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Aug 2020
5 Aug 2020 – First came the unjustifiable police killings of Black Americans. Then came the batons, the pepper spray, the tear gas, the flash-grenades, the helicopters, the armored vehicles, and the rubber bullets. And then came the chorus of privileged beneficiaries of our country’s discriminatory status quo, denying and defending the reality of brutal, racist, militarized, and unaccountable over-policing.
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Asylum, Now an American Horror Story
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jul 2020
We’re witnessing an assault designed to suffocate the hopes and life prospects of asylum seekers. The changes under consideration would upend the decades-old and internationally embraced standards of the Refugee Act of 1980, created to protect refugees who have a “well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” the real Boogeyman isn’t lurking at our border. He’s sitting in the Oval Office.
→ read full articleAnother Pandemic: Sexual Violence during War
Roy Eidelson - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 May 2020
19 May 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic has brought renewed worldwide attention to gender-based and sexual violence. In particular, women with abusive partners face heightened danger during the mandatory lockdowns that bring unanticipated stresses while limiting freedom of movement and access to outside resources.
→ read full articleBeware the Bipartisan Legion of Doom: Corporate Democrats and Trump’s GOP
Roy Eidelson | Common Dreams - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Mar 2020
3 Mar 2020 – There is no more daunting and dangerous duo in U.S. politics than the profits-over-people corporate wing of the Democratic Party and the belligerent, bigoted, and brutal Republican Party of Donald Trump.
→ read full articleBernie, Biden, and My Father
Roy Eidelson | Common Dreams – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jan 2020
21 Jan 2020 – Bernie has the highest favorability ratings of all the primary candidates and the latest national polls show him beating Trump in the general election. Democratic socialism really just means ensuring fair treatment and decent and fulfilling lives for all Americans, not just the privileged few.
→ read full articlePsychology’s “Dark Triad” and the Billionaire Class
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2019
25 Oct 2019 – The data are stark and compelling. The richest 400 families in the United States own financial assets that exceed the wealth of the bottom 60% of all American households combined. U.S. billionaires pay taxes at a lower effective rate than working class families. The CEOs of S&P 500 companies, averaging over $14 million in annual compensation, make roughly as much in a single day as their median employee earns in an entire year.
→ read full articleSilencing Our Veterans: A Bridge Too Far
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2019
During my assignment to Abu Ghraib, I witnessed detainees killed and maimed due to insufficient protection from indirect fire, detainee suicide, detainee abuse at each other’s hands as members of opposing factions were knowingly housed together. I placed cuffed and shackled children in un-air conditioned cages in tents for punishment purposes and was forced by the nature of my duty to contribute to their general mistreatment. It’s my hope that through sharing my experiences I’m able to generate awareness of the inhumanity of war and detention. — A member of Veterans For Peace
→ read full article
‘Political Mind Games’ Free PDF Online
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Sep 2019
3 Sep 2019 – It was just a year ago that I published Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What’s Happening, What’s Right, and What’s Possible. Now, as we enter the 2020 election cycle, when we’re sure to be bombarded with manipulative psychological appeals designed to advance the interests of the super-rich and powerful, I’m eager to bring its progressive message to a broader audience. To download the free PDF version click HERE.
→ read full articleGive Peace a Chance: Don’t Believe the War Profiteers
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jul 2019
11 Jul 2019 – Last month I had the opportunity to share some thoughts at a Divest Philly from the War Machine event, hosted by Wooden Shoe Books and sponsored by World Beyond War, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, and other anti-war groups. Below are my remarks, slightly edited for clarity. My thanks to everyone involved.
→ read full articleIs the American Psychological Association Addicted to Militarism and War?
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Apr 2019
19 Apr 2019 – On the morning of September 11, 2001, the APA sprang into action and worked with the American Red Cross to provide psychological support to families of the victims and to rescue workers. The APA also ensured that the Bush Administration would view the association as a valued partner in the military and intelligence operations central to the new “war on terror.” These two responses are clearly very different from each other.
→ read full articleStoking Fear: We Must Remember How the Iraq War Was Sold
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2019
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.” — Nazi propagandist Hermann Goering .
