'Between the devil and the deep blue sea': the dyad and the triad in psychoanalytic thought.

This paper examines the limitations of the dyad as the prevailing conceptual model in psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice, and proposes the triad as a more relevant model. From an ontological perspective, triangulation is regarded as essential in the development of self-experience in psychic space. The Oedipus complex is visualised as a culminating event in a continuum of triadic experience rather than as the singular gravitational centerpiece of development. The role of the triad and triangulation in child development and clinical technique is discussed, with the phenomenon of 'tracking' selected to illustrate the limitations of an exclusively dyadic clinical focus.