The Internal Triangle: New Theories of Female Development

Based on over twenty years of clinical work with women, both individually and in groups, The Internal Triangle represents the first attempt by a woman to use Freud's drive theory to explain female development since Helene Deutsch's two-volume Psychology of Women in 1945. It presents a completely new hypothesis about the way girls use the introjection of parental figures much in the way that boys utilize the penis: to separate from powerful early objects and to gain control and mastery. The author offers an innovative new theory about how the female personality and the qualities associated with femininity develop, utilizing a fantasy internal triangle of mother, father and self. It follows development through the major milestones of the female life cycle: preoedipal, adolescence, childbirth, and menopause, with vivid clinical material illustrating each of the author's ideas. The second half of the book focuses on clinical data and technique which will aid therapists in working with women individually and in groups.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Internal Triangle: New Theories of Female Development Chapter 3 The Object Within: Childbirth as a Developmental Milestone Chapter 4 Menopause and Beyond: The Emerging Self Chapter 5 What Do Women Want: An Answer Chapter 6 Women in Group and Women's Groups Chapter 7 Playing in a Women's Group Chapter 8 Hell Hath No Fury: How Women Seek Revenge Chapter 9 The Mind of the Mother

About the Author :
Lucy Holmes, Ph.D. is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. She is president of the Society of Modern Psychoanalysts, and a member of the faculty at the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies and the Center for Group Studies in New York. She lectures all over the country and has published numerous articles on psychoanalysis and female development, one of which, The Object Within: Childbirth as a Developmental Milestone, won the Gradiva Award for best article of 2002, presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

Review :
A consideration of the role of drives and fantasy in female development in light of the advances in the sciences and psychoanalytic thought, The Internal Triangle makes coherent the disparate knowledge being advanced, in language unencumbered by jargon and obtuseness. Holmes's book will stir both the clinician and the lay person to reconsider their ideas of what is female. Lucy Holmes has made a groundbreaking contribution to the psychoanalytic literature about women. The Internal Triangle illuminates the process of how intelligent hypotheses are developed by listening with an intuitive ear to what our patients actually say to us. Holmes' work with women in groups demonstrates the use of immediacy and progressive emotional communication so crucial to a well-functioning group. The case studies read like short stories; the women she works with come alive on the page.this is a book that will appeal not only to mental health practitioners who want to understand how to work with their female patients, but also to anyone who has ever wanted a thoughtful answer to Freud's question, What do women want?> Dr. Holmes has provided an innovative and useful theory of female development and psychology from an integrated feminist and Freudian perspective. Using the concept of penis envy as a starting point, she examines recent feminist psychoanalytic theories and research to demonstrate how little girls traverse roads to healthy femininity. Throughout the book, Holmes weaves in rich and vivid clinical material to illustrate her hypotheses. She introduces women of all ages who, with humor and eloquence, articulate their deepest experiences. The Internal Triangle is the most important work about women written by a psychoanalyst with a drive orientation since Helene Deutsch's Psychology of Women. This synthesizing and unique work deserves the careful attention of all psychoanalytically advised cliniclans as well as students of female psychology. Lucy Holmes has written an insigntful book which puts a "face," through her group-work experience, on the psychological dynamics of women's development throughout their lifespan. She has been especially creative and articulate about the effects of childbearing, which, when guided with insight and compassion on the part of the attendant, can have a critical and positive effect on women's parenting role as well as that of the family constellation. Therapists working with pregnant women will benefit enormously from her words. Lucy Holmes has made a groundbreaking contribution to the psychoanalytic literature about women. The Internal Triangle illuminates the process of how intelligent hypotheses are developed by listening with an intuitive ear to what our patients actually say to us. Holmes' work with women in groups demonstrates the use of immediacy and progressive emotional communication so crucial to a well-functioning group. The case studies read like short stories; the women she works with come alive on the page. this is a book that will appeal not only to mental health practitioners who want to understand how to work with their female patients, but also to anyone who has ever wanted a thoughtful answer to Freud's question, What do women want?