Trip Gabriel
The New York Times
Originally published 19 March 24
Jean Maria Arrigo, a psychologist who exposed efforts by the American Psychological Association to obscure the role of psychologists in coercive interrogations of terror suspects in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, died on Feb. 24 at her home in Alpine, Calif. She was 79.
The cause was complications of pancreatic cancer, her husband, John Crigler, said.
A headline about her as a whistle-blower in The Guardian in 2015 put it succinctly: “‘A National Hero’: Psychologist Who Warned of Torture Collusion Gets Her Due.”
A decade earlier, Dr. Arrigo had been named to a task force by the American Psychological Association, the largest professional group of psychologists, to examine the role of trained psychologists in national security interrogations.
The 10-member panel was formed in response to news reports in 2004 about abuse at the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, which included details about psychologists aiding in interrogations that, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, were “tantamount to torture.”
Dr. Arrigo later asserted that the A.P.A. task force was a sham — a public relations effort “to put out the fires of controversy right away,” as she told fellow psychologists in a wave-making speech in 2007.
Not all heroes wear capes.
Jean Maria Arrigo, a psychologist known for exposing the American Psychological Association's involvement in obscuring psychologists' roles in coercive interrogations post-9/11, passed away at 79 due to complications from pancreatic cancer. She was a whistleblower who revealed the APA's efforts to downplay psychologists' participation in interrogations deemed as torture. Arrigo criticized the APA's task force, stating it was a sham with ties to the Pentagon and conflicts of interest. Despite facing backlash and attacks from colleagues, she persisted in her crusade against APA complicity with brutal interrogations. Arrigo's work highlighted the ethical dilemmas faced by psychologists in national security contexts and emphasized the need for clear boundaries on involvement in such practices.
