Commentary on “Psychologists and the Use of Torture in Interrogations”

Abstract

In“PsychologistsandtheUseofTortureinInterrogations,”Costanzo,Gerrity,and Lykes (2007) make a number of important points. They repeatedly make cleartheir absolute and emphatic stance against the use of torture and other cruel, in-human, or degrading treatment or punishment by psychologists. Perhaps mostimportant, by crystallizing a particular aspect of the discussions on this challeng-ing issue, the authors seek to move our understanding of the ethical aspects ofpsychologists’ involvement in interrogations to a deeper level.To capture the importance of this article in moving discussions on the issueof ethics and interrogations forward, we suggest beginning at the end, where theauthors make four recommendations to “APA [American Psychological Associa-tion]andotherscholarlyandprofessionalassociationsofpsychologists”(Costanzoetal.,2007,doi:10.1111/j.1530-2415.2007.00118.x).Recommendation3ofthesefour is that the associations