Perhaps the most radical choice

1. Perhaps the most radical choice psychologists face today concerns the disjunction between an accommodation to a social system that has benefited us personally and a critical confrontation with that system… Ignacio Martín-Baró, The Role of the Psychologist translated by Adrianne Aron

3. …This is not a question of whether to abandon psychology; it is a question of whether psychological knowledge will be placed in the service of constructing a society where the welfare of the few is not built on the wretchedness of the many, where the fulfillment of some does not require that others be deprived, where the interests of the minority do not demand the dehumanization of all. Ignacio Martín-Baró, The Role of the Psychologist translated by Adrianne Aron

5. The dividing line between what is strictly military and what is psychological is often not very clear…it is even less clear what may be specifically psychological in certain methods of “psychological torture” which consist of unending interrogation over several days with- out allowing the victim to sleep Ignacio Martín-Baró, Power, Politics, and Personality translated by Phillip Berryman

7. As the war drags on, the recourse to violence, which at one time was considered only as a last resort and temporary solution, becomes a habit, and the preferred response…A society that becomes accustomed to using violence to solve its problems, both large and small, is a society in which the roots of human relations are diseased. Ignacio Martín-Baró, War and Mental Health translated by Anne Wallace

9. Almost without realizing it, we have become accustomed to institutions being exactly the opposite of what they are meant to be: those responsible for guaranteeing our safety are the main source of insecurity; those in charge of justice defend abuse and injustice; those called on to enlighten and guide are the first to deceive and manipulate. Ignacio Martín-Baró, War and Mental Health translated by Anne Wallace

11. In this environment of lies, thrown off balance by social polarization, with no place for sanity and reason, violence dominates life to such an extent that people begin to believe that violence is the only solution to the problem of violence itself. Ignacio Martín-Baró, War and Mental Health translated by Anne Wallace