Between modernity and tradition: the formation of a psychoanalytical culture during the Franco dictatorship

Silvia Lévy Lazcano

doi:10.3989/chdj.2021.008

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze the process by which psychoanalysis categories joined scientific and popular culture in Francoism. To do so, we will start with the criticism and reinterpretations that different experts did on Freud’s theory to adapt it to the new political-social context. This analysis will allow us to show how reappropriation and signification of a progressive and modern theory was achieved based on the doctrinal principles of national-Catholicism. From here on, we will analyze the incorporation of psychoanalytic language and ideas into several mass media, confirming the consolidation of psychoanalysis as a cultural framework in Spain.

Highlights

A number of authors have pointed to a supposed censoring or rejection of psychoanalysis during the Franco dictatorship in Spain (González Duro, 1978; Glick, 1982; Castilla del Pino, 1997; Carles et al, 2000; Druet, 2011a)
Psychiatrists such as Antonio Vallejo Nágera and Juan José López Ibor were very critical of the theory that had formed part of the discourse and strategies surrounding sexual hygiene and education embodied in the reforms introduced by Spain’s Republican government in the 1930s (Lévy and Huertas, 2018)
As we have argued throughout this study, once purged of its links to the Republican government’s reforms, psychoanalysis could be seen as a useful point of reference as far as Francoist interests were concerned, as can be seen in the evolution of magazines published by the Falange’s Sección Femenina

Summary

Introduction

A number of authors have pointed to a supposed censoring or rejection of psychoanalysis during the Franco dictatorship in Spain (González Duro, 1978; Glick, 1982; Castilla del Pino, 1997; Carles et al, 2000; Druet, 2011a) Psychiatrists such as Antonio Vallejo Nágera and Juan José López Ibor were very critical of the theory that had formed part of the discourse and strategies surrounding sexual hygiene and education embodied in the reforms introduced by Spain’s Republican government in the 1930s (Lévy and Huertas, 2018). Even Catholicism, initially critical of Freud’s pansexualism, offered its own hermeneutic interpretation of psychoanalysis, firstly safeguarding Catholic dogma before reinventing Freudian thought in a manner that was more suitable for religious life Reflected in this was the interest of the Church, and, in general, of Francoist science, to not be excluded from the onward march of modernity

Objectives

Conclusion