Stephen Soldz - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Stephen Soldz

Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008

contemporary Psychology, May 1, 1992

Small Group Research, May 1, 1993

Torture Journal

The post-9/11 US torture program brought attention to the critical roles of health professionals ... more The post-9/11 US torture program brought attention to the critical roles of health professionals generally and of psychologists more particularly in the modern administration of torture. Over a decade of controversy in the American Psychological Association (APA) and an independent investigation finding APA collusion with the Bush administration’s torture and coercive interrogation programs led to 2015 policies restricting the activities of psychologists in national security interrogations and illegal detention sites like Guantanamo. This controversy expanded to evaluation of a broader set of issues regarding the ethical roles of psychologists in furthering military and intelligence operations, or what has become known as operational psychology. Controversy over the extent to which operational psychology activities are consistent with psychological ethics has expanded since 2015 with critics calling for policies restraining operational psychologists from involvement in activities th...

assistance to the Real Choice Systems Change grantees funded by the

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 2018

We here respond to Staal’s (2018) critique of the Brookline Principles on the Ethical Practice of... more We here respond to Staal’s (2018) critique of the Brookline Principles on the Ethical Practice of Operational Psychology. Staal proclaimed that there are no major ethical problems in the domain of operational psychology, and, if there were, only operational psychologists would be qualified to address the problems. We respond to Staal by providing (a) background to the Brookline Workshop, (b) a case of abuse by a Behavioral Science Consultant psychologist at Guantánamo, (c) perspectives—ours and Staal’s—on the ethics of operational psychology, (d) implications of the doctrine of civil–military relations, and (e) key considerations for ethics in operational psychology.

ACM SIGART Bulletin, 1993

Constructivism seems to be the rising star in many fields. Fifteen years ago, to utter the word w... more Constructivism seems to be the rising star in many fields. Fifteen years ago, to utter the word was to be met with blind stares. Nowadays, constructivism and its cousins seem to be everywhere. Talk of the importance and multiplicity of meanings, of mental structure arising from activity, of a pragmatic conception of truth replacing a realist one, has permeated many

American Imago, 2011

ABSTRACT Over its history, psychoanalysis has had a complex relationship to both the political le... more ABSTRACT Over its history, psychoanalysis has had a complex relationship to both the political left and social activism. Originally viewed as avant-garde, early psychoanalysis was often associated with radical and bohemian movements. It was not by accident that the anarchist Emma Goldman was among Freud's audience at Clark University, that the Bloomsbury authors were interested in it, or that the first academic chair in psychoanalysis was at Budapest Medical School during the Communist Bela Kun's four months in power in 1919. And, as Jacoby (1983) explained, an impressive number of second-generation, European analysts were men and women of the cultural and political left, a significant minority of whom identified with the radical Left. At the same time, historically, few psychoanalysts have simultaneously been social activists. The most well known exception was Wilhelm Reich, who organized the SexPol (Sexual Politics) movement in early 1930's Germany (Reich, 1972). By and large, however, like many left-wing intellectuals, at least in the United States and Europe, those psychoanalysts attracted to left-wing ideas wrote social critiques and theorized about social change, while leaving actual activism to others. This book, Uprooted Minds: Surviving the Politics of Terror in the Americas, calls attention to groups of Latin American psychoanalysts who in the 1970s constituted major exceptions to this divorce between theory and practice. These analysts pursued social change with the same passion that they learned and practiced psychoanalysis. Author Nancy Hollander complements her account of Latin American psychoanalytic activism and its political and social contexts with a discussion of neo-liberal and authoritarian tendencies in post-9/11 United States and nascent efforts by psychoanalytic activists here to put their psychoanalytic ideas at the service of social change at the center of the empire. Hollander brings impeccable credentials to her task. In addition to being a psychoanalyst and psychologist, she is a Professor Emerita of Latin American history and a social activist, with experience reaching broad audiences as a filmmaker and decade-long public radio host. Drawing on these multiple talents, the core of the book consists of oral histories of small groups of radical psychoanalysts from Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile who were active before, during, and after repressive U.S.-backed dictatorships came to power in their home countries. Hollander supplements these personal histories with sections enlightening readers about the history of Latin America in the last fifty years. These sections cover struggles over differing models of economic development, the possibility of radical social change in the 1960s and early 1970s, and the imposition of repressive policies and authoritarian measures leading to military coups. The post-coup dictatorships used terror as their major tool of social control, resulting in rampant human rights abuses, including the political killing of thousands and the systematic torture of tens of thousands. The potential for change countered by massive repression and terror provided the context in which the radical psychoanalysts interviewed by Hollander lived and worked and dreamed and feared. In the heady days when it seemed that radical action could move their societies in more egalitarian, just, and democratic directions, these activists strove to develop a radical theory and praxis in which psychoanalysis was an element of social transformation. They created psychoanalytically informed, community based programs in workplaces and poor communities. They treated activists and revolutionaries, including in some cases members of underground groups like the Uruguayan Tupamaro and Argentine Montonero guerillas. During the dictatorships they experienced terror, often accompanied by arrest, torture, and exile. When the dictatorships fell, they and their fellow citizens in newly democratic states confronted not only the neo-liberal economic order that accompanied the new regimes, but also a climate of impunity that surrounded past abuses. Simultaneously with these broader struggles, these analyst-activists fought the psychoanalytic establishment to encourage the inclusion of social perspectives in psychoanalytic thinking and training. And they used psychoanalytic theory to understand the changing nature of their societies. The grandmother and most influential of these activists was the towering figure of Marie Langer, an Austrian psychoanalyst who received her analytic training in Vienna before providing healthcare for the Republican army in the Spanish Civil War. When the Spanish Republic's defeat seemed inevitable and...

