Latin American Voices – serie

This book presents an overview of Mexican ethnopsychology, an original theoretical and methodological approach that seeks to complement the mainstream psychological science – based on universal principles, processes and constructs – with scientific methods to study the idiosyncratic features and behaviors typical of specific cultural groups. It proposes a historic-bio-psycho-socio-cultural theoretical model to describe research findings of social, psychological, collective and individual phenomena.Psychology is at a crossroads of years of research with stress on internal validity and little attention to contextual and cultural variables. It becomes fundamental to continue on the internal validity track but at the same time incorporate external validity issues. The growth of indigenous movements and data allows for a profound evaluation of the extents to which apparent universal phenomena are truly universal, and to what extent they are idiosyncratic manifestations of the cultures where the mainstream research is conducted. Mexican ethnopsychologists have been following this path for decades, since the pioneer work of Rogelio Díaz-Guerrero, but until now little has been published in English about this innovative theoretical approach. Ethnopsychology – Pieces from the Mexican Research Gallery fills this gap by presenting the international community an overview of Mexican ethnopsychology and thus providing a useful tool to behavioral, social and health scientists interested in understanding how culture shapes both collective and individual behaviors.

This book presents an overview of Mexican ethnopsychology, an original theoretical and methodological approach that seeks to complement the mainstream psychological science – based on universal principles, processes and constructs – with scientific methods to study the idiosyncratic features and behaviors typical of specific cultural groups. It proposes a historic-bio-psycho-socio-cultural theoretical model to describe research findings of social, psychological, collective and individual phenomena.Psychology is at a crossroads of years of research with stress on internal validity and little attention to contextual and cultural variables. It becomes fundamental to continue on the internal validity track but at the same time incorporate external validity issues. The growth of indigenous movements and data allows for a profound evaluation of the extents to which apparent universal phenomena are truly universal, and to what extent they are idiosyncratic manifestations of the cultures where the mainstream research is conducted. Mexican ethnopsychologists have been following this path for decades, since the pioneer work of Rogelio Díaz-Guerrero, but until now little has been published in English about this innovative theoretical approach. Ethnopsychology – Pieces from the Mexican Research Gallery fills this gap by presenting the international community an overview of Mexican ethnopsychology and thus providing a useful tool to behavioral, social and health scientists interested in understanding how culture shapes both collective and individual behaviors.

This book presents a theoretical framework developed to support psychologists working with indigenous people and interethnic communities. Departing from the cultural shock experienced as a psychologist working with indigenous people in Brazil, Dr. Danilo Silva Guimarães identifies the limits of traditional psychological knowledge to deal with populations who don’t share the same ethos of the European societies who gave birth to psychology as a modern science and proposes a new approach to go beyond the epistemological project that aimed to construct a subject able to represent the world free from any cultural mediation.  According to the author, the purpose of cultural psychology is to produce general psychological theories about the cultural mediation of the self, others and world relationships. Based on this assumption, he argues that to achieve this aim, cultural psychology needs to understand how indigenous perspectives participate in the process of knowledge construction, transforming psychological conceptions and practices. In this volume, the author presents his own contribution to open cultural psychology to indigenous perspectives by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the notion of dialogical multiplication for the construction of work in co-authorship in the relation between psychology and indigenous peoples. With the growing migrations around the world, competences in psychological communication across cultures are more demanded each day, which makes Dialogical Multiplication – Principles for an Indigenous Psychology a critical resource for psychologists working with interethnic and intercultural communities around the world.

