Doing Harm: How the World's Largest Psychological Association Lost Its Way in the War on Terror

Doing Harm explores the ethical challenges of the American Psychological Association's involvement in the war on terror, including its collaboration with abusive and torturous operations at overseas CIA black sites and Guantanamo Bay. It reveals how the APA failed to join human rights groups in efforts to constrain the US government's pursuit of security and retribution, highlighting the ongoing struggle between APA leaders committed to preserving strong ties to the military-intelligence establishment and dissident voices prioritizing do-no-harm principles.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 19 September 2023
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press

The book also explores the ethical implications of psychologists involvement in torture and other forms of coercive interrogation, particularly in light of the APAs own ethical guidelines.
Doing Harm pries open the black box on a critical chapter in the recent history of psychology: the fields enmeshment in the so-called war on terror and the ensuing reckoning over do-no-harm ethics during times of threat. Focusing on developments within the American Psychological Association (APA) over two tumultuous decades,Roy Eidelson exposes the challenges that professional organizations face whenever powerful government agencies turn to them for contributions to ethically fraught endeavors.

In the months after 9/11, it became clear that the White House, the Department of Defense, and the Central Intelligence Agency were prepared to ignore well-established international law and human rights standards in prosecuting the war on terror. It was less clear, however, that some of Eidelson's fellow psychologists would become part of the abusive and torturous operations at overseas CIA black sites and Guantanamo Bay. Nor was it initially clear that this ruthless enterprise would garner acquiescence and support from the APAs leadership.

Doing Harm examines how and why the APA failed to join human rights groups in efforts to constrain the US governments unbridled pursuit of security and retribution. It recounts an ongoing struggle – one that has pitted APA leaders set on preserving strong ties to the military-intelligence establishment against dissident voices committed to prioritizing do-no-harm principles.

The book also explores the ethical implications of psychologists involvement in torture and other forms of coercive interrogation, particularly in light of the APAs own ethical guidelines.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780228018612