Dr. Antonio Vallejo-Najera (1889-1960) was a Spanish psychiatrist best known for his support of the Franco government in Spain. He was heavily influenced by German psychiatrists, especially Kretschmer who he adopted his constitutional theory from. He work on the psychiatry of Marxists led him to the conviction that children of Marxist parents should be placed into orphanages or Francoist families so that they would not be influenced by their parents, not entirely dissimilar from modern Child Protective Services.
The following article is a translation of a series of articles published in the Spanish Journal of War Medicine and Surgery between 1938 and 1939 under the headline “Biopsychism of Marxist Fanaticism”, which aimed to understand the position of Marxism in the constitutional theory as well as the psychiatric characteristics of Marxists.
Table of Contents
The well-known findings of [Ernst] Kretschmer1 about the intimate relationships that connect physique and temperament, or the primitive type of affective reaction,2 produce an inexhaustible flow in suggestions of future work, including a focus in the social and political sciences. These last aim at the improvement of the human condition.
The enormous body of prisoners of war in the hands of the National Forces, saviors of Spain, allow mass study in favorable conditions, that perhaps will not be repeated in the history of the world. With this incentive and approval from the honorable sir Inspector of Concentration Camps, to whom we are thankful for all sorts of accommodating facilities, we begin serial investigations into Marxist individuals, with the objective of finding the relationships that may exist between the biopsychic qualities of the subject and the Democratic-Communist political fanaticism.
Hypotheses:
We begin from the following hypothesis, which orient our investigations:
Relationships between certain biopsychic personalities and constitutional predisposition to Marxism.
Proportion of Marxist fanaticism in the mental inferiors.
Proportion of anti-social psychopaths in the Marxist masses.
Hypothesis 1: The idea of relating biopsychic personalities and the constitutional predisposition to Marxist political fanaticism arises from previous findings that the Pyknic physique is related to the cyclothymic temperament, and the Asthenic and Athletic physiques to schizothymic.
It is known that in the cyclothymic series, or extroverted temperaments, we find a certain number of types whose manifestations of the personality may differ in social conduct, but in all they present the common characteristic of reacting affectively in the plane of mood coloring3, and being the appropriate relationships to the stimulus. Also, the series of temperamental types of the schizothymic scale, or introverted, have varieties of social behaviors, but common among the schizothymic temperament is the insensitivity or hypersensitivity [anesthetic or hyperesthetic response] to psychic stimuli and the affective reaction is inadequate or disproportionate to the stimulus.
Also, our first hypothesis is based in the fact that the cyclothymic tends to political opportunism, unfolding in practical life, adapting to circumstances; while the schizothymic is of a more intense interior life and tends to sentimentality, to idealism and fanatical mysticism. A priori, we presume that Marxist fanatics that have fought with weapons in hand will present with schizothymic temperament or degenerative varieties of this temperamental series. Further, the propagandists and freeloaders of Marxism, we suppose, will belong to the cyclothymic series or degenerative types of the same.
Hypothesis 2: The second hypothesis emanates from the simplism of the Marxist ideology and the social equality that it advocates, which favors its assimilation by mental inferiors and the culturally deficient, incapable of spiritual ideals, such that they find in the material goods that communism offers and in democracy the satisfaction of their animal appetites. The mental inferior and the uneducated find in Marxist politics means to facilitate the fight for life, unlike any other politico-social regime, especially in the Aristarchic4 ones that promote the elevation of the best.
Hypothesis 3: Because of Marxism’s link to anti-sociality and social immorality, especially contrary to Catholic morality, it seems presumable that psychopaths of all types will enlist in the Marxist ranks, especially anti-social psychopaths. We exclude from our study the mentally ill included in the generic denomination of psychotics, that is, those who present qualitative5 psychic symptoms, because a Marxist may suffer mental illness in the same way as an individual belonging to any other political affiliation. We remind the reader that the psychiatric concept of psychopath refers to those individuals that present quantitative psychic symptoms, abnormal personality reactions, without them being truly mentally ill. Formerly, they were referred to as superior degenerate psychopaths.6
Human Material Studied
The human material object of our study is classified into various groups:
Group A: International combatants, prisoners of war confined in the San Pedro de Cardeña concentration camp.
Group B: Male political prisoners, of Spanish nationality that were agents and propagandists of Marxism, or held political office in Marxist organizations and are serving sentences or are being prosecuted for their political activities.
Group C: Female political prisoners, in the same circumstances as Group B.
Group D: Basque separatists, in whom frequently occurs the curious phenomenon of political fanaticism combined with religious fanaticism. They are treated as enemies of Spain, that fought alongside the enemies of their religious or politico-social principles.
