Virgínia Bicudo e o curso de Psicologia da UFBA: significações de uma intelectual negra em uma formação "sem cor"

Abstract

Despite her importance for Psychoanalysis, Social Sciences, and Psychology, Virgínia Leone Bicudo does not receive due recognition for her contributions in these fields. The recognition of the contributions of black intellectuals helps in the process of overcoming epistemic invisibility, enabling minority groups in the academic world to gain autonomy. This study describes the meanings constructed by Psychology students from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) regarding their professional and academic training after being exposed to Virgínia Bicudo’s contributions in the field of racial relations. A total of seven students were interviewed. Participants differed from each other in terms of their socioeconomic backgrounds, ethno-racial origins, and gender. The research used a qualitative exploratory methodology based on the theoretical frameworks of Black Feminist Epistemology and Symbolic Interactionism, focusing on the interactions between subjects and contexts. Data were produced through workshops held during classes in the Psychology course at UFBA and through semi-structured interviews. Although all participants recognized the relevance of Bicudo’s contributions and the theme of racial relations to the academic and professional training of Psychology students at UFBA, the meanings produced about the importance of Bicudo’s legacy differed based on the ethnic-racial origin of the respondents. Students signify Virgínia Bicudo's contributions to Psychology training through their own sense of identity. A feeling of non-identification by ethnic-racial criteria was explained by the black students and by the white students a perception of themselves as a future professional impaired, due to the little theoretical appropriation of social issues-problems. The reports allow us to understand that the absence of racialization in the course causes repercussions in the students' evaluation of the psychologist profession. The aspects of class and race of students were predominant in the construction of meanings, which were organized into three meanings, one linked to the need to know, another linked to the lack of belonging to training and, finally, a meaning linked to resistance to invisibility. of black and indigenous intellectuals. The recognition of Bicudo's authorship emerged, then, as a sensitizing element for the criticism of hegemonic knowledge and for the strengthening of the interviewed students' sense of agency.