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Roy Eidelson is a psychologist who studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. His most recent book is Doing Harm: How the World's Largest Psychological Association Lost Its Way in the War on Terror. He is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, and the former executive director of Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at the University of Pennsylvania.. OpEd News Member for 932 week(s) and 2 day(s) 93 Articles, 0 Quick Links, 12 Comments, 6 Diaries, 0 Polls
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Monday, August 21, 2023The American Psychological Association Takes Another Step Backward In some cases, operational psychologists are called upon to inflict harm, to dispense with informed consent, and to operate in a covert manner such that external oversight by professional boards becomes difficult or impossible. They're eager to have the APA's official blessing of this weaponization of the profession because it's a step toward achieving greater recognition and legitimacy for this kind of work. 
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Friday, July 29, 2022Apology and Reparation: Two Steps the American Psychological Association Should Take Today Next week the American Psychological Association will hold its annual convention. With thousands of members gathering in Minneapolis, the convention would be an ideal time for the APA's leadership to issue an overdue apology to abused war-on-terror prisoners and make a public commitment to providing financial support to victims of torture. 
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Monday, December 20, 2021The American Psychological Association's "Psychology PAC" Must Do Better It isn't complicated: the American Psychological Association's "Psychology PAC" should do much better than support the political careers of individuals whose actions consistently increase the peril and disenfranchisement faced by the most vulnerable among us. 
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Thursday, December 9, 2021The American Psychological Association Still Owes Guantanamo's Victims an Apology An official apology from the American Psychological Association to the predominantly Muslim prisoners--and their families and communities--who have been victimized at Guantanamo by the cruel, inhuman, and degrading misuse of psychological practice is now long overdue. 
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Wednesday, September 8, 2021U.S. Psychology's Unfinished Journey from 9/11 The past 20 years should be remembered as a critical, painful chapter in the history of U.S. psychology: the misguided enmeshment of psychologists and psychological science in the worst of the so-called war on terror; the unconscionable abuses perpetrated by members of the profession; and the American Psychological Association's own failure to tenaciously defend "do no harm" principles during times of uncertainty and threat. 
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Tuesday, August 10, 2021Rumsfeld Then, DeSantis Now: The Lies That Bind The recent manipulative mind games about COVID-19 from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis should remind us of propaganda we once heard about Iraq from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The deadly consequences are reminiscent too. 
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Tuesday, February 2, 2021Psychologists Should Now Lead the Call to Close Guantanamo As a matter of history and ethics, it is time for the American Psychological Association and US psychologists to join other human rights groups in calling for the permanent closure of the Guantanamo detention facility. 
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Wednesday, November 18, 2020With the Win-Win Machine, Most of Us Actually Lose The Democratic establishment--eager to soothe the billionaire class--portrays progressives as misguided and misinformed, as out of touch with what Americans really want, and as proponents of dangerous reforms. In sharp contrast, they depict so-called centrists as having been unjustly victimized and as blameless for the party's shortcomings. 
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Thursday, August 6, 2020Black Lives Matter: Resisting the Propaganda of Status Quo Defenders Political mind games are used by status-quo defending authorities when their apparent wrongdoing and corruption are too obvious to ignore. This is clearly the case in the current national crisis over police brutality and institutional racism, where these manipulative appeals are used to create the doubt and division that undermine the solidarity necessary for achieving long overdue progress. . 
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Thursday, July 23, 2020Asylum, Now an American Horror Story We've seen the Muslim travel ban, the attempted rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and the terrorizing of communities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Now we're witnessing an assault designed to suffocate the hopes and life prospects of asylum seekers. 
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Wednesday, March 4, 2020Beware the Bipartisan Legion of Doom: Corporate Democrats and Trump's GOP Corporate Democrats and Trump's GOP are both beholden to the same benefactors: an assortment of status-quo-defending behemoths that includes Wall Street, the oil and gas industry, health insurance companies, Big Pharma, military contractors, and mainstream media conglomerates. They therefore share the same no-holds-barred commitment: making sure that progressive victories are few and far between. 
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Thursday, February 13, 2020Still Torturing the Truth, After All These Years The evidence that psychologists were involved in the abusive treatment of detainees is now beyond dispute. We must resist misguided efforts that attempt to rewrite history by denying past wrongs and calamitous choices. Certainly, we owe this to those who have suffered at psychology's hands; we owe it to the profession; and we owe it to the generation of psychologists that will follow us. 
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Wednesday, January 22, 2020Bernie, Biden, and My Father If my father were alive today, I'm sure we'd still be having our weekly Sunday morning breakfasts together. The number one topic--after his grandchildren--was usually politics. So here in January 2020, that would undoubtedly mean two lifelong Democrats (I'm now 66 myself) sitting at his kitchen table, debating the relative merits of presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. 
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Monday, October 28, 2019Psychology's "Dark Triad" and the Billionaire Class Psychological research suggests that the super-rich, as a group, aren't necessarily the role models we collectively need if our goal is to advance the common good and build a more decent society. In particular, one reason to be skeptical involves a constellation of interlinked personality traits -- Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism -- that psychologists call the "Dark Triad." 
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Thursday, September 26, 2019Silencing Our Veterans: A Bridge Too Far The censorship demands from a faction of APA military operational psychologists threaten to undermine both scientific inquiry and democracy. If we succumb to this bullying, it will encourage a culture of surveillance that chills public discourse and imperils whistleblowers. 
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Tuesday, September 3, 2019Free PDF Version of POLITICAL MIND GAMES now available As we enter the 2020 election cycle, we're sure to be bombarded with manipulative psychological appeals designed to advance the interests of the super-rich and powerful- at the expense of the common good. To help recognize and counter this propaganda, I've created a free PDF version of my book "Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What's Happening, What's Right, and What's Possible." 
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Monday, July 15, 2019Give Peace a Chance: Don't Believe the War Profiteers War profiteers prey on our core psychological concerns with two goals in mind. First, they aim to create an American public that either embraces or at least accepts an endless war mentality. Second, they use these "mind games" to marginalize and disempower anti-war voices. We need to inoculate ourselves against their manipulative tactics, and then help others to do the same. ![On patrol with Task Force Blackhawk soldiers [Image 5 of 10], From FlickrPhotos](https://farm8.static.flickr.com/7226/6875010848_bc6d50ae37.jpg "On patrol with Task Force Blackhawk soldiers [Image 5 of 10], From FlickrPhotos")
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Monday, April 22, 2019Is the American Psychological Association Addicted to Militarism and War? Wedo everyone a disservice when we fail to question and challenge a system and a culture that so readily place them and others in harm's way. It is time for the APA and its members to decide whether the world's largest psychological association is ready to overcome its "addiction" and help lead us forward.
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Thursday, March 21, 2019Stoking Fear: We Must Remember How the Iraq War Was Sold History shows that fearmongering has long been a standard tactic used to rally public support and acquiescence for military interventions that are both unwarranted and unwise.
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Friday, February 1, 2019In a World of Corporate-Backed Politicians, Beware the Sounds of Sirens For many Americans hoping to help steer our beleaguered country toward greater justice and equality, a pair of modern-day--albeit figurative--Sirens are seemingly always poised to draw us off course. Indeed, their beguiling appeals and promises will only grow louder and more persistent as we move ever closer to Election Day 2020. |
