The objective of this article is to analyze the process of regulating "alternative therapies" of the so-called "New Age" type in the sphere of psychology, over the course of the 1990s. The article distinguishes three specific moments in the position taken towards alternative practices by the field of psychology, as represented by the profession's class associations. Although the results of this process consolidated the limits of legitimate psychological knowledge, they reveal ambiguities in psychologists' stance towards the "alternative". The author concludes by arguing that the growing acceptance of alternative "New Age" therapies by broad segments of society is a phenomenon with huge repercussions on psychology, albeit not limited to this field, rather anchoring itself in contemporary experimentation in which therapeutic and religious aspects interrelate in various ways.
alternative therapies; psychology; religion