[2] As Malan himself acknowledged, he drew the concept of his triangles from previous analytic writings (albeit combining in the process very different aspects of the tradition).
The American Freudian Karl Menninger - building on Franz Alexander's concept of the totalizing transference interpretation, which linked past experience, life context and the analytic setting – set out what he called the triangle of insight,[3] involving the three poles of analyst, past significant others, and present significant others.
Malan himself claimed that “between them they can be used to represent almost every intervention that a therapist makes...skill consists in knowing which part of which triangle to include at any given moment”.
Much interpretation using the triangles concerns illuminating defences and current relationships, with reference to the unconscious feelings and personal transferences underlying them.
[8] They are also employed as vade mecum in introducing the principles and practice of dynamic therapy to trainee therapists or experienced professionals who need to "unlearn" the tendency to help, advise, prescribe, and begin to acquire a new set of skills.