Abstract

ADES, César. Pedro de Alcântara, Haim Grünspun and the protection of children: speech on taking office at the São Paulo Academy of Psychology. Bol. - Acad. Paul. Psicol. [online]. 2008, vol.28, n.2, pp. 178-186. ISSN 1415-711X.

Psychology in Brazil, which has developed in an impressive manner during these last decades, finds itself in the right moment to integrate its aspects and to compose a project centered in the social contribution. The following personalities distinguished are within this context of engagement: Pedro de Alcântara, pediatrician, Patron of Chair #19 of the São Paulo Academy of Psychology; and Haim Grünspun, psychiatrist, its last occupant. Both dedicated their careers to the study and protection of the child. Pedro de Alcantara, who had an important roll in the institutional development of the infantile mental health, could not understand the child’s attendance without taking into account his psychological needs. Haim Grünspun, notwithstanding his defending a multidisciplinar focus, gave emphasis to the psychological determinants. He contributed with his books and articles, toward the establishment of the infantile psychiatry between us. Furthermore, he fought for the rights of children and the various manners of attending them, through social action and the intervention directed to the family context. Modern research has unveiled, with rightness and innovation, the complex processes that rule children’s behavior, showing the way how the evolutive programming integrates with the conditions of the sociocultural environment and opening perspectives to the psychological practice.

Keywords : Pedro de Alcântara; Haim Grünspun; Child behavior; Child psychiatrist.

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