It was 16 years ago this month, on March 19, 2003, that U.S. forces began a misguided and illegal “shock and awe” military assault on Iraq.
In a World of Corporate-Backed Politicians, Beware the Sounds of Sirens
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2019
The favorite mantras of today’s corporate-backed politicians are much like a virus that infects the public with false and harmful beliefs about what’s happening, what’s right, and what’s possible.
→ read full article
Get Ready for These Political Mind Games in 2019
Roy Eidelson - CounterPunch,
24 Dec 2018
20 Dec 2018 – In my research as a psychologist, I’ve found that manipulative appeals from the 1% are often designed to target issues of vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness. Are we safe? Are we treated fairly? Who should we trust? Are we good enough? Can we control what happens to us? By offering disingenuous answers to these questions, self-serving one-percenters aim to shape ‘our’ understanding of what’s happening, what’s right, and what’s possible to ‘their’ own advantage.
→ read full articleAnother Crossroads for the American Psychological Association
Roy Eidelson | Psychology Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 – The President is a big fan of waterboarding, and worse. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called torturers “patriots.” New CIA Director Gina Haspel oversaw torture at the agency’s infamous black sites. Chief of Staff John Kelly subjected Guantanamo detainees to brutal treatment. National Security Adviser John Bolton is notorious for dismissing international law. The list is incomplete, but it’s sufficient to make one thing clear: for the Trump White House, inhumanity awaits as soon as the right opportunity arises.
→ read full article“They’re Different from Us”: The Profiteers of Prejudice
Roy Eidelson | Psychology Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jun 2018
18 Jun 2018 – The 1% could use their influence to challenge bigotry. Too often they don’t. If we want to focus on the kind of differences that truly matter, we should turn our attention to the striking divergences between the documented policy preferences of the 1% compared to the rest of us.
→ read full articleAuthoritarians, Plutocrats and the Fight for Racial Justice
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2018
Trump’s belligerent stance toward dissent provides context for the National Football League’s decision last week: players on the field will now be required to stand during the national anthem. Trump was quick to publicly endorse the change: “You have to stand proudly for the national anthem or you shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there, maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.”
→ read full articleThe American Psychological Association Speaks Out Against Gina Haspel
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. | Psychology Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
The APA took an important step last week. In key ways, the APA’s opposition to Gina Haspel’s nomination is important symbolically even if its immediate practical impact proves limited.
→ read full article
The 1%’s Mind Games: Psychology Gone Bad
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2018
18 Apr 2018 – Multi-millionaires and billionaires comfortably ride the waves and add to their enormous wealth and power. The contrast is jarring to be sure, but it persists nonetheless because self-interested representatives of the 1% have become masters at using manipulative psychological appeals — I call them “mind games” — to defuse and misdirect our outrage.
→ read full article
Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What’s Happening, What’s Right, and What’s Possible
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
20 Mar 2018 – In my new book I explain the psychology behind the success of today’s plutocrats in marketing their false claims—and what we can do to counter them. Offering a research-based framework, I show how the 1% exploit five fundamental concerns that govern our daily lives. Political Mind Games was written with a clear purpose: to help inoculate the public against the 1%’s self-serving appeals.
→ read full articleFear Is the NRA and Gun Industry’s Deadliest Weapon
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Oct 2017
Home invaders, drug cartels, carjackers, knockout gamers, and rapers, and haters, and campus killers, airport killers, shopping mall killers” among the threats that only assault-style rifles and other guns can stop. The NRA and gun lobby aggressively push these psychologically-potent appeals because they know nothing sells guns like fear — including the fear of not having a gun.
→ read full articleFrom Outer Space, Three Guideposts for the Resistance
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. | Psychology Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jul 2017
Beware Trump’s fearmongering, blind loyalists, and divide-and-conquer tactics.
→ read full articleThe Sustaining Fires of Standing Rock: A Movement Grows
Roy Eidelson – CounterPunch,
20 Mar 2017
Regardless of the pipeline’s final disposition in the federal courts, Energy Transfer Partners and its cronies have unleashed a counterforce that may well exceed their comprehension and control. While digging for dollars they’ve awakened a movement that combines a long-overdue commitment to addressing the trampled rights of Native Americans with a reinvigorated call for climate justice and environmental action.
