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Despite several articles and texts on the subject, Freud’s so-called self-ana-lysis continues to be considered as being at the origin of psychoanalysis. We will show first the deadlock of such a conception, after which we will go on to clarify the meaning behind what Freud called his Selbstanalyse. We have marked out three moments in the way he speaks of it in his correspondence with Fliess. In a second time it becomes the representative of a turning point which marks a change in discourse, in the Lacanian sense of the term, and more precisely, which marks the passage from the hysterical discourse to the analytical discourse. Achange in discourse which is tantamount to a passage to the letter, in the two meanings of the word : missive and literal. We bring to the fore the specific status of Freud’s letters to Fliess, the particularities of their publication, their circulation and their role in the analytical movement.