Psychiatric care and mental hygiene in Spain during the 1930s was influenced by the presence of ideological, social, and political polarization. This peculiarity of Spain's history makes it impossible to find more or less uniformed discourses and attitudes in the country. This paper analyzes the eugenic discourse developed by Spanish pro-Fascist psychiatrists, concerning mental and racial hygiene. Some special cases are highlighted that illustrate the situation of the mentally ill during the Spanish Civil War: the evacuation of asylums near the front and the attempt to apply the psychiatric reform promoted by the Second Republic regime.Despite ideological and scientific differences, both mass sterilization of mentally disabled patients and physical extermination of the mentally ill cannot be identified as typical features of Spanish psychiatry, before or after the Civil War.

This work was undertaken under the Proyecto de Investigación no. HUM2005-04961- C03-02/HIST (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain)

Peer reviewed