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Psychoanalysis owes its arrival in Spain to the early translation of Sigmund Freud's works and the scientific relationship between Spanish psychiatrists and German and French psychiatry in the early twentieth century.
In 1917, at the suggestion of Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, Ruiz Castillo, the director of the Biblioteca Nueva publishing house, acquired the rights to publish all of Freud's current and future work. He commissioned Luis López Ballesteros for the translation, whom Freud himself lauded for his “very correct interpretation” of his thoughts. In fact, the translation of Sigmund Freud's texts into Spanish was the first translation of his work into a foreign language, in what constitutes the greatest contribution to the diffusion of psychoanalysis in the Spanish language.
The ongoing publication of Freud's work led to its diffusion among Spanish-speaking scientific, intellectual, academic and artistic circles. A group of artists and writers at the Student Residence (Residencia de Estudiantes) even extended an invitation to Freud to visit Spain to deliver a series of lectures, but illness ultimately prevented this project from coming to fruition.
However, in October 1928, Sandor Ferenczi travelled to Spain and delivered a talk at the Student Residence. Years later, Dali and Picasso would be among the writers and artists who, led by Thomas Mann, organised a tribute to Freud on his 80th birthday. Dali visited Freud again during his exile in London, where he painted his portrait.
One of the first Spanish psychiatrists interested in psychoanalysis was Ángel Garma, who could be considered Spain's first psychoanalyst. He began his psychoanalytic training in 1927 at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, and he was admitted as a member of the German Psychoanalytic Society in 1931. In November of that year, he returned to Madrid and began his work as a psychoanalyst, but soon after, in 1936, the Spanish Civil War would break out, thwarting his plans to establi