Abstract
This chapter unveils a fragment of the history of child mental hygiene in Chile from a psychological and educational perspective, emphasizing the cultural and institutional issues of the period 1920–1964. The characteristics of the Conduct Disorder Clinic [CDC] created in 1936 are studied, which clarifies some ways of approaching these cases. It defines and characterizes a particular form of intervention in childhood whose promulgation began in the 1920s and which, shortly after, led to Chile: mental hygiene. Finally, some surveillance and control projects proposed between the 1920s and 1940s that targeted Chilean children and where the relationship between psychology, education, and society is linked through different mechanisms are discussed.
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Notes
- 1.
Regarding these historical and sociological approaches (see Gabriel, 2014).
- 2.
A few months earlier, the journal published an article by Dr. G. Heuyer on a ‘Childhood Mental Hygiene Center’, preceded by this brief note: ‘At the moment that the Mental Hygiene League is organized in Chile with a complete programme of child assistance, it is interesting to present the activity of a French mental hygiene centre, as stated in the Institution’s Report’ (Heuyer, 1931).
- 3.
A presentation on ‘Evolution of Psychiatry in Chile’ by Garafulic Dabravicic in 1955 dates the dissolution of the AChHM towards 1949–1950 ‘after the premature death of Professor Vivado’ (Garafulic, 1951, p. 72).
- 4.
According to Vetö, according to what Samuel Gajardo’s claims in The rights of the child and the tyranny of the environment, Conduct Disorder Clinics operated within the General Directorate for Minors Protection as early as 1929 ‘provided guidance to parents or legal guardians of children in an irregular situation [...] seeking to prevent or cure behavioural problems that could present themselves from simple family misunderstandings’ (Vetö, 2015, p. 194).
- 5.
It is necessary at least to mention that, in the same year that the Conduct Disorder Clinic was created, the Ercilla publishing company published Personality and child behaviour: the principles of mental hygiene as guidelines for childhood education by Telma Reca (1936). The work of Borinsky and Talak (2004), available at http://www.historiapsi.com, can be consulted.
- 6.
This DFL contains at least two particulars barely mentioned here. First, Article 26 establishes the creation of the General Directorate of Elementary Education, which was already in operation. On the other hand, Articles 102–109 reinstate much of what was stipulated 1 year before in DFL 5881, promulgated almost 1 year before, without any reference.
- 7.
Article 104 of this DFL also establishes the creation of ‘Model Schools’ which will incorporate the final outcomes of the experimental schools and courses into their curriculum, and provide guidelines in all aspects to the rest of the country’s schools.
- 8.
Considering that the sources correspond to different dates, data divergences can be a product of error in some of them or, as is understandable, through changes in how the institution operates.
- 9.
In 1941, Cubillas Leiva and Aguero gave an improvement course on psychiatry and mental hygiene for prison staff. They sought to ‘disclose some standards advised by Mental Hygiene in the preventive fight against mental illness and that can be applied in some cases to the prophylaxis of delinquency in general’ (Cubillos & Agüero, 1941, p. 18). Such standards include early childhood intervention, school mental hygiene and vocational guidance.
- 10.
The Report of Valjalo Cepeda also indicates a significant percentage of children who do not attend school, but the report does not expand further.
- 11.
Regarding the reception of Adler’s ideas in Latin America (see León, 2002).
- 12.
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The authors disclose receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this chapter. This chapter was supported by a grant from the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT), through the National Fund of Scientific and Technological Development, FONDECYT Project N° 11150436, awarded to the primary author.
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Salas, G., Scholten, H., Mardones, R.E. (2021). Psychology and Education: Childhood Mental Hygiene in Chile (1920–1946). In: Ossa, J.C., Salas, G., Scholten, H. (eds) History of Psychology in Latin America. Latin American Voices. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73682-8_10
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