This book presents a theoretical framework developed to support psychologists working with indigenous people and interethnic communities. Departing from the cultural shock experienced as a psychologist working with indigenous people in Brazil, Dr. Danilo Silva Guimarães identifies the limits of traditional psychological knowledge to deal with populations who don’t share the same ethos of the European societies who gave birth to psychology as a modern science and proposes a new approach to go beyond the epistemological project that aimed to construct a subject able to represent the world free from any cultural mediation.  According to the author, the purpose of cultural psychology is to produce general psychological theories about the cultural mediation of the self, others and world relationships. Based on this assumption, he argues that to achieve this aim, cultural psychology needs to understand how indigenous perspectives participate in the process of knowledge construction, transforming psychological conceptions and practices. In this volume, the author presents his own contribution to open cultural psychology to indigenous perspectives by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the notion of dialogical multiplication for the construction of work in co-authorship in the relation between psychology and indigenous peoples. With the growing migrations around the world, competences in psychological communication across cultures are more demanded each day, which makes Dialogical Multiplication – Principles for an Indigenous Psychology a critical resource for psychologists working with interethnic and intercultural communities around the world.

This book shows how clinical psychology has been deliberately used to label, control and oppress political dissidence under oppressive regimes and presents an epistemological and theoretical framework to help psychologists deal with the political dilemmas that surround clinical practice. Based on his own experience working as a clinical and community psychologist in Venezuela for almost twenty five years, the author recounts the controversial history of how the Bolivarian Revolution has used psychology to persecute and oppress political dissidents, recovers the experience of doing psychotherapy under oppressive regimes in other countries and stresses the importance of developing an ethically and politically aware clinical practice. The first part of the book presents the dilemmas psychotherapists have faced in different parts of the world, such as the former Soviet Union, USA, China, Spain, Hungary, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela when dealing with the intrusion of the political domain in clinical research and practice and the difficulties clinicians have had in dealing with these issues. The second part of the book presents an epistemological and theoretical framework from which these issues may be tackled effectively. The book helps raise awareness of the risks of framing psychotherapy as apolitical as well as the benefits of thinking of our lives as contextualized in our political settings. It draws from several theoretical options that have been useful to challenge traditional clinical theory and include the political in our clinical comprehensions. In particular Latin American Community Psychology, that has developed tools to favor awareness of political issues, has been used to expand the psychotherapeutic conversation.Politically Reflective Psychotherapy: Towards a Contextualized Approach will help clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and other social and mental health workers reflect on the challenges psychotherapy faces in a politically polarized society, showing how the political dimension can be incorporated into clinical practice.

This book shows how clinical psychology has been deliberately used to label, control and oppress political dissidence under oppressive regimes and presents an epistemological and theoretical framework to help psychologists deal with the political dilemmas that surround clinical practice. Based on his own experience working as a clinical and community psychologist in Venezuela for almost twenty five years, the author recounts the controversial history of how the Bolivarian Revolution has used psychology to persecute and oppress political dissidents, recovers the experience of doing psychotherapy under oppressive regimes in other countries and stresses the importance of developing an ethically and politically aware clinical practice. The first part of the book presents the dilemmas psychotherapists have faced in different parts of the world, such as the former Soviet Union, USA, China, Spain, Hungary, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela when dealing with the intrusion of the political domain in clinical research and practice and the difficulties clinicians have had in dealing with these issues. The second part of the book presents an epistemological and theoretical framework from which these issues may be tackled effectively. The book helps raise awareness of the risks of framing psychotherapy as apolitical as well as the benefits of thinking of our lives as contextualized in our political settings. It draws from several theoretical options that have been useful to challenge traditional clinical theory and include the political in our clinical comprehensions. In particular Latin American Community Psychology, that has developed tools to favor awareness of political issues, has been used to expand the psychotherapeutic conversation.Politically Reflective Psychotherapy: Towards a Contextualized Approach will help clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and other social and mental health workers reflect on the challenges psychotherapy faces in a politically polarized society, showing how the political dimension can be incorporated into clinical practice.

