The Rorschach and Other Projective Methods in Portugal

Abstract

It is not possible to speak about projective methods in Portugal, their study, application, research and teaching, without mentioning the general path that psychology has taken in our country. When its history is written, it will be possible to see the inf luence of several successive circumstances, among which stands out the nature of the political and ideological regime that governed this Portugal for most of this century.Up until the 1930s there were several individuals, mostly university professors, who paid close attention to trends in psychology in other countries, most visibly in the field of education. Nevertheless, there were also important scholars whose names are attached to various centers and institutions around the country who were interested in the areas of the school and professional counselling, general child psychology, mental retardation, and clinical and forensic psychology.Experimental Psychology was the first area in which university teaching was allowed, beginning early in this century with an experimental psychology class. In 1911, Lisbon's and Coimbra's Colleges of Arts were created, and the experimental psychology class and its laboratory were assigned to the philosophy curriculum. This situation persisted until 1957, when a new course on general psychology was introduced under the name of "Introduction to Psychology." Under this 1957 curriculum reform, students could take the experimental and the introduction to psychology courses in their first and fourth years, and they could also enroll in a final psychology seminar and prepare their dissertation on psychology. This kind of organization allowed the regular publication of 24 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.