Date Thesis Awarded

4-2015

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Department

Modern Languages and Literatures

Advisor

Francie Cate-Arries

Committee Members

Jonathan Arries

David Aday

Abstract

This thesis examines Francoist medicalization, or the characterization of the Spanish Civil War in medical terms, as suggested by Spanish psychiatrist Dr. Antonio Vallejo Nágera. This work looks to address the function that medicine served for the Franco regime, and to justify the introduction of a directorship in psychiatry in the Nationalist camp as early as August of 1936. Through close textual analysis of three key publications by Vallejo Nágera, El factor emoción en la España nueva (1938), Política racial del nuevo estado (1938) and “Psiquismo del fanatismo marxista. Investigaciones psicológicas en marxistas femeninos delincuentes” (1939), this thesis traces the development of a Nationalist medical discourse and argues for its significance in writing of the enemy as psychiatrically degenerate, while advocating for and justifying the violent repression of the Republican opposition.

Recommended Citation

Pearlstein, Ethan F., "Antonio Vallejo Nágera and the Discourse of Eugenics in Francoist Spain" (2015). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 146.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/146