A longshot push to get the professional association of US psychologists to consider banning its members from providing aid to military interrogations failed on Friday, but gathered enough support to make supporters optimistic about a follow-on effort in August.
A resolution brought by University of Dallas psychologist Scott Churchill to add the interrogations ban to the agenda of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) legislative body received the support of 53% of representatives to the group’s biannual convention.
That didn’t clear the two-thirds threshold required to add the proposed ban to the agenda for this weekend’s conference. But the simple majority showing prompted Nadine Kaslow, the APA president, to express her openness to adding consideration of the proposed ban to the body’s next meeting.
“Maybe the way to think about this is how to be able to get this on the agenda for August – and I think you can work with us on how to do that,” Kaslow told Churchill.