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The author uses three images from the film Cries and Whispers to differentiate mythical and iconic images from beautiful and aesthetic images. What is said about them also applies to words. These four types are found in the discourses of analysands and it is useful to distinguish them in order to make good use of one and to avoid the pitfalls of the others. Examples are given to illustrate this. The mythical image refers to myths that belong to our culture as much as to childhood: the pietà, death, Nothingness, the walls, wandering, the cry… The violence of its eruption, like that of the beautiful image, introduces a break in the continuity of the patient’s discourse and the analyst’s listening, and fleetingly attracts them further on to the other stage. The violent, iconic image, a fixed object, without polysemy, caught in the current ideological or commercial cultural stock, seeks to convince without discussion. The aesthetic image, which also has a defensive aim, seeks to seduce the analyst, to lull his vigilance.