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Abstract
Psychology's controversial role in torture in settings like Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and Guantánamo fractured a comforting façade and raised questions about how we can best serve the profession. The controversy confronts us with choices about what our profession is, what it means, what it does-who we are, what we mean, what we do. It asks whether our lives and organisations reflect professional ethics or guild ethics. Professional ethics protect the public against abuse of professional power, expertise, and practice, and hold members accountable to values beyond self-interest. Guild ethics place members' interests above public interest, edge away from accountability, and tend to masquerade as professional ethics. Psychology's path to involvement in torture began before 9/11 and the "war on terror" with a move from professional ethics to guild ethics. In sharp contrast to its previous codes, APA's 1992 ethics code reflected guild ethics, as did the subsequent 2002 code (APA, 2002). Guild ethics are reflected in the questionable nature of APA's, 2006, 2007a, 2008a, and 2015 policies on interrogation and torture. This article examines tactics used to maintain the façade of professional ethics despite over a decade of publicized reports of documentary evidence of psychology's organisational involvement in what came to be called "enhanced interrogations." It asks if we use versions of these tactics in our individual lives. If a credible identity, integrity, and professional ethics are not reflected in our individual lives, it is unlikely they will thrive in our profession and organisations.
Keywords: ethics, torture, interrogations, Hoffman Report, American Psychological Association
Résumé
Le rôle controversé de la psychologie en matière de torture dans des environnements comme Abu Ghraib, Bagram et Guantánamo a rompu la façade rassurante et soulevé des questions quant à la façon dont nous pouvons mieux servir la profession. Cette controverse nous confronte à des réflexions sur ce que notre profession représente, ce qu'elle signifie, ce qu'elle fait - qui nous sommes, ce que nous voulons faire comprendre, ce que nous faisons. Elle nous force à se questionner à savoir si nos vies et nos organisations reflètent l'éthique professionnelle ou l'éthique de la guilde. L'éthique professionnelle protège le public contre les abus de pouvoir professionnel, d'expertise et de pratique et permet de tenir les membres responsables du respect de...