Addiction, 2003

Aims Blunts are hollowed-out cigars used to smoke marijuana (and perhaps other substances) in the... more Aims Blunts are hollowed-out cigars used to smoke marijuana (and perhaps other substances) in the United States. We investigated rates of blunt use; whether cigar use reported in surveys may actually be blunt use; the relationship of blunt to cigar use; characteristics of blunt users; brands of cigars used to make blunts; and drugs added to blunts. Design A school-based survey of youth, the Cigar Use Reasons Evaluation (CURE). Setting Eleven schools across Massachusetts. Participants A total of 5016 students in grades 7-12. Measurements CURE items assessing blunt, cigar and cigarette use, brands used to make blunts, drugs added to blunts and demographics were used. Findings Lifetime blunt use was reported by 20.0% of the sample, with use greater among high school (25.6%) than middle school (11.4%) students, and among males (23.7%) than females (16.6%). Self-reported cigar use rates were not influenced strongly by blunt use being misreported as cigar use. In a multivariate model, blunt use was associated with male gender, higher grade in school, lower GPA, truancy, lower school attachment, not living in a two-parent family, being of 'other' race/ethnicity and current use of both cigarettes and cigars. 'Phillies' was the most popular brand of cigar for making blunts, used by 59.$% of users. 'Garcia y Vega' (18.0%) was the second most popular. Twentyeight per cent of blunt users had added drugs other than marijuana to blunts. Conclusions The use of blunts as a drug delivery device is a serious problem. Efforts to address it will require the cooperation of the tobacco control and substance abuse prevention systems.

The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2006

The Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS) task force was assembled by the American Ps... more The Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS) task force was assembled by the American Psychological Association (APA) to guide policy on the role of psychologists in interrogations at foreign detention centers for the purpose of U.S. national security. The task force met briefly in 2005, and its report was quickly accepted by the APA Board of Directors and deemed consistent with the APA Ethics Code by the APA Ethics Committee. This rapid acceptance was unusual for a number of reasons but primarily because of the APA's long-standing tradition of taking great care in developing ethical policies that protected anyone who might be impacted by the work of psychologists. Many psychological and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as reputable journalists, believed the risk of harm associated with psychologist participation in interrogations at these detention centers was not adequately addressed by the report. The present critique analyzes the assumptions of the PENS report and its interpretations of the APA Ethics Code. We demonstrate that it presents only one (and not particularly representative) side of a complex set of ethical issues. We conclude with a discussion of more appropriate psychological contributions to national security and world peace that better respect and preserve human rights.

Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology

Commissioned amidst allegations of collusion between American Psychological Association officials... more Commissioned amidst allegations of collusion between American Psychological Association officials and Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense officials involved in the enhanced interrogation programme, the July 2015 Hoffman Report documented a decade of collusion between American Psychological Association and Department of Defense officials in unethical national security interrogations. However, interrogation support is but one of numerous areas where psychologists are directly aiding military and intelligence operations, an area known as operational psychology. The ethical issues posed by the larger field of operational psychology have received little public discussion apart from apologia by operational psychologists themselves. To stimulate public review of operational psychology, leaders of the movement to remove psychologists from national security interrogations convened, in September 2015, a group of experts to work towards a consensus set of principles to guide future discussion. Participants included psychologists, physicians, and social scientists; military and intelligence professionals; and attorneys, ethicists, and human rights advocates. The discussion also drew upon years of dialogue between participants and military health and intelligence professionals. The workshop produced “The Brookline Principles on the Ethical Practice of Operational Psychology,” with implications for the profession of psychology and for civil society.