In 1921 Arthur Schnitzler extracted from and worked over dream descriptions he had transcribed into his diary, in order to constitute a separate body of texts. Thus emerged a discrete compilation – the “dream” file – whose use its author planned for it stays unknown. Long after Schnitzler’s death, however, in 2012, an editorial project took hold of these texts and presented them as a dream diary. This paper presents a critical analysis of Schnitzler’s dreams by putting them back into their original context, as part of his diary, which he started to hold at the end of the 19th century, and of its relationship to psychoanalysis. The example of the “dream” file thus puts into question the relationship and the differences between writing and publishing Schnitzler’s dreams, and those between fictional dreams – as in Traumnovelle ( La Nouvelle rêvée or Rhapsody/Dream Story/Eyes Wide Shut) – and personal dreams.