Counter revolution

Abstract

As reported in this issue, the independent review of the relationship between the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) around national security issues found that there had been extensive collusion between the APA and the DoD to ensure that the APA would not adopt interrogation guidelines any more stringent than those already in place at the DoD. The APA response consisted of personnel changes involving the APA staff most directly involved, the passage of a resolution ending psychologists' involvement in detention centers that violate US or international law, and a promise to make changes in the way APA was operating to make its process more transparent to the membership. However, some members have strongly opposed such a wholesale adoption of the findings of the Hoffman Report (2015) and are not in favor of any changes for which the Hoffman Report is a foundational document. Whether this movement will succeed in its goal of reversing the momentum toward significant change in the APA may depend largely on the role the membership takes in the battle between the reformers and the conservatives. This essay is a study of the APA counter‐revolution.