This article investigates the emotional and psychosocial scope behind the writing of Cautiverio feliz by Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán, proposing that leaving his personal experience in writing and offering it as a paradigm of the “ideal” servant to the interests of the Crown was a way of coming to terms with himself and resolving his vital contradiction. An upright and exemplary man, he had a suffered in life, and according to his subjective vision, his suffering totally undeserved. In this sense, his writing practice might have given him some comfort in conceiving it and projecting it as a symbolic resolution of this paradox, and thus somewhat appeasing his bitterness, freeing him from the deep discomfort that was eating away at his spirit from the frustration and anger that he felt for not being all that he thought he could have been and deserved to be.Este artículo indaga los alcances emocionales y psicosociales detrás de la redacción de Cautiverio feliz de Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán, planteando que dejar por escrito su experiencia personal y ofrecerla como paradigma del servidor “ideal” a los intereses de la Corona fue una manera de conciliarse consigo mismo y resolver su contradicción vital ‒un hombre íntegro y ejemplar que tuvo una vida sufrida y, de acuerdo con su subjetiva visión, por completo inmerecida‒. En ese sentido, su acto de escritura le pudo brindar cierto consuelo al concebirlo y proyectarlo como una resolución simbólica de esta paradoja, y así apaciguar en algo su amargura, liberarlo del hondo malestar que corroía su espíritu producto de la frustración y rabia que le significó no haber sido todo lo que, según él, pudo y merecía ser.