The question of history is a lively one in psychoanalysis today. On the one hand, the advocates of narrative (Schafer, 1983; Spence, 1982) question whether there is a history in the positivist sense, and on the other hand the followers of Kohut want to revive the idea that our patients suffer from real past events (Ornstein, 1983). Through a close reading of Freud's “Wolf-Man,” his most extensive clinical examination of the question of history, I elaborate some of what I believe are the inevitable conflicts and contradictions in the psychoanalytic attempt to establish a history. I conclude with some thoughts about why history is so important to us.