Journalist, writer, editor of the ABC newspaper, academic of the RAE (Royal Academy Spain); The biography of Torcuato Luca de Tena shows that he was one of the most important figures of the Spanish social and intellectual elite of the twentieth century. His literary consecration occurred in the 1960s with the Planeta Prize, but his most special work was not sold. until a few years later: The Twisted Lines of God (1979), a book practically obligatory for any psychologist.
There are those who say that talking about the Marquis Luca de Tena is like referring to a very specific moment in the history of Spain, as a war correspondent, heir to a magazine and a newspaper, was a reflection of a complex and changing time. because of his political side, his relationships or his conservative ideas, he draws attention to a very punctual moment in his life.
- It was in 1973.
- When.
- After being expelled from his newspaper by the shareholders.
- He decided to abandon everything and go to Mexico.
- He left his country and all the social and political ties that united him in Spain.
- Opting for a very clear one.
- Desire and objective: go only to literature.
Between 1973 and 1999 Torcuato Luca de Tena wrote ten novels, three comedies and a poem, however, one of his most special projects would be to experience in his own skin the worlds that existed in psychiatric hospitals at the time.
From this experience and from what he learned, he wrote one of his most unique books in the world of psychology: The Twisted Lines of God.
“Particularly refined personalities are more vulnerable than the most coughy; just as a cup is more fragile, the higher the quality of the porcelain. “-God- twisted lines
The son of a family with a long journalistic tradition, Torcuato Luca de Tena y Brunet was born on June 9, 1923 in Madrid, his grandfather, Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena, had founded the famous magazine Blanco y Negro in 1891, and later the same would do with the newspaper ABC (1903) and the publishing group Prensa Española (1909).
Thanks to the work of his father, a diplomat by profession, the family lived in Chile for several years. It was there that the young Luca de Tena studied law, although he had never practiced this profession. By the age of 14 he had founded his own school newspaper and by the age of 18 published his first collection of poems. His passion was lyrics, not laws. Thus, on his return to Spain, he began his career in journalism.
With the advent of World War II, he worked as a press correspondent in London, then, after the war, covered various events in Washington, the former Middle East and Mexico, then, and unsurprisingly, began running the ABC newspaper. during his first involvement in politics.
Beginning in 1973, Torcuato Luca de Tena worked as a member of the Royal Academy Spain, his literary successes began to weave his history as a renowned literary, when he also produced brilliant works in the children’s and youth genre, such as La brjula loca, Pepa Niebla and El fabricar de sueos.
She won the Planeta Prize in 1961 for the book The Woman of the Other, as well as other distinctions such as the Fastenrath Prize of the Royal Academy spain in 1970 and the Sociedad Cervantina de Romance Award. The biography of Torcuato Luca de Tena ends with his death in Madrid, at the age of 75, on June 1, 1999.
Torcuato Luca de Tena presented to the field of psychology an almost essential novel, however, it is important to say that it is not an easy work to read, however, literary quality, added to the faithful portrait describing the underworld contained in the Psychiatric Hospitals of the time, make this work an absolute reference for all curious readers , as well as for all lovers of this genre.
It is important to say that the work has the foreword written by the psychiatrist Juan Antonio Vallejo-N’gera, in addition the book is dedicated to doctors, nurses, caregivers, security technicians and other professionals who care for the mentally ill in these centers. .
“This palace was reserved for the highest aristocracy of madness, the blue blood of riots, the great lines of madness. -God– twisted lines
The Lines of God Twisted tells the story of a woman, Alice Gould, a young woman who claims to be a detective and who, far from suffering from psychological disorders, voluntarily enters the psychiatric hospital, whose objective is to investigate a murder. a crime whose perpetrator is among the residents of the hospital.
Little by little, the protagonist establishes relationships with the entire complex? Fauna? Person who lives in the psychiatric center. She delves into their medical conditions, their problems, and the complex and dark anatomy of these institutions. The plot, as we see, leads us to the enigma of trying to find out if Alice is telling the truth or if she herself is a patient at the hospital.
Torcuato Luca de Tena lived 18 days in a psychiatric hospital in Mexico to better contextualize his history, was the hospital Nuestra Seora de la Fuentecilla, where about 800 patients lived, did he want to use the metaphor of cake or spelling errors?to refer to the mentally ill person who, by his condition, seems, at first glance, to be a “mistake” made by God at the time of creation.
Say? Because Luca de Tena wrote this book with a very specific objective: to give dignity to the sick, the intention was to make the world understand that mental illness is not a spelling error, but a complex part of our society that deserves more attention. , better treatment, more respect and, above all, to be seen with a more accurate look.
God’s twisted lines is a book that follows the approach of antipsychiatry, through Alice Gould’s eyes we can have a closer relationship with people whose sense of humanity has been taken away by the institution and who have become prisoners and hyperactive. -medium beings.
Torcuato Luca de Tena uses a very polite language in which humor is not lacking, allowing him to perfectly delineate each character, allowing them to oscillate between madness and lucidity, fragility and greatness, the human and the tragic.
In the book we find such sublime characters as La mujer ceclope, the twins Rumulo and Remo, Charito López or Ignacio Urquieta, all of them represent a psychological profile, a mental illness, however, it is worth mentioning that it is a portrait of an era, more precisely in the late 1970s, when it was still possible to find obsolete (and pejorative) terms such as oligofreny.
It doesn’t matter that it’s been almost forty years since it was published. This intense and original book draws the line between our society and the shadows of the world of psychological disorders. It is always a good time to discover good works, especially those that offer a message on which we must reflect.