Keywords
Vallejo Nágera
Spanish Civil War
jails
How to Cite
Abstract
The brutal economic depression in which post-Civil War Spain sank pushed many women to resort to prostitution as their only means of subsistence. The pro-Franco authorities had annulled the republican abolitionist decree and sexual commerce was again tolerated. Nevertheless, the uncontrolled height of prostitution compelled the authorities to react and special jails for “misled” women were created. We analyze the publications of this postwar period related to the psychology of prostitution by three individuals working in key institutions at the time: Antonio Vallejo Nágera (University of Madrid, National Health Council), Eduardo Martinez Martinez (Penitentiary for Women Psychiatric Clinic) and Francisco J. Echalecu y Canino (Patronage for the Protection of Women). The publications by these three authors and their investigations on Spanish prostitutes led them to characterize these women as innate chronic sexual psychopaths, with mental deficiency and amorality. This diagnosis was used to justify their confinement for reform in special jails for “fallen” women. In this way, the publications by Vallejo, Martinez and Echalecu y Canino were instrumental to justify the establishment of these special jails. The conceptual frame of the biopsychology of German inspiration was used to service the social project of the pro-Franco biopolitics.This journal is registered under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. Thus, this work may be reproduced, distributed, and publicly shared in digital format, as long as the names of the authors and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are acknowledged. Others are allowed to quote, adapt, transform, auto-archive, republish, and create based on this material, for any purpose (even commercial ones), provided the authorship is duly acknowledged, a link to the original work is provided, and it is specified if changes have been made. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana does not hold the rights of published works and the authors are solely responsible for the contents of their works; they keep the moral, intellectual, privacy, and publicity rights. Approving the intervention of the work (review, copy-editing, translation, layout) and the following outreach, are granted through an use license and not through an assignment of rights. This means the journal and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana cannot be held responsible for any ethical malpractice by the authors. As a consequence of the protection granted by the use license, the journal is not required to publish recantations or modify information already published, unless the errata stems from the editorial management process. Publishing contents in this journal does not generate royalties for contributors.