IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB377237221

The Hoffman Report in historical context: A study in denial (2022)

Aalbers, Dan (Author)

History of the Human Sciences
Volume: 35
Issue: 5
Pages: 27-50
Publication date: 2022
Language: English

URI: https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951221122694

DOI: 10.1177/09526951221122694

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Denial (psychology) Psychology and war Torture Prisoners Ethics 21st century United States United States. Central Intelligence Agency United States. Department of Defense American Psychological Association

Using the concept of social denial, this article puts the American Psychological Association's (APA’s) pattern of willful blindness, identified by independent reviewer David Hoffman, in historical context by examining the contributions of Cold War social scientists to the CIA's KUBARK torture manual, and discusses the implications of this history for the reform of the APA's ethics policies. David Hoffman found that the leadership of the APA colluded with Department of Defense (DoD) to ensure that the APA's ethical policies were no stronger than those issued by the DoD. While the independent reviewer did not find evidence of collaboration between the CIA and the APA, this was not due to a lack of effort on the part of the APA, which was anxious to establish good relations and so promote the use of psychology in the national security arena. While Hoffman did not find that the APA knew that its collaborations would facilitate the development of abusive interrogation techniques, it showed a marked, motivated lack of interest in whether or not the DoD or CIA was abusing prisoners. The APA maintained its strategic ignorance even while engaging in a public relations campaign designed to give the impression that it was deeply concerned about multiple reports of psychologist involvement in a system of torture. This willful ignorance was not unprecedented and follows a predictable pattern of knowing and not-knowing to which all psychologists should attend.

...More

Included in

Article Nadine Weidman (2022) Introduction: The Hoffman Report in historical context. History of the Human Sciences (pp. 3-6). unapi

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB377237221

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Jean Maria Arrigo; Lawrence P. Rockwood; Jack O’Brien; Dutch Franz; David DeBatto; John Kiriakou; (2022)
A military/intelligence operational perspective on the American Psychological Association’s weaponization of psychology post-9/11 (/p/isis/citation/CBB995010938/)

Article Joy Rohde; (2022)
Beyond torture: Knowledge and power at the nexus of social science and national security (/p/isis/citation/CBB996688499/)

Article Elissa N. Rodkey; Michael Buttrey; Krista L. Rodkey; (2022)
Beyond following rules: Teaching research ethics in the age of the Hoffman Report (/p/isis/citation/CBB999442297/)

Article Nadine Weidman; (2022)
Introduction: The Hoffman Report in historical context (/p/isis/citation/CBB322318939/)

Book David H. Price; (2016)
Cold War Anthropology: The CIA, the Pentagon, and the Growth of Dual Use Anthropology (/p/isis/citation/CBB603109839/)

Article Brown, Richard E.; (2007)
Alfred McCoy, Hebb, the CIA and Torture (/p/isis/citation/CBB000771326/)

Book Baker, Rodney R.; Pickren, Wade E.; (2007)
Psychology and the Department of Veterans Affairs: A Historical Analysis of Training, Research, Practice, and Advocacy (/p/isis/citation/CBB000930430/)

Article McCoy, Alfred W.; (2007)
Science in Dachau's Shadow: HEBB, Beecher, and the Development of CIA Psychological Torture and Modern Medical Ethics (/p/isis/citation/CBB000773073/)

Article Green, Christopher D.; (2007)
Introduction to Discussion of Alfred W. McCoy's A Question of Torture (/p/isis/citation/CBB000771324/)

Article Arne Pollock; (March 2015)
On the Suspended Sentences of the Scott Sisters: Mass Incarceration, Kidney Donation, and the Biopolitics of Race in the United States (/p/isis/citation/CBB568362575/)

Book Neil Krishan Aggarwal; (2015)
Mental Health in the War on Terror: Culture, Science, and Statecraft (/p/isis/citation/CBB980562940/)

Article Jones, Edgar; Wessely, Simon; (2010)
British Prisoners-of-War: From Resilience to Psychological Vulnerability: Reality or Perception (/p/isis/citation/CBB001030545/)

Book Ron E. Hassner; (2022)
Anatomy of Torture (/p/isis/citation/CBB586193994/)

Article Lucy Suchman; (2023)
Imaginaries of omniscience: Automating intelligence in the US Department of Defense (/p/isis/citation/CBB542885761/)

Book David N. Spires; (2021)
Assured Access: A History of the United States Air Force Space Launch Enterprise, 1945-2020 (/p/isis/citation/CBB078667094/)

Book Michael W. Hankins; (2021)
Flying Camelot: The F-15, the F-16, and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia (/p/isis/citation/CBB534059302/)

Book Christopher J. Fuller; (2017)
See It/Shoot It: The Secret History of the CIA’s Lethal Drone Program (/p/isis/citation/CBB712490854/)

Article Shireen Hamza; (2024)
Teaching the Global History of Science in a Prison Classroom (/p/isis/citation/CBB405413160/)

Book Julie Passanante Elman; (2014)
Chronic Youth: Disability, Sexuality, and U.S. Media Cultures of Rehabilitation (/p/isis/citation/CBB936255529/)

Book Anthony Ryan Hatch; (2019)
Silent Cells: The Secret Drugging of Captive America (/p/isis/citation/CBB955008011/)