Uses of psi discourses: the racial issue (1930-1950)

The aim of this paper is to describe the uses of certain medical-psychological ideas about black people and their role in Brazilian society. This process culminated in the construction of the "black element" as a category to be discussed both by the Black Movement and by scientific studies produced between the 1930s and 1950s. This study seeks to show how certain academic and common knowledge on this topic made it possible to disseminate a "scientific" model of explanation about the "Brazilian race". To exemplify our arguments, we analyzed a series of events that occurred over these decades, beyond the works produced by Arthur Ramos, Alberto Guerreiro Ramos and Virginia Leone Bicudo. The consolidation of this field of debate about the "black element" was largely the result of the strenuous reproduction of a Brazilian "racial creed" (the "Racial Democracy myth") that was intended to be the organizer of our social relations.