Abstract

SERRA, Lia Novaes  and  SCHUCMAN, Lia Vainer. Whiteness and ideas on progress: the "Liga Paulista de Higiene Mental" and current racial conceptions in São Paulo. Estud. pesqui. psicol. [online]. 2012, vol.12, n.1, pp. 288-311. ISSN 1808-4281.

The purpose of this article is to depict how the racial policy settled in the city of São Paulo, at the beginning of the 20th century, still echoes today over the ideas on urban progress and city development. First, we describe the basic conceptual framework of the eugenics projects, addressed over the first decades of the 20th century by the psychiatrists in charge of the "Liga Paulista de Higiene Mental" (LPHM). As an initial research approach, we analyze the LPHM documents on race and eugenics, retrieved from the "Museu Histórico Prof. Carlos da Silva Lacaz", at the Faculdade de Medicina in Universidade de São Paulo. Then, in order to understand the possible consequences of these projects over the current general racial conceptions in São Paulo, we expound a small set of interviews with local individuals, from different social layers, age and gender, who identify themselves as whites. We notice that most of these self declared white interviewees arrogate some of the ancient ideas on white racial superiority and "white purity" taken from that time.

Keywords : whiteness; Paulista Mental Health League; history of psychology; racism; social psychology.

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