The Internal Triangle:
New Theories of Female Development (2007)
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.
[Amazon.com]
New Theories of Female Development (2007)
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.
[Amazon.com]
Reviews:
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? --Louis R. Ormont, Ph.D., faculty, Postgraduate
Psychotherapy Center, Adelphi University; author of The Group Therapy Experience |
creative and articulate --Ruth Watson Lubic, recipient
of the 1993 MacArthur Genius Award The most important work about women since Helene Deutsch's "Psychology of Women." --Robert J. Marshall, author of
The Transference- Countertransference Matrix |