→ read full articleThe Predatory Presidency
Roy Eidelson – Common Dreams,
6 Mar 2017
Recent executive orders reveal the Trump White House as a ruthless predator set to prey upon the most vulnerable among us. In nature, potential prey instinctually use a wide range of strategies to ward off attacks—from camouflage to traveling in groups to alarm signals to communal defense based on strength in numbers—and they rarely succumb without a fight. Surely we must be prepared to do the same.
→ read full articleHeart of Darkness: Observations on a Torture Notebook
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. | Psychology Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2017
A psychologist tries to defend the indefensible, and fails.
→ read full articleResisting the Mind Games of Donald Trump and the One Percent
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2016
When it comes to profiting off people’s hopes and fears, by far the most successful purveyors of lucrative lies and false promises are some of the denizens of this country’s palatial estates, corporate boardrooms, and corridors of political power. And unlike their small-time counterparts, they’re never on the run — despite the misery they leave in their wake. Enter Donald J. Trump, soon to be the 45th President of the United States.
→ read full articleStanding Firm for Reform at the American Psychological Association
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2016
17 Jun 2016 – Abolitionist and preacher Frederick Douglass once warned, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.” Feminist and civil rights activist Audre Lorde similarly advised, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Their words are worth remembering as we now witness a coordinated campaign of intimidation, deception, and obfuscation targeting the American Psychological Association’s recent efforts to right its ship and institute meaningful ethical reforms in national security contexts.
→ read full articlePreserve Do-No-Harm for Military Psychologists: Coalition Responds to Department of Defense Letter to the APA
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Feb 2016
The Department of Defense is now seeking to undo the changes required by the policy and undermine the American Psychological Association’s determination that the work of psychologists in national security settings must be consistent with international human rights law.
→ read full articleWhen Psychologists Deny Guantanamo’s Abuses
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Dec 2015
It’s now time to discard the carefully crafted fiction that these psychologists have a legitimate, ethical role to play in supporting the interrogation and detention operations there. Until they are removed, psychologists remain key actors in an environment that was aptly called “the gulag of our time” a decade ago, and where abuses still persist today.
→ read full articleMaking a Choice – American Psychological Association: Reform or Business as Usual?
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Nov 2015
The real divide here is not between psychologists who are employed by the military and those who work in the civil sector. Nor is it between psychologists who are healthcare practitioners and those who work in non-clinical areas. The divide that matters is the one between psychologists who recognize the urgent need for accountability and reform and those who instead insist that no wrongdoing took place and that business as usual should prevail.
→ read full articleReflections on a Historic American Psychological Association Convention and the Road Ahead
Roy Eidelson Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Aug 2015
Last Friday [7 Aug] the APA overwhelmingly approved – by a vote of 157 to 1 – a Resolution that bans psychologists from involvement in national security interrogations and adopts the UN Convention Against Torture and the judgments of UN representatives and other international bodies in determining what constitutes torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
→ read full articleHow the American Psychological Association Lost Its Way
Roy Eidelson & Jean Maria Arrigo – Los Angeles Times,
3 Aug 2015
In early July, a devastating independent report by a former federal prosecutor determined that more than a decade ago APA leaders — including the director of ethics — began working secretly with military representatives to craft deceptively permissive ethics policies for psychologists, which effectively enabled abusive interrogation of war-on-terror prisoners to continue.
→ read full articleCommitments the American Psychological Association Should Make Today
Roy Eidelson Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jul 2015
An investigation of APA collusion with the CIA is nearing completion.
→ read full articleFugitive Facts Escape from American Psychological Association Headquarters – Colluding with Torturers
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 May 2015
Although preliminary reports have now identified many of the fugitive facts, the APA continues to warn that extreme caution should be exercised until the Association has provided specific safety guidelines. Without adequate precautions, close contact has been linked to a variety of psychological symptoms, including denial, defensiveness, and despair.
