In this presentation I will provide some insights I gathered during my dissertational research on the historical development of the virtual particle concept. Starting out from the hypothesis that one of the prime functions of this notion is the role it plays in a causal narrative that allows for the construction of the mathematical representation of physical effects and their higher order corrections, I try to show how a similar narrative emerged and was received roughly through the years 1927 to 1936. Starting out with a reconstruction of Dirac’s introduction of a processual description based on his time-dependent perturbation theory, I will follow its reception, taking into account its verbal, mathematical, and diagrammatical representation while also providing explanations of initial misconceptions. In principle, I will argue that the narrative based on the method of (time-dependent) perturbation theory and the conceptualization of quantum electrodynamics of the time provided a means for an intuitive handling of the corresponding mathematical structures, especially when approaching higher order effects like light-by-light scattering. Nevertheless, as the example of light quantum splitting as proposed by Otto Halpern (1933) shows, the missing of a clear and complete set of rules for its application still held the possibility of being led astray.