Audio interviews of expert psychologists offer insights into the development, propriety, and effects of “enhanced interrogation techniques”; the impact of their use on the profession; and proposals for reform. Please click on the topics below to listen to the expert voices.
- The History of “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”
- Frank Summers – Feb. 25, 2010: The history of the research on enhanced interrogation techniques
- Enhanced Interrogation Techniques and Their Effects – Part I: Psychological Descriptions
- Frank Summers – Feb. 25, 2010: The first thing that tends to break down in mental torture is thought organization
- Judy Okawa – March 3, 2010: Sensory deprivation, a profoundly disorienting experience for the human brain
- Judy Okawa – March 3, 2010: Sensory overload, an extremely powerful way of breaking up the mind
- Judy Okawa – March 3, 2010: Stripping the person of any human dignity
- Judy Okawa – March 3, 2010: The interrogator’s intent is to break the person
- Michael Wessells – Feb. 26, 2010: Effects are profound, there is absolutely no question you think you’re going to die
- Michael Wessells – Feb. 26, 2010: You would begin to see suicidal thinking, patterns of severe disorientation
- Nina Thomas – March 9, 2010: What I recognize is the extreme anxiety, the inability to make eye contact, the terrible fear
- Uwe Jacobs – March 23, 2010: The signs and symptoms of non-physical torture
- Enhanced Interrogation Techniques and Their Effects – Part II: When Interrogation Becomes Torture
- Brad Olson – March 1st, 2010: It so quickly turns into coercion and torture
- David Gangsei – March 1, 2010: These techniques are torture
- Frank Summers – Feb. 25, 2010: An intentional effort to inflict harm on people
- Uwe Jacobs – March 23, 2010: Psychologists helped the government torture people in a manner that created deniability
- What should be the role of psychologists in interrogation?
- Brad Olson – March 1st, 2010: Psychologists should not be in global war on terror detention centers
- Brad Olson – March 1st, 2010: Psychologists do prescribe to do no harm; whenever they stray away from that absolute I think it’s very dangerous
- Frank Summers – Feb. 25, 2010: They used their Ph.D.s as a way of legitimizing illegitimate techniques
- Michael Wessells – Feb. 26, 2010: None. Absolutely none. Under no circumstances.
- Nina Thomas – March 9, 2010: Conducting interrogations is not the role of a mental health professional
- Rosa E. Garcia-Peltolemi – March 2, 2010: Psychologists should not be interrogators, there is no history that shows psychologists have something to offer
- Ruth Fallenbaum – March 25, 2010: We came down on the side of removing all psychologists from any sites that violate the Geneva Conventions
- Trudy Bond – March 1, 2010: Yoo and Bybee used the presence of psychologists to suggest everything was okay
- Uwe Jacobs – March 23, 2010: What’s problematical is psychologists advising interrogators on how to maximize distress
- Should psychologists be held accountable for involvement in enhanced interrogation techniques?
- Brad Olson – March 1st, 2010: Any psychologist worth her salt would have recognized that any of these coercive techniques would lead to harm…
- Brad Olson – March 1st, 2010: The psychologists had a responsibility at the earliest point to step up and be true whistleblowers
- Frank Summers – Feb. 25, 2010: Psychologists involved should not have the ability to practice
- Nina Thomas – March 9, 2010: There should be criminal charges
- Rosa E. Garcia-Peltolemi – March 2, 2010: Their obligation at the very least was to research them!
- Ruth Fallenbaum – March 25, 2010: They should have their licenses revoked they should not be allowed to practice
- Trudy Bond – March 1, 2010: Reform would be for licensing boards and professional associations to start holding psychologists accountable
- Uwe Jacobs – March 23, 2010: Licensing board complaints would be appropriate
- What should be the role of the A.P.A.?
- Frank Summers – Feb. 25, 2010: Narrative Part 1 – The APA was only interested in covering up
- Frank Summers – Feb. 25, 2010: Narrative Part 2 – Detainee 063, Maj L, and the Referendum
- Judy Okawa – March 3, 2010: The APA’s response has been shameful
- Ruth Fallenbaum – March 25, 2010: I don’t think we’re ever going to get an ethical APA until there is an independent APA
- Uwe Jacobs – March 23, 2010: PENS Task Force and APA response
- Uwe Jacobs – March 23, 2010: The APA is not capable of investigating itself
- Impact on the Profession of Psychologists’ Involvement in Interrogations
- Jean Maria Arrigo – Feb. 22, 2010: The role of public trust
- Ruth Fallenbaum – March 25, 2010: This whole thing casts a cloud over my profession