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“Imaginative writers are valuable colleagues … In the knowledge of the human heart they are far ahead of us common folk, because they draw on sources that we have not yet made accessible to science.”
If there is any need to justify the psychiatric analysis of a literary work, Freud's statement would be a most elegant defense. In this specific case, the analysis of the play Henry IV by Luigi Pirandello is justified by personal interests stimulated by reading two recently published books, A Home for the Heart by Bruno Bettelheim (1973), and The Will to be Human by Silvano Arieti (1972). Both books, in fact, make mention of Pirandello's play. Bettelheim cites it as a particular literary example of how destructive it can be for a psychotic to have his real life organized to meet his delusional expectations. Arieti, on the other hand, sees it in a broader context, emphasizing the similarities between Pirandello's literary creations and the playwright's own real psychological make up. Both reveal deep pessimism and a consequent renunciation of coming to grips with the hazards of life. This renunciation leads the characters to accept falsehood as a way of life and the author to embrace Fascism.
The European background of Arieti and Bettelheim has perhaps fostered their familiarity with Pirandello's work. I believe, however, that the play because of its thematic content presents an unusual psychiatric interest.
In my opinion, the cues and intimations given by the author entice us to re-examine some aspects of the phenomenon of delusional thinking.
A brief summary of the dramatic actions follows for those not familiar with the play.
The drama takes place at the turn of the century, in a solitary