→ read full articleThe American Psychological Association’s Disappearing History
Roy Eidelson Ph.D., Psychology Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 May 2015
During a period of heightened scrutiny, APA webpages are vanishing. APA’s leaders have some difficult questions to answer. For starters, why has so much information been removed from the APA website at the very time Mr. Hoffman is being promised “full and unfettered access” for his investigation?
→ read full articleThe American Psychological Association and Guantanamo: Actions, Not Words
Roy Eidelson and Dan Aalbers – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Apr 2015
Yet again the APA fails to honor its commitments. It is time for the APA to devote as much energy to getting psychologists out of Guantanamo as it has devoted to getting psychologists into the halls of power.
→ read full articleCollusion? Where the APA Investigator Should Look
Roy Eidelson Ph.D., Psychology Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Mar 2015
Is Accountability and Reform within the APA on the Horizon? – The past decade has witnessed persistent claims that the American Psychological Association crafted its ethics policies in order to support the Bush Administration’s use of psychologists in abusive and torturous detention and interrogation operations.
→ read full articleRejecting the Obama-Cheney Alliance against Torture Prosecutions
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Feb 2015
Following the release of the Senate report on the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation program,” we are drawn to another deceptive distinction: the difference between “torture tolerance” and what might be called “torture tolerance-lite. Torture, regardless of whether it relies on physical pain or psychological torment, is cruel, immoral, misguided, and illegal.
→ read full articleCast Into the Depths: Perilous Waters for the American Psychological Association
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jan 2015
The brutal treatment of detainees was not merely the isolated and abhorrent inspiration of two so-called rogue psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen; indeed, from the start the Office of Legal Counsel “torture memos” were drafted with key roles for psychologists specifically in mind.
→ read full articleThe Complicity of Psychologists in CIA Torture
Roy Eidelson and Trudy Bond – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
What the American Psychological Association Knew – Other evidence suggests that the abhorrent actions of two highly paid CIA contractors were by no means the only instances in which the profession’s do-no-harm principles were tragically abandoned. So while this week’s grim Senate report provides important answers to crucial questions, for the psychology profession there is much more yet to be illuminated.
→ read full articleBuilding a Racially Just Society: Psychological Insights
Roy Eidelson, Mikhail Lyubansky, and Kathie Malley-Morrison – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Nov 2014
Racial Injustice Poses a Difficult yet Increasingly Urgent Challenge – As three white psychologists, we offer this brief essay with the awareness that our perspective is necessarily limited by our lived experience as members of the privileged racial class.
→ read full articleNew Evidence Links CIA to the American Psychological Association’s “War on Terror” Ethics
Roy Eidelson and Trudy Bond – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Oct 2014
Based on revelations in James Risen’s new book, ‘Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War.’ The only matter of dispute is the extent to which the APA collaborated with and worked to support the program of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
→ read full articleComplicity: Psychology and War on Terror Abuses
Roy Eidelson, Trudy Bond, Stephen Soldz, Steven Reisner, Jean Maria Arrigo and Brad Olson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 May 2014
Given that psychologists have been central figures in the abuse and torture of our country’s “war on terror” detainees, and that the American Psychological Association has worked to guarantee psychologists’ positioning in detention and interrogation roles, examining the APA’s involvement is an appropriate starting point for this crucial work.
→ read full articlePsychology Association’s Torture Link Fails “Do-No-Harm” Ethics
Roy Eidelson and Trudy Bond – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Mar 2014
As we look to the future, we wonder whether the profound tragedy of Guantanamo might have been diminished if psychologists there had held fast to our profession’s do-no-harm principles and refused to countenance human rights abuses, and if psychology’s leadership had done the same.
→ read full articleIf Not Now, When? – APA Fails to Sanction Psychologist in Guantanamo Torture Case
Roy Eidelson, on behalf of - Coalition for an Ethical Psychology,
10 Feb 2014
10 Feb 2014 – The Coalition for an Ethical Psychology has issued a statement that raises significant questions and deep concerns about the American Psychological Association’s recent decision not to proceed with formal ethics charges against Guantanamo psychologist and APA member Dr. John Leso.
→ read full articlePsychology’s Newest Joke: Not Very Funny
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. – Psychology Today,
27 Jan 2014
There’s a new psychology joke making the rounds, a simple one-liner. Rather dark, more than a bit absurd, and relying on a healthy dose of incongruity between reality and pretense: “The American Psychological Association-APA will not tolerate psychologist participation in torture.”