This book examines the complexities of the colonization of the territory that is now Brazil and its shaping of psychological knowledge and practice. It reveals the rich network of cultural practices that were formed through the appropriation of elements of Jesuit Catholicism and the blending with elements of the cultures of native, African and Lusitanian populations present in the territory, and how psychological concepts and practices emerged and circulated between the sixteenth and the late eighteenth centuries, long before the establishment of psychology as a modern science. The volume summarizes the research program developed by the author over 38 years of academic activity through which she contributed to expand the field of historical studies in psychology by investigating how psychological concepts and practices were produced in cultural and historical contexts different from the European and North American societies where scientific psychology developed in the 19th and 20th centuries.Psychological Knowledge and Practices in Brazilian Colonial Culture will be of interest not only to historians of psychology, but also to professional psychologists working with culturally diverse populations who seek to understand how psychological concepts and phenomena are shaped by culture. By doing so, the book intends to contribute to the development of a psychology better prepared to deal with cultural diversity in an increasingly multicultural world.“Massimi’s book will now form an important foundation of English-language scholarship about the psychological and cultural impact of colonization on subjugated peoples. She has, of course, made many such contributions in Portuguese. It is to be hoped that much of her work will be translated into English so that more scholars may benefit from the richness of her insights.” – Excerpt from the Foreword by Dr. Wade E. Pickren.

This book examines the complexities of the colonization of the territory that is now Brazil and its shaping of psychological knowledge and practice. It reveals the rich network of cultural practices that were formed through the appropriation of elements of Jesuit Catholicism and the blending with elements of the cultures of native, African and Lusitanian populations present in the territory, and how psychological concepts and practices emerged and circulated between the sixteenth and the late eighteenth centuries, long before the establishment of psychology as a modern science. The volume summarizes the research program developed by the author over 38 years of academic activity through which she contributed to expand the field of historical studies in psychology by investigating how psychological concepts and practices were produced in cultural and historical contexts different from the European and North American societies where scientific psychology developed in the 19th and 20th centuries.Psychological Knowledge and Practices in Brazilian Colonial Culture will be of interest not only to historians of psychology, but also to professional psychologists working with culturally diverse populations who seek to understand how psychological concepts and phenomena are shaped by culture. By doing so, the book intends to contribute to the development of a psychology better prepared to deal with cultural diversity in an increasingly multicultural world.“Massimi’s book will now form an important foundation of English-language scholarship about the psychological and cultural impact of colonization on subjugated peoples. She has, of course, made many such contributions in Portuguese. It is to be hoped that much of her work will be translated into English so that more scholars may benefit from the richness of her insights.” – Excerpt from the Foreword by Dr. Wade E. Pickren.

This is the first book in English to show how the work of Lev Vygotsky gave rise to a prolific and original school of cultural-historical psychology in Latin America. In recent decades, Latin American researchers have expanded Vygotskyan conceptualizations and applied practical theory to psychological and educational research and practice, but until now this production remained virtually unknown for English speaking audiences since it has been mainly published in Spanish and Portuguese. This timely volume contributes to change this situation by presenting a panoramic picture of the state of the art of cultural-historical psychology in Latin America. The book is divided in two parts. The first part shows how Latin American researchers used Vygotsky’s work to develop new theoretical elaborations and empirical advances to deal with different political, social and cultural problems in the region. The second part presents an overview of the current stateof cultural-historical psychology in Latin America. Throughout its 15 chapters, the book shows how Latin American researchers contributed to the studies of different aspects of the cultural-historical theoretical conception of the development of higher psychological functions, such as concept formation, inner speech, zone of proximal development and imagination, and how these theoretical elaborations have been applied to research and practice in fields such as sociocultural psychology, developmental  psychology, psychotherapy and education in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico.Latin American Advances in Subjectivity and Development - Through the Vygotsky Route will be an invaluable resource to researchers, students and practitioners in the fields of psychology, education and other social sciences interested in discovering or learning more about the original Latin American school of cultural-historical psychology.

