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Author Eidelson, Roy J., author.

Title Doing harm : how the world's largest psychological association lost its way in the war on terror / Roy J. Eidelson.

Publication Info. Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago: McGill-Queen's University Press, [2023]

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 New Britain, Main Library - New Materials  174.9 EID    Check Shelf
Description 257 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents Embracing the "War on Terror" -- The Perversion of a Profession -- The Pretense of Deliberation -- Revelations and Resistance -- The Reckoning -- The Empire Strikes Back -- Operational Psychology: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly -- Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead.
Summary "Doing Harm pries opens the black box on a critical chapter in the recent history of psychology: the enmeshment of field and some of its practitioners in the "war on terror", and the ensuing reckoning over "do no harm" ethics during times of threat. Focusing on key episodes, decisions, and developments within the American Psychological Association over two tumultuous decades, Eidelson exposes the challenges that professional organizations face whenever powerful government agencies turn to them for contributions to ethically fraught endeavors that endanger human rights. In the months after the 9/11 attacks, it became clear that the White House, the DoD, and the CIA were prepared to ignore well-established international laws and human rights standards in prosecuting the so-called war on terror. It was less immediately obvious, however, that members of Eidelson's own profession, fellow psychologists, would embrace and participate in this effort at overseas CIA black sites, the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and beyond. Nor was it initially so clear that, through acts of commission and omission, an enterprise built on abuse and torture would garner support from the APA leadership. Rather than joining other human rights groups in seeking to constrain the US government's far-reaching pursuit of security and retribution through means that dehumanized prisoners and diminished the country's moral standing, the APA chose a very different direction. Doing Harm explains how and why, by recounting an ongoing struggle-one that has pitted APA leaders set on building and preserving strong ties to the military-intelligence establishment against dissident voices committed to prioritizing do no harm principles and distressed by the APA's repeated failures to do so. Following the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, influential figures and forces continue to defend the involvement of health professionals in harsh military-intelligence operations-and they seek to ensure that similar roles will be available in the future. At the same time, across both major political parties the failure to hold perpetrators of torture accountable increases the chances that similar consequential policy choices will be faced once again-with uncertain outcomes and possibly much sooner than we imagine. Doing Harm shows that we must understand the past in order to chart a different direction."-- Provided by publisher.
Form Issued also in electronic format.
Subject American Psychological Association.
Operational psychology -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Operational psychologists -- Professional ethics -- United States.
Psychologists -- Professional ethics -- United States.
Intelligence service -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Terrorism -- Prevention -- Moral and ethical aspects.
War on Terrorism, 2001-2009.
PSYCHOLOGY / History.
American Psychological Association. (OCoLC)fst00549692
Psychologists -- Professional ethics. (OCoLC)fst01081434
Terrorism -- Prevention -- Moral and ethical aspects. (OCoLC)fst01148130
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
War on Terrorism (2001-2009) (OCoLC)fst01754980
Chronological Term 2001-2009
Other Form: Online version: Eidelson, Roy J. Doing harm. Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2023 0228018633 9780228018636 (OCoLC)1370336116
ISBN 9780228018612 hardcover
0228018617 hardcover
9780228018636 electronic book
9780228018629 electronic book
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