MDDM Ch. 32 Twins (children again)

[David Morris]

http://www.twinsmagazine.com/sample_1.shtml

Am I an I or a We?
Helping twins to be individuals
by Lynn Perlman, Ph.D.

[...]
As a psychologist working with twins, I have found that twins express a wide 
range of ideas about twinship and individuality. Some confess to believing 
that, separated, they are less than a whole human being and together they 
are an unusually powerful human being. There is also a frequent theme of 
"good" twin and "evil" twin, as if in their separation one became the 
embodiment of good and the other of evil. Some twins report a fear that 
parents confused their identities as newborns, and that they will never know 
who is really who. Some describe their twin as the other side of them. Still 
others say that when they want to be by themselves it really means they want 
to be with their twin.

In developmental psychology and psychoanalysis we learn that separateness 
and difference between self and other is a slowly evolving understanding. 
According to this premise, we all begin life as a whole, undifferentiated 
from others, knowing no demarcation of self and other. As we develop 
psychologically, we come to understand that we are indeed differentiated and 
split off from what we once were a part of.

When some people see identical twins, they may have an uneasy feeling that 
stems from an unconscious memory of not being fully differentiated. They may 
recognize a wish to be able to exist as an individual and yet to not do so. 
In other words, in twins, people can see the possibility of eliminating the 
pain and loneliness of individuality while still remaining individual. This 
potential may explain the world's fascination with twins. Even twins 
themselves feel this fascination


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