The influences of psychoanalysis on Brazilian education in the beginning of the 20th century

The present article aims at discussing, from a historical point of view, the relationship between education and psychoanalysis in Brazil. Starting from a qualitative study, based on the bibliographical analysis relative to the psychoanalytic production dedicated to education produced in this country in the first decades of the 20th century, the contributions of psychoanalysis in the transformation of the educational practices are discussed. The results show that psychoanalysis was present in education in two ways: firstly by turning public the theoretical information related to psychoanalytic concepts and to the characteristics of child emotional development, through books and courses designed for educators and, afterwards, through the creation of an assistance practice to scholars with learning or behavior problems, developed in child orientation clinics, which consisted on child evaluation and parents and teachers orientation. We conclude that psychoanalysis, while a theoretical and practical fundament, supplied elements which contributed to the support of the philosophic presumptions of a new educational model that came up as from 1920 as an alternative to traditional teaching.

psychoanalysis; education; child