The aim of this article is to highlight the gradual emergence of a method for psychoanalysts to approach the history of psychoanalysis. Some of its parameters have been maturing for a long time; others are more recent. A re-reading of some of the major historians of this discipline provides an opportunity to draw attention to their contributions. The history of psychoanalysis is linked to repeated traumas. The process of working through these traumas gave rise to the first comprehensive histories of psychoanalysis. The arrival on the scene of new authors, particularly from Austria and Germany, and the contribution of new archives, makes the definition of methods for establishing a history of psychoanalysis that is both global and based on objective elements a necessity.