This is the first book in English to show how the work of Lev Vygotsky gave rise to a prolific and original school of cultural-historical psychology in Latin America. In recent decades, Latin American researchers have expanded Vygotskyan conceptualizations and applied practical theory to psychological and educational research and practice, but until now this production remained virtually unknown for English speaking audiences since it has been mainly published in Spanish and Portuguese. This timely volume contributes to change this situation by presenting a panoramic picture of the state of the art of cultural-historical psychology in Latin America. The book is divided in two parts. The first part shows how Latin American researchers used Vygotsky’s work to develop new theoretical elaborations and empirical advances to deal with different political, social and cultural problems in the region. The second part presents an overview of the current stateof cultural-historical psychology in Latin America. Throughout its 15 chapters, the book shows how Latin American researchers contributed to the studies of different aspects of the cultural-historical theoretical conception of the development of higher psychological functions, such as concept formation, inner speech, zone of proximal development and imagination, and how these theoretical elaborations have been applied to research and practice in fields such as sociocultural psychology, developmental  psychology, psychotherapy and education in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico.Latin American Advances in Subjectivity and Development - Through the Vygotsky Route will be an invaluable resource to researchers, students and practitioners in the fields of psychology, education and other social sciences interested in discovering or learning more about the original Latin American school of cultural-historical psychology.

This book presents a cultural history of psychology that analyzes the diverse contexts in which psychological knowledge and practices have developed in Latin America. The book aims to contribute to the growing effort to develop a theoretical knowledge that complements the biographical perspective centered on the great figures, with a polycentric history that emphasizes the different cultural, social, economic and political phenomena that accompanied the emergence of psychology.The different chapters of this volume show the production of historians of psychology in Latin America who are part of the Ibero-American Network of Researchers in History of Psychology (RIPeHP, in the Portuguese acronym for "Rede Iberoamericana de Pesquisadores em História da Psicologia"). They present a significant sample of the research carried out in a field that has experienced a strong development in the region in the last decades. The volume is divided into two parts. The first presents comparative chapters that address cross-cutting issues in the different countries of the region. The second part analyzes particular aspects of the development of psychology in seven countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru. Throughout these chapters the reader will find how psychology made its way through dictatorial governments, phenomena of violence and internal armed conflict, among others. Dimensions that include rigorous analysis ranging from ancestral practices to current geopolitical knowledge of the Latin American region.​History of Psychology in Latin America - A Cultural Approach is an invaluable resource for historians of psychology, anywhere in the world, interested in a polycentric and critical approach. Since its content is part of the "cultural turn in psychology" it is also of interest to readers interested in the social and human sciences in general. Finally, the thoroughly international perspective provided through its chapters make the book a key resource for both undergraduate and graduate teaching and education on the past and current state of psychology.

This book presents a cultural history of psychology that analyzes the diverse contexts in which psychological knowledge and practices have developed in Latin America. The book aims to contribute to the growing effort to develop a theoretical knowledge that complements the biographical perspective centered on the great figures, with a polycentric history that emphasizes the different cultural, social, economic and political phenomena that accompanied the emergence of psychology.The different chapters of this volume show the production of historians of psychology in Latin America who are part of the Ibero-American Network of Researchers in History of Psychology (RIPeHP, in the Portuguese acronym for "Rede Iberoamericana de Pesquisadores em História da Psicologia"). They present a significant sample of the research carried out in a field that has experienced a strong development in the region in the last decades. The volume is divided into two parts. The first presents comparative chapters that address cross-cutting issues in the different countries of the region. The second part analyzes particular aspects of the development of psychology in seven countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru. Throughout these chapters the reader will find how psychology made its way through dictatorial governments, phenomena of violence and internal armed conflict, among others. Dimensions that include rigorous analysis ranging from ancestral practices to current geopolitical knowledge of the Latin American region.​History of Psychology in Latin America - A Cultural Approach is an invaluable resource for historians of psychology, anywhere in the world, interested in a polycentric and critical approach. Since its content is part of the "cultural turn in psychology" it is also of interest to readers interested in the social and human sciences in general. Finally, the thoroughly international perspective provided through its chapters make the book a key resource for both undergraduate and graduate teaching and education on the past and current state of psychology.

