Dr. Meg Jay, author of The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now discusses the notion of “weak ties” in her enlightening book about young adults. She postulates that twentysomethings who are attempting to define themselves both professionally and personally should reach out to those people they do not know well to help find opportunities for growth and development. While it may seem counterintuitive, she states her argument as follows: Weak ties are […]
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Adolescence and Stories
I mentioned Meg Jay’s book in my last post and want to focus on it again here. In her book The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now she touches upon many issues that have relevance to twins’ emotional development. Since our most self-defining memories begin in adolescence, Dr. Jay contends that this developmental stage represents our first attempt to formulate life stories. She asked many of her patients to recall memories or stories […]
The Big Five
The “big five” in the world of psychology refers to five personality traits that describe how people interact with the world. (If you happen to be on a safari in Africa, the “big five” refers to the animals that you hope to spot during your safari drives—lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhinoceros.) The personality traits are as follows: Openness Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism Dr. Meg Jay discusses these dynamics and what they mean in her book The Defining Decade: Why […]
Painting Twins with Different Brushes
Leora Eisen is the writer and producer of a documentary film that recently aired on Canadian television. The film, called Two of a Kind, portrays her life experience with her identical twin sister, Linda, who tragically passed away a few years ago and depicts interviews and discussions with world-renowned scientists and researchers who study how identical twins are different rather than alike. The film helps to explain why Linda died from leukemia, and Leora remains healthy in spite of sharing […]
Two Different Worlds
I have been thinking about two sessions I had recently with two different twin clients—both struggling with twin loss, physically and emotionally. One woman has been attempting to work through her grief about the death of her twin sister, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack a few months ago. My client and her sister were incredibly close. Although they were both married with careers and children, they spoke every day and saw one another frequently. They shared an inexplicable […]