"Toward A More Socially Responsible Psychology"
"Toward A More Socially Responsible Psychology"PsySR's 2010 Conference
July 15-17, 2010
Holiday Inn Boston-Brookline
& Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis
& Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis
Performing at PsySR’s 2010 Conference, John Crigler paid tribute in song to two U.S. soldiers who opposed torture interrogation. John graduated from Berklee College of Music with a major in music composition. He composed these songs for the Project on Ethics and Art in Testimony, with consent of the protagonists. John can be contacted at peat@peat-intel.org.
"Covert Operator in Dechen Ling Monastery" (video and lyrics below) harks back to the Vietnam War, where an army medic was drawn into an interrogation episode as translator. Both resistant and cooperative captives were thrown out of a helicopter, and he refused to translate again. Of this event and certain covert operations he would only speak in the safety of a monastery. The song omits the narrative to express the fearfulness and unspeakability of the medic’s experience. Midway, the song breaks into the reorienting Hundred Syllable Mantra in Sanskrit.
Covert Operator in Dechhen Ling Monastery He fears their eyes,
he fears their ears —
except right here,
in Dechhen Ling.A throwaway boy
from covert ops,
in irrelevant wars.
Served his country.Went in whole.
Came out half.
Went in whole.
Came out half.Ghosts attend him.
Who? Where?
When? How? Why?The lama forbids
his stories here.
Again he speaks.
He speaks to me.His army pal says,
“They take an oath
and if they talk
can end up dead.“But he’s all gone by now,
‘lazy, alcoholic, junkie, ______,”
except right here
in Dechhen Ling.[Recitations of 100 syllable mantra]
He fears their eyes,
he fears their ears —
except right here,
in Dechhen Ling.Copyright: John Crigler 2010