The use of psychologists by the U.S. military at the Guantanamo POW camp is not as new to military history as journalistic media reports suggest. There is a straight historical line that can be traced from Guantanamo back to WWII. The use of social scientists by the military even dates back to WWI, when Carl Jung was Commandant of a British POW camp in Switzerland. In WWII, the U.S. military used teams of anthropologists and sociologists in Japanese relocation centers in the Southwest. Anthropologists Ruth Benedict and Alexander Leighton were involved in studying Japanese POWs for the Office of War Information. Erik Homburger Er kson studied German POWs at POW camps in North America for COI/OSS.
Original Title
Military Uses of Social Scientists in POW Camps during World War I & World War II
The use of psychologists by the U.S. military at the Guantanamo POW camp is not as new to military history as journalistic media reports suggest. There is a straight historical line that can…