The main objective of this article is to present the specificities of community psychology in Rio de Janeiro. We sustain the thesis that unlike what happened in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, community psychology in Rio de Janeiro has grown more similar to what we name community work. In addition to this objective, we aim at showing the contribution of community psychology in Brazil to the critical movement both in terms of the theory and practice of social psychology. Our discussions cover the period between the 60s and the 90s. We have chosen to start by the 60s because of the “crisis” in the field of social psychology, which has taken place at first in Europe and in the United States, and has started a process of critical consideration both of theory and method in social psychology. The references used in this article include these subjects, social psychology in Brazil and community psychology in Rio de Janeiro.
Community psychology; History of psychology-Brazil; Social psychology History- Rio de Janeiro; Epistemology