Psychology in Brazil: The Trajectory of a Science and a Profession

The purpose of this chapter is to offer an overview of the emergence and development of psychology as a science and profession in Brazil in the light of the most important sociocultural, economic, and political events in the country. To do so, a few points will be discussed that may explain under what conditions these processes have been historicized from the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty-first century. This is done by means of a historiographic analysis based on the review of various primary and secondary sources. In the specific case of this chapter, two important aspects of the development of Brazilian psychology are discussed. On the one hand, the emergence of “science,” originating from the processes that Europe went through starting in the fifteenth century, occurs in countries where there has been strong investment in the creation of universities and in the creation of the necessary conditions for research. On the other hand, psychology, specifically, emerges as a result of profound changes in cities, especially those related to the exponential increase of their populations, to the detriment of the rural population, and of technological advances, mainly in communications.