This book presents an intellectual history of the reception of Soviet psychology in Argentina as part of the communist scientific culture promoted by the Argentine Communist Party. This research reconstructs the material conditions, the political conjunctures and disciplinary disputes that allowed the international circulation of the works and ideas of Ivan Pavlov and Lev Vygotsky, and analyzes how pavlovism and vygotskianism impacted psychology, psychiatry and the wider mental health field in Argentina between 1935 and 1991.Starting on the 1930s, a group of professionals, scientists and intellectuals who belonged to the Argentine Communist Party introduced Soviet psychology in Argentina as an effort to promote the philosophical and political principles of Marxism-Leninism in Argentinean psychological and psychiatric academic circles, as well as in mental health institutions. This book shows how the efforts of this group contributed to the diffusion of communist scientific ideas and practices in South America as part of a transnational circuit of communist scholars and intellectuals that included France, Spain and the USA, which fostered scientific exchange and politicized science during the years of antifascist struggle and the Cold War. Communist Psychology in Argentina: Transnational Politics, Scientific Culture and Psychotherapy (1935-1991) will be of interest to historians of psychology and psychiatry concerned with the study of the relationship between Marxism and psychology in the 20th century, as well as to historians of science in general attentive to the study of the circulation of scientific ideas, as the book reconstructs the networks of the international communist movement as an effort to provide a scientific basis for the development of a socialist program in different parts of the world.

This book presents an intellectual history of the reception of Soviet psychology in Argentina as part of the communist scientific culture promoted by the Argentine Communist Party. This research reconstructs the material conditions, the political conjunctures and disciplinary disputes that allowed the international circulation of the works and ideas of Ivan Pavlov and Lev Vygotsky, and analyzes how pavlovism and vygotskianism impacted psychology, psychiatry and the wider mental health field in Argentina between 1935 and 1991.Starting on the 1930s, a group of professionals, scientists and intellectuals who belonged to the Argentine Communist Party introduced Soviet psychology in Argentina as an effort to promote the philosophical and political principles of Marxism-Leninism in Argentinean psychological and psychiatric academic circles, as well as in mental health institutions. This book shows how the efforts of this group contributed to the diffusion of communist scientific ideas and practices in South America as part of a transnational circuit of communist scholars and intellectuals that included France, Spain and the USA, which fostered scientific exchange and politicized science during the years of antifascist struggle and the Cold War. Communist Psychology in Argentina: Transnational Politics, Scientific Culture and Psychotherapy (1935-1991) will be of interest to historians of psychology and psychiatry concerned with the study of the relationship between Marxism and psychology in the 20th century, as well as to historians of science in general attentive to the study of the circulation of scientific ideas, as the book reconstructs the networks of the international communist movement as an effort to provide a scientific basis for the development of a socialist program in different parts of the world.

This book presents a collection of interrelated essays that analyze the theoretical foundations of semiotic-cultural constructivism in psychology written by one of the pioneers in this field of research: Dr. Lívia Mathias Simão, senior professor at the Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil. In each of the five essays included in this book, the author establishes a dialogue with key thinkers and intellectual traditions of dialogical approaches arriving at core points of I-other relationships according to the perspective of semiotic-cultural constructivism in psychology.The first essay establishes a dialogue with Greek philosophers such as Parmenides and Aristotle. In the second essay this dialogue is established with semiotic-constructivist psychologists such as Jaan Valsiner, Ragnar Rommetveit and Ivana Marková. The third essay is a dialogue with the contributions of Ernst Boesch’s symbolic action theory. The fourth essay proposes a dialogue between semiotic-cultural constructivists and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics. Finally, the fifth essay proposes how the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas contributes to dialogical studies of I-other in the context of semiotic-cultural constructivism.Originally published in Portuguese for the Brazilian market, Dialogical Essays: From Difference to Sharing in I-Other Relationships is now published in English in an international edition that will be of interest to psychologists, philosophers, historians and other human and social scientists interested in epistemological, ontological and ethical aspects of I-other relationships from the perspective of semiotic-cultural constructivism and cultural psychology.

