Psicoanálisis literario e implicaciones ideológicas en El desorden de tu nombre de Juan José Millás

Abstract

This article focuses on a reading of psychoanalysis in the light of The Disorder of Your Name by Juan José Millás (1990). The aim is to understand how the patient’s language, in the corpus analyzed, contributes to revealing the personality of the subjects, the main objective being to understand the socio-historical origins of the identity crisis experienced by the protagonist, Julio Orgaz, presented as a character without memory. Some theoretical considerations, therapy sessions and the ideological scope of psychoanalysis are the points that structure this reflection. To achieve this objective, we rely on a few methodological principles set out by Lacan and taken up by Le Gaufrey (2010) and Miller (2010). How and through what mechanisms does psychoanalysis manifest? How can we understand its ideological significance? These questions structure the present reflection from which, ultimately, arise a certain number of readings based on the actions of the patient and the psychoanalyst: both probably represent the bands in conflict in the Spanish civil war. The fact that the psychoanalyst discovers ignored aspects of his own personality through the patient’s words denotes the need to heal the entire society which has not yet recovered from the painful episodes of Francoism, namely, a call for better reconciliation of the two Spains.

Keywords

• spain
• psychoanalysis
• therapy
• memory
• identities in crisis.