A Psicologia entre o 'longo passado' e a 'curta história'

This paper intends to insert the History of Psychology in a wider debate along with the History of Philosophy and History of Science. In order to do that, the object of analysis is Hermann Ebbinghaus’s famous phrase, ‘Psychology has an old past, but a short history’, and all the tradition of books and textbooks due to it, very popular on the 20th and 21st centuries. The paper is going to analyse Ebbinghaus’s text and its historical commitments and consequences. Then will perform a critics of this tradition, in 3 fronts of arguments: firstly, bringing up some more recent studies on Gustav Fechner, seen as a central character on the making of Psychology as a science, but nevertheless ignored for its ‘speculative’ commitments. Secondly, the paper will confront such questions with the historical perspectives of 20th century, specially the epistemological history of science. Finally, the paper will open the argument of ‘old past’ to a more wide ‘history’, showing contemporary analysts who started to scan the historical meaning of the word ‘Psychology’.