This book presents a collection of interrelated essays that analyze the theoretical foundations of semiotic-cultural constructivism in psychology written by one of the pioneers in this field of research: Dr. Lívia Mathias Simão, senior professor at the Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil. In each of the five essays included in this book, the author establishes a dialogue with key thinkers and intellectual traditions of dialogical approaches arriving at core points of I-other relationships according to the perspective of semiotic-cultural constructivism in psychology.The first essay establishes a dialogue with Greek philosophers such as Parmenides and Aristotle. In the second essay this dialogue is established with semiotic-constructivist psychologists such as Jaan Valsiner, Ragnar Rommetveit and Ivana Marková. The third essay is a dialogue with the contributions of Ernst Boesch’s symbolic action theory. The fourth essay proposes a dialogue between semiotic-cultural constructivists and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics. Finally, the fifth essay proposes how the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas contributes to dialogical studies of I-other in the context of semiotic-cultural constructivism.Originally published in Portuguese for the Brazilian market, Dialogical Essays: From Difference to Sharing in I-Other Relationships is now published in English in an international edition that will be of interest to psychologists, philosophers, historians and other human and social scientists interested in epistemological, ontological and ethical aspects of I-other relationships from the perspective of semiotic-cultural constructivism and cultural psychology.

This book presents a collection of studies on the circulation of Jean Piaget’s ideas and works between Europe and Latin America, and how this transnational legacy influenced different fields of research and practice, such as psychology, education and philosophy. The volume brings together contributions presented at the International Colloquium Jean Piaget in Brazil and Latin America, held during the 38th Annual Helena Antipoff Meeting, organized by the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in collaboration with the University of Geneva, Switzerland.  The book is organized in three parts. Chapters in the first part analyze Piaget’s role as a builder of an international network in psychology, education and peace promotion in the 20th century, with a special focus on the circulation of his ideas and works between Switzerland and France. The second part focuses on historical and contemporary dialogues, conflicts and controversies between Piaget and other authors, such as Henri Wallon, Carl Rogers, Jürgen Habermas, and, especially, Helena Antipoff, the Russian-Brazilian psychologist and educator who was one of the first researchers to introduce Piaget in Brazil and to establish a bridge between Latin America and the Geneva school of psychological and educational sciences. Finally, chapters in the third part of the book explore different aspects of the reception and appropriation of Piaget’s works and ideas in the Brazilian context.   The Transnational Legacy of Jean Piaget: A View from the 21st Century will be of interest to researchers in different fields within the human and social sciences, such as developmental, educational and school psychologists; educators; philosophers and historians of psychology and education interested in understanding how Piaget’s progressist ideas have contributed to the development of psychological and educational sciences in Europe and Latin America. Some chapters ofthis book were originally written in Portuguese and French and translated into English with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.

This book presents a collection of studies on the circulation of Jean Piaget’s ideas and works between Europe and Latin America, and how this transnational legacy influenced different fields of research and practice, such as psychology, education and philosophy. The volume brings together contributions presented at the International Colloquium Jean Piaget in Brazil and Latin America, held during the 38th Annual Helena Antipoff Meeting, organized by the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in collaboration with the University of Geneva, Switzerland.  The book is organized in three parts. Chapters in the first part analyze Piaget’s role as a builder of an international network in psychology, education and peace promotion in the 20th century, with a special focus on the circulation of his ideas and works between Switzerland and France. The second part focuses on historical and contemporary dialogues, conflicts and controversies between Piaget and other authors, such as Henri Wallon, Carl Rogers, Jürgen Habermas, and, especially, Helena Antipoff, the Russian-Brazilian psychologist and educator who was one of the first researchers to introduce Piaget in Brazil and to establish a bridge between Latin America and the Geneva school of psychological and educational sciences. Finally, chapters in the third part of the book explore different aspects of the reception and appropriation of Piaget’s works and ideas in the Brazilian context.   The Transnational Legacy of Jean Piaget: A View from the 21st Century will be of interest to researchers in different fields within the human and social sciences, such as developmental, educational and school psychologists; educators; philosophers and historians of psychology and education interested in understanding how Piaget’s progressist ideas have contributed to the development of psychological and educational sciences in Europe and Latin America. Some chapters ofthis book were originally written in Portuguese and French and translated into English with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.