Roy J. Eidelson, PhD, is a licensed psychologist, a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, and the former executive director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in the Philadelphia area.
McGill-Queen’s University Press describes Roy Eidelson’s new book—Doing Harm: How the World’s Largest Psychological Association Lost Its Way in the War on Terror—as “A thought-provoking, unflinching, scrupulously documented account of one of the darkest chapters in the recent history of psychology.” In his upcoming talk at Manhattan College, Dr. Eidelson will discuss this decades-long struggle for the soul of professional psychology. It persists today, as “dissidents” committed to fundamental do-no-harm principles continue to challenge influential insiders who are eager for ever-closer ties to the US military-intelligence establishment. This conflict, pitting ethics against expediency, has ramifications that reach well beyond psychology alone.