Group E: Marxist Catalonians, in whom is combined Marxist fanaticism and anti-Spainism.
Methods Followed in the Investigations
The following method in the individual exploration is exactly the sample for all groups:
Determination of biotype (physique), availing ourselves of the scheme in Kretschmer Number II.
Tracing the curve of life and psychobiography of the subject using a questionnaire similar to that typically used in psychiatric clinics, extended with data referring to the political, religious, and military background of the subject.
Diagnosis of the primary temperamental reaction type, according to the responses to the Neymann-Kohlstedt Introversion Test.7
Diagnosis of the fundamental qualities of the moral activity, benefitting from the R. Marston-Mira Test8, in those cases in which another person answered the question, therefore this diagnosis is only feasible in political prisoners.
Determination of the intellectual coefficient with the Yerkes method9 in those individuals whose intelligence is presumed to be inferior to the normal mead in the corresponding social class.
Definitions and Concepts
The majority of psychologists and psychiatrists habitually deal with the concepts that we present below, but for the improved comprehension of this work for persons not initiated in the specialty, we define the concepts we use, and whose study may be expanded in the works of Kretschmer.
Constitutional Factors: We classify the “physique” as Asthenic, Athletic, Pyknic, and Mixed according to the typology of Kretschmer, according to the instructions of the author.
We understand by “primary temperamental reaction”, the tendency to introversion or extroversion in the subject, deduced from the responses to the Neymann-Kohlstedt Test and from their attitudes and reactions towards the explorer.
We term “temperament” the primitive affective reaction, deducing its diagnosis from the study of the reactions before the explorer and from the curve of life, following the known classification of Kretschmer. As a consequence, we consider “normal” the schizothymic and cyclothymic temperaments, and “degenerative” those that translate to exaggerated qualities and reactions, nearly pathological with respect to the normal temperaments that justify the denominations of schizoid, cycloid, paranoid, epileptoid, etc.10 We designate as “neutral” the indefinite temperaments or temperamental reactions, either due to low intelligence in the subject, or due to the equilibrium in the responses to the Test and the reactions experienced during the exploration.
To qualify “intelligence”, we separate the natural intellectual gifts from culture or acquired knowledge, as well as assessing received instruction, taking into account the social class to which the subject belongs and the national average culture in their respective social class.
In the education section, “university” includes those subjects that have visited the Superior Schools (Engineering, Architecture, etc.); in the “baccalaureate”, those that have completed the courses of teaching or commerce. We consider “Special School”, those destined to the improvement of the workers, such as those in Arts and Crafts, foremen, boatswains, etc. The individual is included in the corresponding section if he has studied the respective field of education for some time, even if he has not completed studies. We have for “illiterates” those individuals that know how to spell poorly and have only received primary education.
Environmental Factors: The interest that prompts the study of environmental factors that have influence in the formation of the biopsychic personality of the subject by acting on their constitutional factors, oblige us to a certain prolixity, methodically investigating the “family and individual economic position”, “the political and religious formation of the subject”, and “the politico-religious family environment”.
As our human material is constituted of workers, artisans, employees, and students, we must use the classification of terms relative to the corresponding social class, so that the well-to-do enjoy a superior economic position to that of the artisan and middle class. The rest of the terms do not need clarifications.
With respect to the political and religious family environments, we have to settle for the manifestations of the explorations, not always concrete, but sufficiently explicit in religious matters (not so much in politics) to properly value it.
The cultural sources of individual “political formation” have been thoroughly investigated, taking care to separate the individuals in groups according to their doctrinal formation, whether made in the book or in the press. Notwithstanding the diffusion of the daily press and the prodigality made by the Red government, still we find many subjects lacking in doctrinal political formation, that only through conversations, oral propaganda, radio, or cinematography, have acquired rudimentary and confused political ideas, grouped together in the epigraph “without political formation”.
As religious indifference and the the irreligiosity of the Marxist ideology are tied, we investigated with care the religious formation of Marxist combatants.
Social Personality: It is known that the individual personality, or character, finds itself constituted of a series of biopsychic qualities resulting from the action of environmental factors on the individual biopsychic constitution. As the individual character manifests in “conduct”, it is analyzed last in every one of our explorations, so that we will perfectly diagnose the “social personality”. Such a diagnosis of the social personality of the subject cannot be as exact as we would like, because the prisoner of war hides what could harm him, but notwithstanding such insincerity, especially harmful to the percentage of frankly psychopathic personalities, we arrive at diagnostics useful for our objects.
