Cyclic Creation Dependency ?

Hi all,

Can anyone explain to me why the copy constructor of the COuterClass is
getting called for this one? Let me start by saying I reckon this is
seriously bad way of implementing anything of the sort, we have a way
around this. I am simply trying to understand the order or creation and
the reason for the call to the COuterClass copy constructor. Any help
would be seriously appreciated. Thanks in advance.

class COuterClass;

//=============================================================================
//
// CInnerClass
//
//=============================================================================
class CInnerClass
{
public:
    COuterClass* theOuterClass;

    explicit CInnerClass( COuterClass* pOuterClass ) :
        theOuterClass( pOuterClass )
    {
        cout << "CInnerClass( COuterClass* pOuterClass )" << endl;
    }
private:
    CInnerClass( ){};
    CInnerClass( const CInnerClass& rhs){};
    const CInnerClass& operator=( const CInnerClass& rhs ) {};
};

//=============================================================================
//
// COuterClass
//
//=============================================================================
class COuterClass
{
public:
    CInnerClass theInnerClass;

    COuterClass( ) :
        theInnerClass( this )
    {
        cout << "COuterClass( )" << endl;
    };

private:

    COuterClass( const COuterClass& rhs ){};
    const COuterClass& operator=( const COuterClass& rhs ) {};
};

int main( ... )
{
   COuterClass theOuterClass;
}

the error I am getting is :

--------------------Configuration: CyclicDependency - Win32
Debug--------------------
Compiling...
CyclicDependency.cpp
C:\Temp\CyclicDependency\CyclicDependency.cpp(54) : warning C4355:
'this' : used in base member initializer list
C:\Temp\CyclicDependency\CyclicDependency.cpp(61) : error C2248:
'CInnerClass::CInnerClass' : cannot access private member declared in
class 'CInnerClass'
        C:\Temp\CyclicDependency\CyclicDependency.cpp(38) : see
declaration of 'CInnerClass::CInnerClass'
Error executing cl.exe.

CyclicDependency.exe - 1 error(s), 1 warning(s)