I do not intend to write an autobiography, a genre I consider both conventional and misleading. I would like only to attempt to gather and present some elements for a self-sociological analysis. I do not hide my awe, which surpasses the usual fear of misunderstanding.

Adopting the analyst's perspective, I am compelled (and simultaneously allow myself) to retain all the elements that are of sociological interest, those that are necessary for interpretation and sociological understanding, and only those. I also do not intend, as one might assume, through this approach to impose my own interpretation. On the contrary, I aim to present this experience, articulated with as much honesty as I can, to the field of critical scrutiny, as if it were any other object.

The Draft for a self-analysis develops under the phrase "This is not an autobiography." True to the principle of reflection that guided his scientific research throughout his life, Bourdieu here, as a final challenge, makes himself the object of his research method and focuses both on the critical moments of his own scientific journey and on the field within which this journey was shaped.

The Draft, which is an expanded and revised version of the last chapter of Science of Science and Reflexivity, was first published in German, because the author believed that the analysis of the French field of intellectualism that he attempts in this work should first be read by readers who were not part of that field. A text that combines emotion and intellectual daring, the Draft was written by Pierre Bourdieu between October and December 2001, the last three months, that is, before the death of the great French sociologist.