[Archivos de Neurobiología: seventy five years of Spanish psychiatry]

One might consider that the first Spanish psychiatrists were a group of alienists, that have been forgotten for many years, who worked in isolated conditions in the asylums of the 19th Century. On the other hand, there were a group of personalities, university professors specialised in other disciplines, that were not psychiatrists but had a much greater influence than the former during the early stages of the development of Spanish psychiatry as a differentiated medical speciality. This development was produced (considerably later than in other European countries) in two successive stages: a preliminary one, with local or aborted institutions (from the 15th Century to the year 1919) and a further one, with institutions that extended throughout the entire country, and were developed between 1920 and 1936. These national institutions were the ones that defined the beginning of Spanish psychiatry. The first one, that appeared in January of 1920, was the journal Archivos de Neurobiología, that related each other, stimulated and served as on organ of expression to the remaining institutions that established this specialty. Finally, a summary is offered of the characteristics and the historical evolution of this journal emblematic of Spanish psychiatry, that is currently commemorating its 75th anniversary.