Everything you say ... And do not say ...: Essay on the History of Psychology of Testimony on Brazilian Criminology

Abstract

This article presents some reflections on the theoretical corpus of the psychology of testimony, from an historical point of view, trying to discuss its production / reverberation in Brazil and relationship with crime investigative procedures conducted in the country. It takes as point of analysis the year 1950, as the material Chapters 8, 9 and 10 of the Handbook of Forensic Psychology by Emílio Mira y Lopez and reverberations on the media at the time about the investigation of a murder case conducted by the 25th Police District in Rio de Janeiro (RJ) in same year. The paper discusses the centripetal method of interrogation and the psychoanalytic means of proof Rosanoff Abraham-Jung, analyzing how such dispositive integrated theoretical and practical debate about the criminal investigation of the murder case and inserted in the debate the psychological knowledge as the one able to reveal the truth of the testimony. Argues, finally, the presence of the psychological knowledge in the construction of a discourse of truth of the testimony in the history of the Brazilian criminal justice system.