Freud followed and facilitated the gradual unfolding of Little Hans's developmental course. His concomitant recognition of the transformations of antecedent components into the Oedipal constellation lifted the developmental point of view into a fundamental orienting perspective. Among other things, this orientation emphasized the complex interaction between internal readiness and external events. The apparently narrow focus of the treatment may have provided the very conditions necessary to discover a new therapeutic approach for disorders in childhood along with a new concept of psychological growth.