Re-examining a classic paper by K. R. Eissler forty years after its publication recalled for the author his own “origins” in psycho- analysis in the same period, allowing a vivid context in which to view Eissler's contribution. Eissler's attempt to maintain a disciplined clinical position based on the structural theory as the foundation for psychoanalysis as a science, in the face of many proposed changes in both technique and theory in the decade after Freud's death, made many analysts refer to this paper as a kind of bible for the orthodox. This revisit attempts to explore the questions of how and why such a characterization of this paper has taken place.