Stephen H. Behnke

Last updated

Stephen Houran Behnke (born 1958) is an American psychologist, ethicist, and author. From November 1, 2000 [1] until July 8, 2015 [2] he was the director of the Office of Ethics for the American Psychological Association.

Contents

Career

Behnke received his B.A. in classics from Princeton University in 1982, his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1986, and his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan in 1994. [3]

From 1998 to 1999, he was an instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. [4]

On November 1, 2000, Behnke became director of the Office of Ethics for the American Psychological Association. [1]

In 2011, Behnke was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Award by the American Psychological Association "for exemplary contribution to the profession of psychology and for longstanding service as Director of the APA Ethics Office" [3]

On July 8, 2015, Benke was removed from his position as director of the APA Ethics Office as a result of a July 2, 2015 report to the special committee of the board of directors. [2] [5]

Enhanced interrogation controversy

On July 2, 2015, a 542-page independent review report conducted by former assistant U.S. Attorney David H. Hoffman was issued to the special committee of the board of directors of the American Psychological Association relating to ethics guidelines, enhanced interrogation techniques, and torture. [6] [7]

According to The Washington Post ,

The probe concluded that the association's ethics director and others had "colluded with important [Department of Defense] officials to have APA issue loose, high-level ethical guidelines that did not constrain" the Pentagon in its interrogation of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The association's "principal motive in doing so was to align APA and curry favor with DOD." [5]

James Risen reported in the New York Times that Behnke was among prominent psychologists who

worked closely with the C.I.A. to blunt dissent inside the agency over an interrogation program that is now known to have included torture. It also finds that officials at the American Psychological Association colluded with the Pentagon to make sure that the association's ethics policies did not hinder the ability of psychologists to be involved in the interrogation program. [8]

According to The Guardian newspaper Behnke was fired from his job as the APA's ethics chief as a result of being involved in

recasting its ethics guidelines in a manner conducive to interrogations that, from the start, relied heavily on psychologists to design and implement techniques like waterboarding. [2]

Nathaniel Raymond, former director of the campaign against torture at Physicians for Human Rights said,

This is the single greatest health professional ethics scandal of the 21st century. [9]

In response, Behnke hired risk management firm Freeh Group International Solutions, headed by former Federal Bureau of Investigation director Louis Freeh, to respond to the report. Behnke's brother, John D. Behnke, is a managing director of the same risk management firm. Freeh stated that the Hoffman report grossly mischaracterized Behnke's motives and actions. [10] According to The Guardian,

Behnke undertook "extensive efforts to manipulate" the APA's council of representatives "in an effort to undermine attempts to keep psychologists from being involved in national security interrogations", according to Hoffman. [11]

Publications

Related Research Articles

The psychology of torture refers to the psychological processes underlying all aspects of torture including the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, the immediate and long-term effects, and the political and social institutions that influence its use. Torture itself is the use of physical or psychological pain to control the victim or fulfill some needs of the perpetrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Psychological Association</span> Scientific and professional organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C.

The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 146,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It has 54 divisions—interest groups for different subspecialties of psychology or topical areas. The APA has an annual budget of around $125 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychologist</span> Professional who evaluates, diagnoses, treats and studies behavior and mental processes

A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how individuals relate to each other and to their environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">APA style</span> Academic style and writing format

APA style is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books. It is commonly used for citing sources within the field of behavioral and social sciences, including sociology, education, health sciences, criminal justice, and anthropology, as well as psychology. It is described in the style guide of the American Psychological Association (APA), which is titled the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The guidelines were developed to aid reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences, for clarity of communication, and for "word choice that best reduces bias in language". APA style is widely used, either entirely or with modifications, by hundreds of other scientific journals, in many textbooks, and in academia. The current edition is its seventh revision.

Medical torture describes the involvement of, or sometimes instigation by, medical personnel in acts of torture, either to judge what victims can endure, to apply treatments which will enhance torture, or as torturers in their own right. Medical torture overlaps with medical interrogation if it involves the use of professional medical expertise to facilitate interrogation or corporal punishment, in the conduct of torturous human experimentation or in providing professional medical sanction and approval for the torture of prisoners. Medical torture also covers torturous scientific experimentation upon unwilling human subjects.

<i>Psychological Review</i> Academic journal

Psychological Review is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers psychological theory. It was established by James Mark Baldwin and James McKeen Cattell in 1894 as a publication vehicle for psychologists not connected with the laboratory of G. Stanley Hall, who often published in his American Journal of Psychology. Psychological Review soon became the most prominent and influential psychology journal in North America, publishing important articles by William James, John Dewey, James Rowland Angell, and many others.

The American Psychology–Law Society (AP–LS) is an academic society for legal and forensic psychologists, as well as general psychologists who are interested in the application of psychology to the law. AP–LS serves as Division 41 of the American Psychological Association and publishes the academic journal Law and Human Behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military psychology</span> Specialized field in psychological science

Military psychology is a specialization within psychology that applies psychological science to promote the readiness of military members, organizations, and operations. Military psychologists provide support to the military in many ways, including through direct clinical care, consultation to military commanders, teaching others and supporting military training, and through research relevant to military operations and personnel. Military psychology as a field has been growing since the early 20th century, evidence that the demands and needs for psychological clinical and operational application is continuing to grow steadily. There are many stressors associated with military service, including exposure to high-risk training and combat. As such, psychologists are critical support components that assist military leaders in designing appropriate training programs, providing oversight to those programs, and assisting military members as they navigate the challenges of military training and their new lifestyle. Military psychology covers a wide rang of fields throughout the military including operational, tactical, and occupational psychology. Gender differences between military-trained personnel who seek mental health assistance have been extensively studied.Specific examples include post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with combat, or guilt and family/partner difficulties accompanying extended or frequent deployments due to separation. Clinical providers in military psychology are often focused on the treatment of stress, fatigue, and other personal readiness issues. Previous wars such as the Korean war, Vietnam war, and WW 2 provide great insight to the workings and practices of military psychology and how the practices have changed and assisted the military over the years.

