In her introduction Lucy Holmes states that psychoanalytic theory offers no account of the psychosexual development of women other than a negative one. Holmes felt more was involved and hypothesized the internal triangle wherein little girls incorporate the maternal object to gain mastery over the mother. According to Holmes we cannot prove the theory of the internal triangle. We develop a theory by listening to what our patients say, then we study whether what they say confirms or discredits our theory. Good theories help us understand our patients.

Holmes writes that women have three developmental crises—menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. In the oedipal period the female uses introjection to internalize the father, thereby subduing the powerful maternal introject.