A careful review of the Dora case refutes the commonly held view that it reflects Freud's adoption of his classical oedipal model. Through Dora, Freud examined some of the theoretical and emotional underpinnings of the seduction theory and began a complex and very gradual move toward an oedipal model, never reaching his classical formulation. The transitional nature of this case allows for an understanding of some of Freud's difficulties in adopting the oedipal model and the considerations that, nevertheless, eventually determined the move. How and why this was overlooked in all later studies of the case has important implications for the process of development of psychoanalytic theory and the writing of its history.