Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Majority of Americans think torture is OK

OK, so maybe it's not that strange that some American psychologists might be involved in torture, seeing as most Americans say torture is OK, at least in rare circumstances. This is according to an AP-Ipsos poll reported in the Guardian. And it's not only them, but also the majority of people in Britain, France and South Korea. At least in Canada, Mexico and Germany people aren't so sure, and in Spain and Italy most people are opposed to torture.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Psychologsists involved in torture of detainees at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib?

The Ignacio Martín-Baró Fund for Mental Health and Human Rights has set up a petition calling on the American Psychological Association "to state its opposition to and condemnation of methods of coercive interrogation such as sleep deprivation and harassment focused on detainees' religious, ethnic, sexual orientation, or gender identities, and to establish a task force charged with educating policy makers about the psychological damage done to individuals by use of these and other methods that fall in the category of cruel, degrading, and inhumane treatment". This is in response to " persistent allegations that some of our colleagues in psychology and other areas of mental health may have been involved in cases of torture and/or cruel, degrading, and inhumane treatment of detainees".