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This paper discusses the nature of the relations between Freud and Brentano, and the possible influence of the philosopher on the development of Freud’s subsequent thinking. The historical evidence, directly linked to the documents, shows Freud’s sustained interest in Brentano during the period of his university studies. The destruction of his documents in 1885 seems to have erased all other traces. Contrary to Freud’s other intellectual supports, Brentano, like Maudsley, seems to have been erased in Freud’s subsequent career. The indirect evidence, linked to the adoption by Freud of certain propositions of Brentano in his book Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (1874), is elaborated from two angles: the empirical approach to the psychic object and the specific nature of this object. The most sensitive influence is to be found on the side of the adoption of the path of language, at the technical and theoretical levels, for exploring the transformations linked to psychic work. It is there, moreover, that Freud’s only mention of Brentano, in 1905, is to be found in his subsequent work.