This essay offers an epistemological reflection on the ways composers’ discursive and self-critical skills can be embedded in artistic research. Composers’ taste for theorising through treatises and manifestos has consistently receded over the last quarter of the 20th century, but their aptitude at reflecting on their art has not: ‘self-analysis’ became a valuable alternative to the devising of compositional theories. In the 21st century, using self-analysis as a tool for (scientific or artistic) research is both needed and challenging, as recent debates in psychology and phenomenology show.