The Internal Triangle: New Theories of Female Development

This book presents the first new theory of female development based on drive theory since Helene Deutsch's Psychology of Women in 1945. Holmes posits an "internal triangle"-an intrapsychic structure unique to female development. Consisting of mother and father introjects in relation to the self, it is set up on a fantasy level to help girls separate from and gain control over early objects. In this way, it functions for the girl like the penis does for the boy. Integration and realignment of the triangle, Holmes argues, occur at adolescence, during pregnancy and childbirth, at menopause and even in old age.