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Fall Event, 2005

Involvement by Mental Health Professionals in Military Interrogations at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib -- A public forum commemorating the 16th anniversary of the assassination of Father Ignacio Martín-Baró

View a report on this event in The Student Underground

On the sixteenth anniversary of the assassination of psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró in El Salvador, the Martín-Baró Fund for Mental Health and Human Rights presented a video screening and public forum exploring ethical and political issues surrounding the involvement of mental health professionals in interrogation and abuse of detainees.
There is increasing evidence that U.S. psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health personnel have been complicit in the use of questionable interrogation techniques - in some cases amounting to physical or psychological torture - aimed at detainees in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. The Pentagon and Department of Defense argue that these practices are ethically acceptable because the professionals are not in a patient/provider relationship, but are only assisting the interrogators as "behavioral scientists." Recent statements on the ethics of such practices, issued by both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, have been attacked as weak or worse by many of their own members as well as by outside observers.
The Fund presented excerpts from recent video documentaries examining the situation at Guantanamo and elsewhere, and the resulting controversy. This was followed by a distinguished panel (see below) and by a spirited question-and-answer period with the audience -- which was continued over light refreshments.

Featured Speakers:

Bernice Lott, PhD, Professor Emerita of Psychology and Women’s Studies, and a former Dean of University College, University of Rhode Island. Dr Lott is a member of a coalition of Divisions for Social Justice of the American Psychological Association.

Sondra Crosby, MD, PharmD, Professor of Socio-Medical Sciences, Community Medicine, and Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, and a clinician at the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights.

M. Brinton Lykes, PhD, co-founder of the Martín-Baró Fund, Professor of Community/Social Psychology and Associate Dean at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College, and Associate Director of BC's Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

Robert Manning, SJ, President of Weston Jesuit School of Theology, will offer an opening reflection.

This event was co-sponsored by
Global Lawyers and Physicians
Physicians for Human Rights
Psychologists for Social Responsibility

and was hosted by
Weston Jesuit School of Theology

Resources and Links

View a report on this event in The Student Underground