In the lofty world of mental health professionals, how can one professional group maneuver itself to gain a lucrative mega-hunk of business? An August 10 Associated Press report suggests one possibility. The report begins with the ostensible real subject:
The American Psychological Association took a stand against torture Thursday but kept an existing policy saying that it’s ethical for psychologists to assist in military interrogations.
But the real story is compressed entirely into the final paragraph:
The American Medical Association has adopted what many view as a stronger stand against physician involvement in prisoner interrogation, echoing a position held by the American Psychiatric Association, whose members are medical doctors. The U.S. military has indicated it will therefore favor using psychologists, who are not medical doctors and are not bound by the other groups’ policies.