This article aims to research the multiple roles of the human body within studies of psychology. The author uses various moments of bio-medical sciences and psychological history in Brazil to propose three periods to analyse: a time of biological determinism; after that, a desertion of the body during the hegemony of psychoanalysis; and finally the proliferation of body therapies imposing patterns of health. Even though they give different emphases to body/mind dualism, these psychological models remain active within the modern science project. A new approach to the body and psychology would need therefore discussing political aspects of modern science project.
Body; Psychology; History