Noting in Freud a substantial convergence between causal relations and sense relations, the author provides an explanation of how this convergence comes about. His aim is to reply to some objections on the part of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and psychopathology, which charge Freud with confusing causal relations and sense relations. To this end, this paper introduces the semiotic notion of code and addresses some essential conditions that make the above mentioned convergence possible. Finally, the paper focuses on Grünbaum's criticism that free associations are not at all proof of causal relations, and contrasts it to the thesis of the relevance of free associations understood as clues or as “circumstantial evidence.”

The purpose of this article is to show the necessity of going beyond the rigid dichotomy between the humanities and the natural sciences; in particular for psychoanalysis, but also for scientific developments in general.