This article presents the professional trajectory of Eliezer Schneider, one of the first Brazilians with academic training in Psychology. Graduated in Law, in 1939, by National College of Law of the old University of Brazil (nowadays Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), he applied to a position at the Institute of Psychology of that University, being hired in 1941. Few years later, he got the Master degree by University of Iowa (USA), with a thesis about the emergentist theories of personality, under the supervision of Gustavo Bergman. Due to his experience at that University, Schneider kept his interest in behaviorism alive, perhaps not so for its methodology but for its emphasis in environmental situations as determinants of human behavior. His interest in Psychology, according to his own report, began with Law studies - how to understand the criminal, how to characterize his/her unliability? However, his main contribution relates to the training of a whole generation of Social Psychology teachers, who have learned, with him, to extend our sight beyond the paradigm of individualism and intimacy that identifies our Psychology.
Eliezer Schneider; Social Psychology; History of Psychology
