An identical twin in his sixties recently told me that his parents were fiercely proud of him and his brother because they stood up for one another and closed ranks. I looked up the meaning of close ranks—it means to “unite, work together” or “unite in a concerted stand especially to meet a challenge.” I was struck by my patient using this phrase because he and his twin are presently in the midst of a horrific rift. They were singularly […]

I recently talked with an identical twin in her late twenties who shared an interesting conversation she had with two female cousins a few weeks prior. The three of them were talking about weddings, and my patient, Mary, told them her sister would be her maid of honor along with her best friend. Her cousins looked at her with astonishment and inquired, “But isn’t your twin your best friend?” Mary was taken aback for a moment. She had forgotten that […]

Young twins are sometimes bullied because others perceive them as different or cliquish. So, I was surprised to hear from a pair of identical twin women in their forties who reached out to me for help with this dilemma. While I am not certain I was helpful, I did find their circumstances eye-opening. Both women felt that being twins evoked intense discrimination from peers, work colleagues, friends, and romantic partners. They described numerous experiences where they were bullied, ridiculed, and […]

A friend of mine who is the mother of six-year-old twins shared a lovely story about one of her daughters. Her daughter’s first-grade class had a lesson about pollution, and her daughter wrote a few sentences about how she felt so sorry that fish have to swim in dirty water. Her daughter’s teacher told my friend that she has never encountered such an empathic response from such a young child. Having been raised in such close proximity—emotionally and physically—to their […]

The title of this blog post is the Spanish equivalent of nature versus nurture. I recently attended a virtual presentation hosted by LAISPS (Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies) that featured speakers discussing their perspectives on twin development. I feel that most professionals accept the mutual confluence of genetic and environmental factors in the formation of personality and psychological well-being. While I am interested in heritability statistics because they provide a generalized overview, my professional expertise focuses on […]