To: psysr-disc@yahoogroups.com
From: target@batstar.net
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:51:28 -0800
Subject: Re: [psysr-disc] Re: from Floyd Rudmin: some research needs arising from our Gaza war
Hi
Quoting Hij
in a research project at Boston University on governmental aggression and human rights. I collected data on Lebanese individuals, and compiled the data for a chapter due out next January. I must say that the 2 weeks in Gaza have discarded my hopes of peace and reconcmy hopes of peace and reconciliation in the Middle East. BUT I know that research must go on, but how do we begin to deal with the atrocities, pain, and suffering in that region? and what's worse is that it is still on-going .. with no end in sight. We as psychologists, devote our lives to understanding and explaining human behavior, but how do we make sense of this? How can we begin to understand?
As long as behavior managing Palestinians "like rats" is in, then we are irresponsible if we don't criticize the psychology of those who so advocate. Such as Ariel Merari, the rat psychologist who was head of Israeli psychological warfare for the Mossad. And [of] those whose views of "behavior management" are similarly lined up.
We did good in this recent struggle with the APA for noting that "learned helplessness" is a kind of psychology that won't do as a justification for interrogation torture. Now we need to move on to "behavior management."
In each case it is a matter of bad psychology and hence calls for a kind of "critical psychology."
Andrew Phelps