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A 17-year-old boy is locked in an interrogation cell in Guantanamo. He breaks down crying and says he wants his family. The interrogator senses the boy is psychologically vulnerable and consults with a psychologist. The psychologist has evaluated the boy prior to the questioning and says, “Tell him his family has forgotten him.” The psychologist also prescribes “linguistic isolation” (not letting him have contact with anyone who speaks his language). The boy attempts suicide a few weeks later. On the eve of the boy's trial, the psychologist, apparently fearing her testimony will only further implicate her, indicates she will plead the Fifth Amendment if she is called to the stand. The trial is postponed, leaving the boy in further limbo.
The military psychologist is merely a foot soldier in psychology's participation in torture. It runs much deeper. We now know that two psychologists helped design and implement significant segments of George Bush's torture program based on trainings they received from Martin Seligman's “learned helplessness.” Despite the professional ethical credo of, “Above all, do no harm,” these two psychologists have admitted that they “reversed engineered” psychological principles and used the very therapeutic interventions psychologists designed to ameliorate psychological suffering, by “reversing” them to create psychological distress and instability. If one's reality sense is threatened, a good therapist validates and supports it as appropriate. In reverse engineering, the environment is deliberately made more confusing and the victim's trust in his own perceptions is intentionally undermined. In extreme form, this can ultimately drive a person to insanity from which some never come back. These were the types of techniques that were used on the 17-year-old detainee and others.
Military psychologists also colluded with the Justice Department to help CIA operatives circumvent the legal prohibitions against torture. Under the Justice Department d