Buero Vallejo’s Experiment in Existential Psychology: Traces of Martín-Santos’ Tiempo de silencio in La doble historia del doctor Valmy

Abstract

In this article, I explore the kinship between Buero Vallejo’s play La doble historia del doctor Valmy (1964) and Martín-Santos’ novel, Tiempo de silencio (1962) that is based on existential psychology. I argue that Buero was not only influenced by Martín-Santos’ writings on existential psychology, but that his play in fact mimics Martín-Santos’ novel as an experiment in existential psychology. After an explanation of the difference between existential philosophy, existential psychology, and existential psychoanalysis, I explore the connections between the two works that are based on similarities between the protagonists and narrators, the topic of castration, the presence of the grandmother as an archetypal figure, the use of irony and silence as they relate to the narrative structure of the works, and the role of the reader and spectator in the novel and the play. After considering these points of comparison, I broach the question of the relative success or failure of the authors’ experiments in existential psychology, as well as the relevance of said experiments with regard to post-Civil War Spain and the Franco regime.