This study had a threefold purpose: (1) to focus on the very young asthmatic (fourteen to thirty months) and to evaluate the child's autonomous and self-assertive strivings; (2) to study the mother-child relationship as a transactional, reciprocal process of mutual adaptation; and (3) to look for a possible relationship between allergic factors and the psychological variables. We evaluated forty asthmatic children and their mothers, following an observational methodology, both at home and in the hospital. The results led us to question the theory of a "psychosomatic type" of mother-child relationship in childhood asthma as well as the inverse reciprocity between allergy and psychopathology which has been described in the literature. The implications of this study for pediatric and child psychiatric practice and for future research are also described.