Joseph offers a look at Little Hans from a developmental perspective. He emphasizes the role of frequent enemas, of exposure to bedroom scenes and to the birth of a sibling, and of the mother's threats and seductiveness, in interfering with normal separation-individuation processes. He suggests that the phobic object, besides representing the oedipal rival, also stands for the "castrating preoedipal mother." In the treatment, Hans was able to see his father as an ally to help him through preoedipal difficulties.