It is a basic psychoanalytic conception that mental disorders find their origin in psychotraumatic experiences of the past. Also, from different sides in psychoanalytic literature, the idea has been elaborated that an important aspect of the task of the analyst consists in the creation of a meaningful life history, integrating the past and the present of the analysand. In this sense the psychoanalyst may be considered as an author.

It is interesting to notice that these ideas join the unconscious meaning we can detect in the play Six Characters in Search of an Author by Pirandello. From a psychoanalytic point of view we consider the characters as personifications of different levels of mental distress, wanting to have their lives completed by the creation of a meaningful life history. Arguments in favour of this assumption are based on the content of the play, the comment in the later added preface and some biographical data on the author.