5. Past Presidents of APA
The most recent addition to this campaign is a group of several past presidents of the APA. In their open letter, they too express doubts and concerns about the Hoffman Report and the current leadership's reform efforts. But here too, it's hard to view their stance as selfless and unbiased given aspects of the histories of some of the signatories. As a senior aide to a U.S. Senator who once chaired the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, one of these past presidents spent much of his career encouraging and coordinating relationships between the APA and the DoD, including a pilot program for prescription privileges for military psychologists. A second served on the board and owned a small financial stake in Mitchell Jessen & Associates, the firm that received $81 million to run the CIA's interrogation program. A third had CIA ties as well, and met with James Mitchell on multiple occasions; Mitchell subsequently relied on his theory of learned helplessness in developing the abusive "enhanced interrogation techniques" used at CIA black sites and elsewhere. And a fourth was a paid member of a CIA "Professional Standards Advisory Committee," for which Mitchell was an occasional consultant. None of these associations demonstrates involvement in APA's collusion or detainee torture. But this kind of background information is certainly worth bearing in mind when considering recommendations from these individuals.
Standing Firm for Reform
With the APA's annual convention now less than two months away, other groups may soon join the bandwagon. There's no preventing that, but the rest of us must understand that this coordinated campaign is bringing together some of the very forces that betrayed the APA's membership and the profession in the past. Relying on misrepresentations, distractions, and the sowing of confusion, they neglected ethics and human rights for the sake of expediency and narrow guild interests. And despite their current efforts, we mustn't forget that the collusion identified in the Hoffman Report was real; the dire consequences for psychology have been real; and the irreparable harm to the victims of torture and abuse is real and everlasting.
For over a decade, APA members witnessed a tragic failure of leadership, one of historic proportions. The current attacks on both the Hoffman Report and today's reform-minded APA leaders are vivid reminders of just that. To give the helm back to those who willfully ran the ship aground, and then let it sit rotting for years thereafter, is a nightmarish prospect. But it can happen if the APA's Council of Representatives--and members of the profession more broadly--are not sufficiently vigilant and proactive in the weeks and months ahead. To anyone who wants to turn out the lights on hard-earned and long overdue progress, our message must be loud and clear: We refuse to let that darkness descend again.
Note: This essay first appeared on Counterpunch.
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