Mind Matters: The APA and the Hoffman Report

Boy, am I angry and saddened — disgusted too. You see, I am a longstanding member, one of 130,000, of the American Psychological Association. I used to be proud of this fact. Not right now. Not since the Hoffman Report was released. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hoffman was commissioned by the APA last year to perform an independent review regarding whether the APA and certain members colluded with the U.S. Department of Defense and the CIA in the torture of prisoners.

Euphemized by President George W. Bush in 2001 as “enhanced interrogation techniques,” torture was finally named for what it is by President Obama who admitted last year, “in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. … we tortured some folks.”

Soon after 9/11, organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association publicly denounced involvement with “enhanced techniques” as against their code of ethics. The dictum, “Do no harm” remained intact. Meanwhile, the APA institutionally, with the support of several psychologists, chose to re-define ethics and thus condoned and abetted the implementation of despicable tactics that did not adhere to the Geneva Convention.

Yes, there were those “dissidents” within the APA, who, for more than 10 years, have decried how the APA was actively involved with the U.S. Department of Defense and the CIA. Those vocal psychologists were derided: when truth knocks, shoot the messenger.

The APA, in 2005, responded with a task force to “draw the line between unethical and ethical practices,” says the Hoffman Report. However, “the key APA official who drafted the report [APA Ethics Director, Stephen Behnke] intentionally crafted ethics guidelines that were … non-specific so as not to restrict the flexibility of DOD…”

In an interview with Amy Goodman, on Democracy Now, Dr. Stephen Soldz, psychologist and co-founder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, notes how Behnke was the “mastermind at wordsmithing,” nuancing the wording so that military psychologists would have no constraints.

At the same time, APA members, in general, were fed the Kool-Aid: psychologists could be involved with interrogations to maintain ethics and integrity. In fact, if the APA had had integrity, the organization and its leaders would have spoken truth to power. “No, we will not condone what is unethical, immoral, dehumanizing, degrading. We uphold implicitly and explicitly: Do no harm!”

That’s what should have happened. There is hope that with the Hoffman Report, the future will be different.

* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments at [email protected] or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted to www.drgajdos.com. See book.quietwisdom-loudtimes.com for information about her book, “Quiet Wisdom in Loud Times: The Rise of the Wounded Feminine.”

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.