The author underlines some of the principal threads of the rich and stimulating letters that Bion wrote to Rickman, for example the thread that will allow him to create the concept of “analytic field”; the thread that lies behind the value he gave to working in the here-and-now of the session; and the thread connected to Rickman's use of a basically paternal code. From another point of view, these letters also allow us to recognise, beyond their real and their dream dimensions, the dimension connected to Bion's attempt to elaborate his transference to Rickman, which was abruptly cut short and kept bleeding.