Abstract
Psychology as a profession has a short history compared to other disciplines in the field of health and especially mental health. The legitimation of it’s professional practice in Uruguay has been controversial and disputed with other disciplines, especially psychiatry. In this article we propose to study the actions taken to delimit the field of professional activity during 1958 to 1984. We chose a qualitative methodology, using the analysis and interpretation of relevant bibliographic sources from the contributions of the critical history of psychology and the sociology of the professions. The analyzed sources are legal technical reports, bulletins and minutes of psychology and psychiatry groups, magazines and university documents such as files and study plans. It is concluded that beyond the disputes over the ways of circulation, appropriation and application of knowledge on specific contents such as psychotherapy, the struggle is fought over much broader fields that emerge at the same time that the different actors mobilize their interests.
Keywords:
profession; professional practice; regulation; controversies