Psychology in Cuba after 1959

Abstract

The development of psychology in Cuba since the 1959 revolution is described. Psychology in Cuba has been marked throughout by the practical needs of Cuban society and, as such, four phases can be distinguished: 1) The immediate post-revolutionary phase (1960s) of large-scale social transformation and the use of psychology to support this. 2) The 1970s, marked by the continuation of the previous efforts and, at the same time, a‘relatively uncritical’ importation of Soviet models into both society and psychology. 3) A period of considerable development of a distinctively Cuban approach in the 1980s. 4) The special period from the fall of the Soviet Union, marked by an initial crisis in psychology and then a recovery, with wider respect and demand for psychological expertise in multiple spheres of Cuban society. The development of psychology is analysed through these phases in terms of both the growth of the profession and the evolution of its content.