B
Bernstein, Jaime
Born Buenos Aires, Argentina, 25 August 1917
Died Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1 August 1988
Alejandro Dagfal
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Buenos
Aires, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones
Científicas y Técnicas, Biblioteca Nacional,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Keywords
Argentina · Mental testing · Projective
techniques · Clinical psychology · Psychology
programs
Jaime Bernstein was the son of Ukrainian Jew
immigrants who arrived to Argentina in the early
years of the twentieth century. In 1937, he began a
major in pedagogy at the Facultad de Filosofía y
Letras (School of Philosophy and Literature) of
the Universidad de Buenos Aires (University of
Buenos Aires, UBA) where he graduated in 1942
(honors diploma) with a dissertation on “Adlerian
Psychology and Education.” Before graduation,
between 1941 and 1942, he had been a member of
the Sigmund Freud Institute, founded by Bela
Székely (1882–1955), a Hungarian psychologist
specialized in the ideas of Alfred Adler and in the
theory and the application of mental tests. While
he was doing his training with Székely, in that
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
A. M. Jacovilela et al. (eds.), The Palgrave Biographical Encyclopedia of Psychology in Latin America,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38726-6_466-1
institution, Bernstein became deputy head of the
pedagogic section, where he gave courses on the
Rorschach test and on child intelligence. He also
started a clinical activity with pedagogic orienta-
tion. In 1952, he took a study trip to England,
France, Italy, and Spain (Bernstein, 1959;
Castillo, 2014).
Concerning his professional and academic
career, very early, from 1943 to 1945, he was
assistant professor in the seminar of Psicología
Aplicada a la Educación (Psychology Applied to
Education), at the Philosophy Department of
UBA. He would become director of that seminar
between 1945 and 1947. From 1948 to 1951,
Bernstein headed the Departamento de
Psicología Educacional de la Dirección de
Psicología Educacional y Orientación Pro-
fesional (Educational Psychology Department of
the Educational Psychology and Professional
Guidance Direction) of the province of Buenos
Aires. In that institution, schoolteachers were
trained as “educational assistants.” They helped
in the organization of homogeneous classes, cre-
ating special groups for “gifted” children and for
those who had learning difficulties. In the schools,
they also carried out “psycho-pedagogical guid-
ance,” including diagnosis, treatment, and even
the referral of students with behavioral problems.
In this manner, during Peron’s first mandate
(1946–1952), Bernstein contributed to the diffu-
sion of psychological theories and practices in the
educational realm (Bernstein, 1959; Rodríguez
Sturla, 2001).
2 Bernstein, Jaime
In parallel, from 1945, he played an important
role as editor, after founding the publishing house
Paidós, with his partner Enrique Butelman (1917–
1990). At first, they exploited the field of child
psychology, not very developed in the Spanish
language. However, very rapidly, their catalogue
included other domains, such as mental testing,
projective techniques, dynamic psychiatry, new
psychological theories, and psychoanalysis.
Paidós would also consider sociology, economics,
and politics, not to forget history and philosophy.
By 1965, this informal business was no longer a
small one. Paidós had already published 485 titles
and it had sold over three million copies in Latin
America and Spain. Not only Bernstein
co-directed this process but he was also responsi-
ble for different series – “Psychotherapy and Edu-
cation,” “Psychometrics,” “Contemporary
Educator,” “Medical Psychology,” “Psychopa-
thology and Psychosomatics,” “Parapsychology,”
among others. He edited, wrote prefaces and
notes, and had translated – many times with the
help of his wife, Analore Steinthal de Bernstein –
nearly 230 books, including the first Spanish ver-
sion of tests such as those of Gesell, Rorschach,
Goodenough, Raven, Murray, Bellak, and
Rapaport (Klappenbach, 2001; Steinthal de Bern-
stein, 2007; Dagfal, 2009).
In 1955, after president Perón was overthrown,
Bernstein began an active academic career as pro-
fessor and executive staff. At the end of that year,
in the city of Rosario, he was appointed as chair of
“Educational Psychology,” in the Facultad de
Filosofía (School of Philosophy) of the
Universidad Nacional del Litoral (National Uni-
versity of the Littoral). At that moment, he also
joined an advisory commission in charge of the
elaboration of a new curriculum to “reorganize”
the first psychology program that had been created
in Argentina, in 1955, right before the coup d’état.
In 1956 he became the head of the Instituto de
Psicología (Institute of Psychology), as well as
professor in charge of the chair “Psychometrics
and Psycho-diagnosis.” In 1957, when a psychol-
ogy program was also founded at UBA, he was
appointed as chair of “Psychology II.” In 1959, he
obtained two more chairs: “Educational Psychol-
ogy” and “Projective Techniques,” while his
partner and friend, Enrique Butelman, became
head of the Psychology Department. In 1959,
Bernstein was appointed head of the Vocational
Guidance Department of UBA, the first one of its
kind. After the coup d’état of 1966 (when the
military took direct control of the universities
and many professors and researchers had to emi-
grate), Bernstein resigned to all his academic
posts. In 1984, four years before his death, he
was appointed as numerary member of the
National Academy of Education (Ascolani,
1988; Gentile, 2003; Steinthal de Bernstein,
2004).