→ read full articleCoalition Endorses Recommendations of New Report on Health Professional Involvement in Torture, Calls for APA Action
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Nov 2013
The Coalition for an Ethical Psychology applauds the release yesterday [4 Nov 2013] of an important new report titled “Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror,” funded by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP) and the Open Society Foundations.
→ read full articleA Psychologist’s Deceptions about Prison Abuse in California
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. – Psychology Today,
10 Sep 2013
“Brutal killers should not be glorified. This hunger strike is dangerous, disruptive and needs to end.” That’s how Jeffrey Beard, head of California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, concluded his disturbingly deceptive August 6th op-ed in the Los Angeles Times.
→ read full articleHawaiian Mind Games: American Psychological Association Fiddles While Psychology Burns
Roy Eidelson and Stephen Soldz, Psychology Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Aug 2013
More consequential will be the APA leadership’s latest victory in its long-running campaign: the stubborn obstruction of all efforts to meaningfully address the central role psychologists played in U.S. government torture and abuse of national security detainees.
→ read full articleGuantánamo and the American Psychological Association: Where Accountability Goes to Die
Roy Eidelson, Trudy Bond & Stephen Soldz – CounterPunch,
15 Apr 2013
Many of these individuals have suffered not only from indefinite detention, they have also been the victims of horrific physical and psychological abuse often rising to the level of torture, at the hands of individuals who have never been held accountable. As psychologists distressed by the involvement of our own profession in detainee abuse, we are especially troubled by the failure of the American Psychological Association (APA) to sanction one of its members, Dr. John Leso, a psychologist and Army officer who served at Guantánamo from June 2002 to January 2003. Six long years ago one of us (Trudy Bond) filed a complaint against Dr. Leso with the APA’s Ethics Committee.
→ read full articleDr. Frankenstein and the American Psychological Association’s Decade of Monstrosities
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
The betrayal of psychological ethics will not make the world safer.
→ read full articleThe US Army’s Flawed Resilience-Training Study: A Call for Retraction
Roy Eidelson and Stephen Soldz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
In a report released today [4 Jun 2012] by the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, two psychologists call upon the US Army to retract or publicly correct a recent research report that claims the Army’s $140 million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) resilience program “works.” The psychologists Roy Eidelson and Stephen Soldz argue that the study design is flawed and that the results do not justify the researchers’ favorable conclusions.
→ read full articleProtecting Psychologists Who Harm: The APA’s Latest Wrong Turn
Roy Eidelson – Truthout,
16 Apr 2012
There is incontrovertible evidence that in the years following the 9/11 attacks, psychologists served as planners, consultants, researchers and overseers to the abusive and torturous interrogations of prisoners in the US “global war on terror.” A fundamental question is whether coercion, deception, manipulation and humiliation should be part of a psychologist’s ethical work in support of his or her country.
→ read full articleHuman Rights Groups and Advocates Call for Annulment of APA’s PENS Report
Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
Recognizing that the world has been shocked by the specter of abusive interrogations and the torture of national security prisoners by agents of the United States government since 9/11, over a dozen human rights groups and hundreds of advocates – health professionals, social scientists, social justice and human rights scholars and activists, and concerned military and intelligence professionals – have initiated a call for the annulment of the American Psychological Association’s (APA’s) 2005 “PENS Report.”
→ read full articleThe Dark Side of “Comprehensive Soldier Fitness”
Roy Eidelson, Marc Pilisuk & Stephen Soldz - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Mar 2011
Why is the world’s largest organization of psychologists so aggressively promoting a new, massive, and untested military program? The APA’s enthusiasm for mandatory “resilience training” for all U.S. soldiers is troubling on many counts.
→ read full articleIN PRAISE OF SHARED OUTRAGE
Roy Eidelson - Truthout,
20 Mar 2010
"We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all." These were the words of Lord Brian Griffiths, Goldman Sachs international adviser, when he spoke at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral last fall. With inequality at historic levels here in the United States and around the world, it’s a […]
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