| # | First Name | Last Name | Affiliation? [For identification only.] | State | Comment: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 701 | Joetta | Carr | Western Michigan University | MI | |
| 702 | Jaclyn | Green | Cumberland Therapy Services | NJ | |
| 703 | Julia | Treland | Sacramento | CA | |
| 704 | jamie | edmund | San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group | CA | I am sending $ to the Berkeley address to support the rally and activiites at the APA convention even though i cannot attend |
| 705 | Ron | Eskew | Hilbert College | NY | |
| 706 | Ellen | Levine | San Francisco State University | CA | |
| 707 | Victoria | Peters | Private Practice | CO | |
| 708 | Ann | Simun | Neuropsychology Partners, Inc. | CA | There is an inherent conflict of interest to have people who are a party to a possible ethical problem to be placed by the organization to make decisions regarding the ethical issue in question. The entire process of looking at this issue should be redone with different members and hopefully with a different conclusion. |
| 709 | Ronald | Park | Neuropsychology Partners, Inc. | CA | |
| 710 | Joyce | Kovelman | Psy Quest for Mental Health | CA | |
| 711 | Micah | Orliss | private practitioner | CA | |
| 712 | Joanne | Tortorici Luna | Associate Professor, California State University Long Beach, Department of Educational Psychology, Administration, and Counseling | CA | |
| 713 | Leigh | Tobias | Psychoanalytic Center of California | CA | |
| 714 | Susan | Holley, PhD, ABPP | Private Practice | CA | |
| 715 | Ann | D'Ercole | Private practice | NY | |
| 716 | Michael | Pariser | Private Practice | CA | |
| 717 | Maja | Ninkovic | City University of New York | NY | |
| 718 | Rachel | Hammond | Midkent College | ||
| 719 | Vagdevi | Meunier | St. Edwards University | TX | |
| 720 | Jennifer | Zorland | Georgia State University | GA | |
| 721 | Michael | Jackson | Earlham College | IN | |
| 722 | Ann | Winton | John Jay College of Criminal Justice | NY | Oct. 30, 2007 Norman B. Anderson, CEO American Psychological Association 750 First Street Washington, DC 20002-4242 Dear Dr. Anderson: It is with great sadness that I have decided that I can not in good conscience continue paying dues to the American Psychological Association, an organization that uses my money to support the participation of psychologists in illegal and immoral national security interrogations at Guantanamo and other concentration camps, known and unknown. Guantanamo is illegal according to international law as detainees are held there without due process and with no legal protections, possibly for the rest of their lives. The United Nations Committee on Torture found that detention at Guantanamo was itself tantamount to torture. Further, there are repeated credible allegations of abuse and torture against detainees held at Guantanamo and other known and secret national security detention facilities. Psychologists, including Major John Leso, a member of APA, have reportedly participated in these abuses. Numerous international organizations – including the European Union, Amnesty International, and Physicians for Human Rights – have condemned the existence or the nature of treatment at Guantanamo. Amnesty International, in their annual report, called Guantanamo "the gulag of our time." Psychologists participating there are thus aiding and abetting torture or abusive and dehumanizing behavior in this gulag. As I am a volunteer for Physicians for Human Rights and an active in their asylum network, I cannot continue to support APA. In the past, I have made repeated efforts to involve APA in the abuses in the detention centers in the USA. The USA has obligations to protect refugees and to respect their rights - regardless of where they are from or where they seek refuge. Instead, we treat them as criminals. The longer these refugees are in detention, their mental and physical health worsened. After visiting the Elizabeth Detention Facility, a “temporary” detention center for individuals who are waiting for their immigration status to be determined or who are awaiting repatriation. Corrections Corporation of America administers the operations of this facility. There is little that is temporary. Families are there for years. There are no facilities for recreation and many of the people who are being held suffer from serious psychological problems as a result of their refugee status. Most are refugees, that is , someone with a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, who is outside of his or her country of nationality and unable or unwilling to return. Refugees are forced from their countries by war, civil conflict, political strife or gross human rights abuses. APA needs to offer help, and not ignore this situation which it has done for a while. In July 2005, the American Psychological Association issued the Report of the [APA] Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security. PHR Executive Director Leonard Rubenstein responded to APA leadership outlining PHR's concerns with the report and its recommendations. On June 14, 2007, PHR Executive Director Leonard Rubenstein sent a letter to Dr. Sharon Brehm, President of the American Psychological Association, regarding involvement of psychologists in interrogations of US security detainees. Every other organization of health care professionals has come out refusing to participate in torture except the 148,000 member APA. The APA has engaged in a repeated pattern of duplicitous, evasive, and illegitimate behaviors in order to protect the participation of psychologists in Guantanamo and the other gulags. The APA appointed a Presidential Task Force (PENS) to look into these matters and recommend policy. The APA kept the membership of the PENS Task Force secret. When the membership leaked out, the reason for secrecy became clear. Five of nine voting members, a majority, were from the military. At least four of them had direct experience with the interrogations the morality of which was in question. Further, APA officials took a strong role in "guiding" the PENS Task Force to its predetermined conclusion that participation in coercive national security interrogations was ethical. Not surprisingly, the APA officials insisted that PENS members sign a confidentiality agreement, thus attempting to keep their immoral manipulation private. Upon reaching a conclusion, the PENS report was rushed through within days to official APA approval by the Board, circumventing the usual step of debate at Council. Thus, the PENS Task Force was a farce and its conclusions are, because of the duplicity with which it was created and manipulated, null and void. The question of the treatment of national security detainees is one of those moral issues that define a society. One either opposes these horrors or implicitly accepts them. The APA has repeatedly taken the latter path. It is part of the problem. In its response to this moral crisis, the APA has facilitated the abuse. APA is employing an Orwellian groupthink process, that by repeating the mantra that Pentagon psychologists don't torture but are busily safeguarding the nation's defense, they can believe that psychologists are not aiding torture. Therefore, I have decided that I can no longer pay dues to the APA because I cannot, in good conscience, pay to aid the APA's immoral actions. I refuse to accept the legitimacy of the leadership of the Association. Therefore, I am not at this time resigning membership. I look forward to the day when I can again in good conscience pay dues to the Association. Thank you for your attention. Sincerely, Ann M. Winton Ph.D. |
| 723 | Margaret | Fulton | Private Practice | MN | |
| 724 | Carolyn | Swift | retired | Since I am retired I do not pay dues, so have no dues to withhold. | |
| 725 | Linda | Magdsick | private practice | MN | |
| 726 | Leon | Bacchues, Ph.D. | Tapestry Ministries | CA | |
| 727 | Wm. James | Arnold | Chartier Arnold Brock & Associates | I have been considereding resigning as an APA member regarding this and then stumbled on your website. I trained in Canada in APA/CPA accreditted programs. | |
| 728 | Dennis | McCaughan | Private practice | IL | |
| 729 | Ernesto | Mujica | William Alanson White Institute | NY | Participation by any psychologist in providing professional information or assistance that may be used to harm, intimidate, coerce, or degrade the self esteem or human rights of others is a clear violation of our ethical principles. Any psychologists who contribute to the suffering of others, especially by using their professional skills, should be dropped from our membership and charges against them should be pursued through their state licensing boards. For listing of ethical principles of the American Psychological Association see:http://www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html |
| 730 | Raúl | Páramo-Ortega | WAfT | ||
| 731 | Judith | Kuppersmith | College Prof/clinician | NY | Transparency or no membership!! |
Stephen Soldz
ssoldz@bgsp.edu
Steven Reisner
SReisner@psychoanalysis.net
Brad Olson
b-olson@northwestern.edu