Pollock reviews the work of a German sociologist and contemporary of Freud, Georg Simml, regarding the behavior of groups consisting of one, two, or three people, called isolate (monad), dyad, and triad. The author then juxtaposes this frame of reference with the psychoanalytic situation, examining the vicissitudes of object relations that occur in transference neurosis during analysis. He believes that the perspective of the psychosocial framework allows for further understanding of psychic development and the therapeutic process.