When an analyst listens, he or she stands at the confluence of contradictory influences between what the patient’s words paint as images and those suggested to him or her by his or her own imagination. Talking about images and opening oneself up to this specific language is therefore a delicate matter, because words cannot fully capture this sensory influence. Aby Warburg’s astonishing and polysemous work is a welcome illustration of how fragments can be used to understand the psychic life of the session. This work was created at the beginning of the twentieth century and is contemporary with the Freudian approach. The article is intended as a discursive journey that follows the thread of his productions, first presenting a biographical and intellectual overview, then developing elements of a Warburg lexicon around key concepts, and finally considering the possible relationships between Freud and Warburg.