Psychologists linked to Harvard defend work with Pentagon

[DonViejo]

Report on interrogation tactics roils academics

Psychologists linked to Harvard defend work with Pentagon

By Tracy Jan GLOBE STAFF JULY 20, 2015

WASHINGTON — Since its founding in Worcester 123 years ago, the American Psychological Association has been the preeminent voice promoting, as it says in its mission statement, the power of psychology to “benefit society and improve people’s lives.”

But a new report alleges that the association’s leaders — including Harvard-affiliated academics at the top of their field — strayed dramatically from those lofty goals when they worked with the Department of Defense to draft ethics guidelines loose enough for psychologists to participate in harsh interrogation techniques in America’s war on terror.

The outside review concluded that two of the association’s former presidents — Gerald Koocher, a psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Ronald Levant, who taught at Harvard and Boston universities — were “intimately involved’’ in coordinating the association’s policies to line up with Pentagon preferences.

Koocher and Levant, who also are past presidents of the Massachusetts Psychological Association, issued a joint denial last week of the findings.

“We do not now and never have supported the use of cruel, degrading, or inhumane treatment of prisoners or detainees,” they wrote.

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http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/07/19/psychology-association-worked-with-defense-officials-loose-interrogation-guidelines/DsPxSETzHmc4QsSjLjR9mN/story.html