Groups to question psych professor on torture policy

Following a controversial anti-torture resolution passed by the American Psychological Association last summer, concerned faculty and students will have a chance to discuss the policy Friday with the association’s president, IU psychology professor Sharon Brehm. \nBrehm, who was elected leader of the association in 2006, has been criticized by many of her constituents for not doing enough to end the psychological torture of foreign terror suspects, specifically the presence of psychologists during the detainees’ interrogations.\nWhile the 2007 resolution reaffirms the organization’s stance against all types of torture – something many psychologists have called a step in the right direction – it did not include a proposal to suspend psychologists’ involvement in interrogations at U.S. prisons for foreign detainees. The Progressive Faculty Coalition, the Bloomington branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the IU chapter of Amnesty International will sponsor the discussion. It will begin at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the Psychology Building, Room 128. \nBrehm has been depicted in human-rights circles as a barrier to ending prisoner torture. But professor Cynthia Hoffman, a member of the Progressive Faculty Coalition, said the discussion will not focus on Brehm’s personal beliefs, but instead aims to examine her organization’s torture policy. Hoffman disagreed with the American Psychological Association’s current torture policy of not removing the association’s psychologists from U.S. interrogations of foreign prisoners.\n“I think that we as citizens need to have a lot of information about what has happened, how often and who has been involved,” Hoffman said.\nAlready, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association have passed similar provisions to the one the American Psychological Association rejected last summer.\nDespite the scrutiny she is under, Brehm has maintained her belief in the importance of psychologists’ presence at government interrogations.\n“Our members have a responsibility to intervene to stop acts of abuse wherever they occur and to report such incidents to the appropriate authorities,” Brehm wrote in a January 2007 letter to Washington Monthly magazine. \nThe American Psychological Association’s 2007 resolution is largely modeled off a similar 2006 enactment. And while this year’s resolution did not provide for the removal of psychologists from interrogation sites like many had hoped, it lays out a set of specific ethical guidelines for psychologists working with government interrogators.\nFriday’s meeting will be a focus on policy, not personality, Hoffman said. The discussion will follow an open-floor model where Brehm will have the opportunity to explain her organization’s resolution. The public are invited to attend and take part in the discussion. \n“My expectation is that (Brehm) will listen to our concerns,” Hoffman said.