Scientific psychology in Brazil in the 20th century: the dialogue with European researchers, a look at Brazilian culture and a successful process of professionalization

The first laboratories of psychology established in Brazil were organized in the early twentieth century by professionals trained in medical schools or in education. These laboratories, linked to mental health hospitals or to normal schools, followed guidelines suggested by Edouard Claparède, from the Laboratory of Psychology of the University of Geneva, and by Alfred Binet, from the Laboratory of Psychology of the University of Paris (Sorbonne). Besides replicating experimental studies done in Europe, their purpose was to study the psychological characteristics of the population attended by the mental health or educational systems. The themes explored by the researchers were the comparison of psychological processes in normal and mentally troubled individuals, or the study of the mental development of school-age children. The meaning of the word "laboratory" became associated with applied psychology, and with the adaptation to the Brazilian population of mental tests elaborated in other countries (mainly in France). Around the 1940s and 1950s, with the establishment of the teaching of psychology in higher learning institutions, research in the area expanded. Two authors are mainly responsible for this expansion: Lourenço Filho (1897-1970), and Helena Antipoff (1892-1974). Their work, still inspired by Claparède and Binet, contributed to the development of important lines of research in psychology in Brazil, with a lasting influence on subsequent generations of psychologists. From the 1960s onwards, with the regulation of the profession of psychologist, formal university programs increased strongly, and, in the 1980s and 1990s, a comprehensive system of graduate programs in psychology was established, contributing to the professionalization of research in the field.