ABSTRACT
Psycho-analysis has revealed how closely they correspond with individual phantasies. A very impressive counterpart to the meaning of the triad is contained in Jacob Grimm's fairy-tale of 'The Wishing Table, the Gold Ass, and Cudgel in the Sack'. Only he obtains his father's recognition on his return. The frequent occurrence of the triad in the various products of human phantasy has long been familiar. The fairy-tale thus confirms the experience of reality that it is not by infantile phantasies of an oral or anal character that a boy attains maturity, but only through the successful establishment of genital primacy. What is particularly instructive, however, is the symbolism of the triad. The version of the trifurcation, the place of heavy traffic, clearly represents the mother as a prostitute; the encounter in the narrow pass gives expression to another phantasy, that of encountering the father inside the mother's body before birth; the phantasy of observing coitus from within the womb.