As for his main contributions, Jaime Bernstein
represents one of the rare cases of continuity
between the psycho-techniques developed in
Argentina during the Peronist period – linking
the world of work with the educational field –
and the clinical psychology with psychoanalytic
orientation that extended itself very rapidly during
the 1960s, right after the creation of the first psy-
chology programs. Through his multiple activities
as professor, executive staff, and editor, he played
a decisive role in the construction of a large public
for a “new psychology.” Although he never wrote
a book of his own, it can be said that his works
(hundreds of pages) are scattered in his long pref-
aces, his detailed comments, and his erudite notes
in the books published by Paidós under his super-
vision. Likewise, not only did he play a key role at
the beginnings of two of the first psychology pro-
grams in the country, but he also backed the first
students in the defense of the right to practice
psychotherapies for nonphysicians. He was an
atypical pedagogue, as interested in the psycho-
logical aspects of education as in the possibilities
of a new professional role for psychologists, in
which the evaluation and treatment of personality
were of an utmost importance (Dagfal, 2009).
1 Selected Works
Bernstein, J. (1952). Guía para la aplicación del
Psicodiagnóstico de Rorschach según la
Técnica de Klopfer [Guide for the application
of Rorschach’s psychodiagnosis according to
Klopfer’s technique]. In B. Klopfer (Ed.),
Bernstein, Jaime
Técnica del psicodiagnóstico de Rorschach.
Método Proyectivo para el Diagnóstico de la
Personalidad [Rorschach’s psychodiagnostic
technique. Projective Method for the Diagno-
sis of Personality] (pp. 4–27). Buenos Aires:
Paidós.
Bernstein, J. (1954). Texto y contexto de El
carácter neurótico. In A. Adler (Ed.), El
carácter neurótico [The neurotic constitution]
(pp. 9–35). Paidós.
Bernstein, J. (1957). La profesión del psicólogo
en los Estados Unidos [The psychological pro-
fession in the United States]. Revista de la
Asociación de Estudios Psicológicos del
Litoral, 1(1), 2–5.
Bernstein, J. (1960a). La psicología del individuo:
Adler [Individual psychology: Adler]. In
E. Heidbreder (Ed.). Psicologías del Siglo XX
[Psychologies of the twentieth century]
(pp. 387–442). Paidós.
Bernstein, J. (1960b). Apéndice sobre
vocabulario psicométrico fundamental y fuen-
tes de información de los test [Apendix on
fundamental psychometric vocabulary and
testing information sources]. In P. Pichot
(Ed.). Los test mentales [Mental testing]
(pp. 8–20). Paidós.
Bernstein, J. (1964a). Dos psicologías [Two psy-
chologies]. Universidad (Universidad
Nacional del Litoral), 62, 5–52.
Bernstein, J. (1964b). Los tests psicológicos en
psicoterapia [Psychological tests in psycho-
therapy]. In G. Bermann (Ed.). Las
psicoterapias y el psicoterapeuta
3
[Psychotherapies and the psychotherapist]
(pp. 39–43). Paidós.
References
Ascolani, A. (1988). Psicología en Rosario [Psychology in
Rosario]. : Fundación Ross.
Bernstein, J. (1959). Currículum vitae presentado al
concurso para proveer profesor regular de Psicología
de la Educación [Curriculum vitae for the selection
committee for a tenured position in Educational Psy-
chology]. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Universidad
de Buenos Aires.
Castillo, C. (2014). Bernstein, Jaime. In Diccionario
Biográfico Argentino de Psicología [Argentine Bio-
graphical dictionary of psychology]. Biblioteca Virtual
en Salud. Retrieved from http://www.bvs-psi.mdp.
edu.ar
Dagfal, A. (2009). Entre París y Buenos Aires. La
invención del psicólogo [Between Paris and Buenos
Aires. The invention of the psychologist]. Paidós.
Gentile, A. (2003). Ensayos históricos sobre psicoanálisis
y psicología [Historical essays on psychoanalysis and
psychology]. Fundación Ross.
Klappenbach, H. (2001). Dos editoriales en los comienzos
de la profesionalización de la psicología en Argentina
[Two publishing houses in the beginnings of the pro-
fessionalisation of psychology in Argentina]. Memo-
randum, 1, 61–71.
Rodríguez Sturla, P. (2001). Jaime Bernstein: El
psicodiagnóstico clínico [Clinical psychodiagnosis].
In L. Rossi (Ed.). Psicología: su inscripción como
profesión [Psychology: Its inscription as a profession]
(pp. 373–377). Eudeba.
Steinthal de Bernstein, A. (2004, November 19). Tele-
phone interview (Paris-Buenos Aires).
Steinthal de Bernstein, A. (2007, October 24). Personal
interview (Buenos Aires).