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

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.

Keywords

• history of psychoanalysis
• national-catholicism
• psychiatry
• psychotherapy
• popular culture
• mass media