Laufer states that the theory of phallic monism has been discredited by recent developments, and he asks that the consequences of that rejection for psychoanalytic theory be defined. In this paper he discusses the girl's awareness of her body as a container with openings and the expression of this awareness in later development. Laufer defines the girl's task as relinquishing the libidinal tie to the mother without having to find a symptomatic compromise through identification with the father or a masochistic submission to him. In other words, can the father and, later, other men be allowed into the space between the girl and her mother, or will his presence be felt as a threat which comes between her and her mother. It is the awareness of her body and the accompanying fantasies that determine the girl's ability to detach herself from her mother.