Jean Maria Arrigo, who exposed psychologists links to torture, dies at 79 [Video]

Jean Maria Arrigo, a psychologist who blew the whistle on her profession’s secret ties to the torture and abuse of war-on-terror detainees, helping expose collusion between American Psychological Association officials and Defense Department leaders after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, died Feb. 24 at her home in Alpine, Calif. She was 79.

The cause was complications from pancreatic cancer, said her husband, John Crigler.

A social psychologist and oral historian who focused on ethical issues in national security, Arrigo was “an unexpected and unassuming whistleblower,” said colleague Roy Eidelson, who worked alongside her in a group called the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology. She participated in peace marches in Central America during the 1980s but considered herself an introvert at heart, saying she would much rather be reading poetry than campaigning to overhaul the American Psychological Association (APA), the world’s largest professional organization of psychologists.

“What she wanted …