Applied psychology in Latin America

This article follows the development of applied psychology in Latin America since its start in the beginning of the 19th century, when doctors were determined to understand the mind of the insane and the criminal. Later, with educators, applied psychology turned to the understanding of problem-children. By the middle of the 20th century, industrialization allowed new fields of application, namely, the organizational context. That was when the first psychology courses were organized. As of the 60s and 70s, with the crisis in the western culture and the dictatorships in Latin America, there emerged a question: what does the psychologist do? Whom does this professional attend? The hegemonic answer implies directing one's attention to Latin American specific conditions.