Torture, Fear, and American Psychology: An Insider’s Perspective on the Debacle Within the APA

I spent almost 20 years inside the inner sanctum of the American Psychological Association. A psychologist and attorney, I was the first Executive Director of Professional Practice for the APA and in 1986 built much of the advocacy structure still in place to advocate for clinical psychologists. During that period psychology went through what some have referred to as the “golden age” of American psychology, in which we successfully advocated to make psychological services available to the elderly, the disabled, and many others. We also effectively asserted the humanistic values of a profession that appreciated fully the devastating effects of trauma and abuse.

Torture was the antithesis of what we stood for and what we were about.

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