Helena Antipoff in the Children's National Department: psychology at the Youth Guidance Center (1946-1956)

Abstract

This paper consists in a historical research based on documentary sources and seeks to understand Helena Antipoff’s actions together with the government in the 1940s. In Brazil since 1929 and working for the education system of the state of Minas Gerais, Antipoff focused on the issue of “exceptional” children and created institutions to assist them. In 1944, she moved to Rio de Janeiro to work on the National Children’s Bureau.This paper presents the actions taken by Antipoff at this institution, especially in the Youth Guidance Center, a service organized by her in 1946 to assist children referred due to “school problems” or those deemed “exceptional.” The results include the purpose of the Center, clients and staff’s profiles and also the work dynamics, allowing the scaling of the influence of the psychological principles that guided Antipoff