From outrage to normalization: Uses of psychoanalysis by the Spanish sexual reform movement (1920-1939)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze how psychoanalytic ideas were received within the context of the debate around sexuality which took place in Spain during the 1920s and 1930s. While this reception was initially marked by a questioning of the role that Freud assigned to sexuality, psychoanalytic discourse would later make an appearance in various proposals for reforming sexual customs and overcoming bourgeois morality. The paper also considers the use of psychoanalysis in normative environments such as sexual education and marriage legislation, highlighting the different uses of psychoanalysis in the movement for sexual reform on a scientific basis which culminated during the socio-political context of the Second Republic.

Psychoanalysis and academia: the case of Angel Garma and the university of Buenos Aires

“…It had several sections, one of which was Sexual Pedagogy (Huertas and Novella 2014). The uses of psychoanalysis in Spain's sexual reform movement have been noted by several authors (Glick 2003;Lévy and Huertas 2018;Lévy 2019), but in Garma's case, his objective when reflecting on these aspects was not to reform sexual morality but to prevent certain psychological disorders, such as neurosis and perversions, that could be a result of repressed child sexuality. This explains why, almost 25 years later and in a very different context, Garma again takes up his advocacy for truthfulness and tolerance: two fundamental elements the adult in charge must consider when addressing child sexuality from a psychopedagogical point of view.…”

Psicoanálisis para el movimiento de Higiene Mental español, 1920–1936

“…Puente solicitaba a Villaverde que justificase de forma serena y razonada sus irrespetuosas palabras contra el psicoanálisis, lo que, lejos de suavizar el debate, radicalizó todavía más las posturas de ambos autores (34). Esta polémica escondía en realidad un escenario de enfrentamientos políticos y sociales que sin duda iba más allá de la aceptación o no del psicoanálisis, pero que se escenificó en relación al mismo debido a la centralidad que las ideas de Freud estaban teniendo dentro del movimiento de modernización científica de las costumbres sexuales, que tuvo su mayor expresión en 1932, con la creación de la Liga para la Reforma Sexual sobre Bases Científicas (35). Asimismo, es importante señalar que las críticas al psicoanálisis, lejos de socavar su éxito, aceleraron su expansión, provocando que hubiera más lectores interesados en la controvertida teoría del autor vienés.…”