This paper analyses the psychiatric content of the novel Los Renglones Torcidos de Dios [The Twisted Lines of God] (1979), by Torcuato Luca de Tena, so as to assess in what way this was capable of reflecting the reality of care in 1970s Spain, within a context of deep cultural changes concerning the concept of madness. The novel reflects a conservative position of resistance and criticizes new developments (psychoanalysis, the anti-psychiatric movement) brought about by a new ‘psy culture’ in Spain during its transition to democracy.
Torcuato Luca de Tena; psychiatry; anti-psychiatry; psychiatric hospital; Spanish Transition