James Elmer Mitchell is an American psychologist and former member of the United States Air Force. From 2002, after his retirement from the military, to 2009, his company Mitchell Jessen and Associates received $81 million on contract from the CIA to carry out the interrogation of detainees, referred to as "enhanced interrogation techniques" that resulted in little credible information. Techniques implemented could be considered as war crimes.

Michael Gelles is an American forensic psychologist. He is notable for the role he played in uncovering the unauthorized use of abusive techniques during the interrogation of captives held in extrajudicial detention, apprehended during the "war on terror".

Charles A. Morgan III is an American psychiatrist who has studied post-traumatic stress disorder. He is a researcher with the National Center for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder who has worked on how stress interacts with the neurobiological basis of hardiness and resilience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Jessen</span> American psychologist

John Bruce Jessen is an American psychologist who, with James Elmer Mitchell, created the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" that were used in the interrogation and torture of CIA detainees and outlined in the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's report on CIA torture. In that report, he was mentioned under the pseudonym "Hammond Dunbar." His company, Mitchell Jessen and Associates, earned US$81 million for its work.

Norman Bruce Anderson is an American scientist who was a tenured professor studying health disparities and mind/body health, and later an executive in government, non-profit, university sectors. Anderson is assistant vice president for research and academic affairs, and research professor of social work and nursing at Florida State University. He previously served as chief executive officer of the American Psychological Association (APA), the largest scientific and professional association for psychologists in the United States. Anderson became the APA's first African-American CEO when he was named to the post in 2003. He was the editor for the APA journal American Psychologist. Prior to joining APA, Anderson was an associate director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and held other roles in academia.

Donald Neil Bersoff is an American psychologist, attorney and academic. He was the president of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2013. Before being elected president, Bersoff served as APA general counsel and held several leadership positions within the organization. He has been a faculty member at several law schools and he developed the nation's second joint graduate program in psychology and law. Bersoff has written four editions of a popular book on ethics and psychology.

Gerald Paul Koocher is an American psychologist and past president of the American Psychological Association (APA). His interests include ethics, clinical child psychology and the study of scientific misconduct. He is Dean Emeritus Simmons University and also holds an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School. Koocher has over 300 publications including 16 books and has edited three scholarly journals including Ethics & Behavior which he founded. Koocher was implicated as an author of the so-called "torture memos" that allowed psychologists to participate in torture during interrogations in the Hoffman Report, an APA investigation into psychologists' involvement in interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Giuseppe (Joseph) Dominic Matarazzo is an American psychologist and a past president of the American Psychological Association (APA). He chaired the first medical psychology department in the United States and has been credited with much of the early work in health psychology.

The American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct includes an introduction, preamble, a list of five aspirational principles and a list of ten enforceable standards that psychologists use to guide ethical decisions in practice, research, and education. The principles and standards are written, revised, and enforced by the APA. The code of conduct is applicable to psychologists in a variety of areas across a variety of contexts. In the event of a violation of the code of conduct, the APA may take action ranging from termination of the APA membership to the loss of licensure, depending on the violation. Other professional organizations and licensing boards may adopt and enforce the code.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen Franklin</span> American forensic psychologist

Karen Franklin is an American forensic psychologist. For her doctoral dissertation, she conducted research on anti-gay violence. She has also published commentaries about sex crimes, primarily expressing her opposition to the use of the hebephilia and other diagnoses in sexually violent predator regulations. She received the 2012 Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award in Psychology and the Monette-Horwitz Trust Award in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Maria Arrigo</span> American social psychologist

Jean Maria Arrigo is an American social psychologist and oral historian.

Barry S. Anton, Ph.D., ABPP is an American psychologist. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Puget Sound where he taught for 34 years. Anton founded Rainier Behavioral Health, a multi-discipline mental health practice where he practices clinical child and adolescent psychology and neuropsychology. Anton has co-authored, along with Professor Janet Matthews, a clinical psychology textbook, published over 90 articles, and has presented numerous conference workshops, invited addresses, keynote addresses, and panel discussions nationally and internationally. Anton served as the president of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2015.

References

  1. 1 2 New APA ethics director stresses educating psychologists, American Psychological Association
  2. 1 2 3 US torture doctors could face charges after report alleges post-9/11 'collusion'
  3. 1 2 3 4 Stephen Houran Behnke: Curriculum vitae Archived 2015-07-12 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Harvard University: Center for Ethics: Stephen H. Behnke
  5. 1 2 "Inquiry: Psychologists group colluded with Pentagon, CIA on interrogations" by Greg Miller The Washington Post, July 10, 2015
  6. ↑ "How America's psychologists ended up endorsing torture". The Economist . July 28, 2015. Archived from the original on July 31, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  7. ↑ July 2, 2015 report to the special committee of the board of directors of the American Psychological Association
  8. ↑ Psychologists Shielded U.S. Torture Program, Report Finds by James Risen, New York Times, July 10, 2015
  9. ↑ "Leading Psychologists Secretly Aided U.S. Torture Program" by Rupert Stone Newsweek magazine, July 10, 2015
  10. ↑ Ackerman, Spencer (July 12, 2015). "Psychologist accused of enabling US torture backed by former FBI chief". The Guardian . Archived from the original on July 13, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  11. ↑ Ackerman, Spencer (July 14, 2015). "Three senior officials lose their jobs at APA after US torture scandal". The Guardian . Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  12. ↑ American Psychological Association July/August 2006, Vol 37, No. 7
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.