We understand the “average social personality” as that which develops in the social life without provoking conflicts, normally, in the corresponding social class, without being delinquent, alcoholic, or sexually perverse. The term “born revolutionary”, is applied to those subjects who, induced by their constitutional biopsychic qualities and instinctive tendencies, and mobilized by complexes of rancor and resentment, or by failure in their aspirations, they tend, in a certain congenital way, to upset the existing social order. Among the born revolutionaries, we include the political-mystical schizoids. We adopt the generic term “social moron” to denominate that multitude of uneducated, clumsy, suggestible beings, lacking in spontaneity and initiative, which contribute to the formation of the greater part of the gregarious mass of anonymous people. The term “psychopath” has already been defined previously.
Anti-social Reactions of the Personality: For the purpose of our study, the cause of enlistment in the Marxist ranks becomes a fundamental category, and when it comes to prisoner of war combatants, classifying them according to whether they have been induced to take up arms by military vocation, political fanaticism, lack of work, or having been forcibly drafted.11 Some have enlisted, suggested by the propaganda or political environment prevailing in their place of residence. Of course, the majority of international prisoners may shield themselves with lack of work and deception to which they were subjected, but in the course of the exploration, the true motives leading to enlistment always shine through.
Among the anti-social Marxist reactions, we consider “anti-militarism” and “anti-patriotism” as the most important, investigated with identical thoroughness as political ideas.
The professional, social, and sexual failures of the subject always result from the disproportion between their aptitudes and talents on the one hand and their aspirations and ambitions on the other, but in every case they foster complexes of rancor and resentment that translate into anti-social behavior, for which reason they have been explored in detail.
The propensity of psychopaths and mental inferiors to alcoholism and other drug addictions is as common as abstinence in mystics and idealists, consequently, these data are considered worthy of mention.
Social Reactions of the Personality: We profile the diagnostic of the social personality, investigating the social, sporting, cultural, artistic, and other hobbies of the subject as factors worthy of taking into account in the appreciation of the biopsychic roots of Marxism and the qualification antisocial reactions.
The “sexual life”, normal or abnormal, has more interest in political prisoners than in prisoners of war, but, nonetheless, we study it in both, and although we presume that they will be mainly young and single, still they may be prey to sexual aberrations.
The most interesting social reaction to the object of our study is the politico-social transformation of the Marxist fanatic, possibilities of transformation that we deduce from the study of the psychobiography and psychological reactions to prison.
[This study is continued in multiple other parts spread across multiple issues of the Spanish Journal of War Medicine and Surgery from 1938 to 1939. This page will be periodically updated with additional sections.]
If you enjoyed this translation, please read my other articles which you can find at Saving Face.
Ernst Kretschmer (1888-1964) was a German psychiatrist best known for his constitutional theory, which separates the human phenotype into physique, character, and temperament, all of which are related. The physiques include Asthenic (thin, small, and weak), Athletic (muscular and large-boned), Pyknic (Stocky and fat), Dysplastic (deformed and unproportionate), and Mixed. The phsyiques, he believed, were related to character, the total pattern of voluntary behavior: Pyknic persons were friendly, while Asthenic and Athletic persons were introverted and timid. They were also related to temperament, the individuals affective reactivity: Pyknic persons were cyclothymic, alternating between manic and depressive poles, while Asthenic and Athletic persons were schizothymic, alternating between hypersensitive and insensitive (apathetic) poles. For Kretschmer, mental illness (particularly, schizophrenia and manic-depressive disorder) is merely an extreme form of otherwise normal mental processes.
A primitive affection reaction is an automatic, unconscious emotional reaction to a stimulus.
“Mood colors” are an analogy employed by Kretschmer to describe the temperaments.
The original Spanish for this word is “aristárquicos”. This may mean “aristocratic”, or it may be a reference to the Biblical Aristarchus or the mythical Greek Aristarche, but neither seems to imply what is meant by the author.
Qualitative symptoms are distinct from normal functioning, and are easily recognized as disordered, while quantitative symptoms are an extreme form of normal functioning and are less obviously mental illness.
I don’t know what this is a reference to.
The Neymann-Kohlstedt Introversion-Extroversion Test, published in 1929, is a battery of fifty statements of personal like or dislike, such as “Be by yourself a great deal”, designed to be preferred by introverts or extroverts.
I have not been able to discover what the “R. Marston-Mira Test” is.
Robert Yerkes (1876-1956) developed an intelligence test for the US Army, separated into Army Alpha (a written exam) and Army Beta (a pictorial exam).
These refer to what may be understood as personality disorders: schizoid (apathy, introversion, emotional deadening), cycloid (alternating between mania and depression), paranoid (distrust and suspicion), and epileptoid (impulsive and egocentric), etc.
From the context, I presume the Spanish “encuadrar” means “drafted (into the military)” in this case.
Was just wishing this would be translated and made available the other day, synchronicity is a funny thing, cheers.