The Psychology Chair in the University of São Paulo (1945-1955): Otto Klineberg and the North American Social Psychology

• Grant number: 22/13006-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2023
• End date: December 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Marcia Cristina Consolim
• Grantee: Rafael do Nascimento de Andrade
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the social and intellectual conditions for the circulation of the north american psychology (mainly, Social Psychology) through the study of trajectories, practices and the collective book organized by Psychologist Otto Klineberg, Canadian intellectual that had a main role on the foundation of the Psychology course in the University of São Paulo, in the 1950s, and in the regularmentation of the profession, in the following decades. In the University of São Paulo, an institution that was key to Brazilian scientific development at that time, Psychology was taught mainly by the philosophical French ideals of science, by Professor Jean Maugüé. The arrival of Otto Klineberg as the Psychology chairman, in 1945, shifts this tradition. Based on Pierre Bourdieu's theories and methodology about the legitimation of the sciences and the institutionalization of university disciplines, I aim to investigate the institutionalization of Psychology in the University of São Paulo and the exchanges between Brazil and North American notions of science. For that, it is mister to consider, first of all, the trajectories, and, after that, the intellectual productions of the professor and assistants of the Psychology chair between 1945 and 1955. The sources used for this research include: mailing, press publications, books and articles, institutional documents (from the university or the first psychology association), as also many biographical sources. Once this research is about a group without a specific formation, the "psychologists" here presented by definition will be the ones linked to Otto Klineberg - USP's Psychology chair assistants, authors of the collectanea organized by him, named "Psicologia Moderna" (1953), such as the camrads that contributed to the foundation of the São Paulo's Psychology Society (1945), since they were the agents that had main role in the foundation of the future Psychology degree.