Two lovely twenty-two-year-old identical twin girls (whom I will refer to as J and G) found me via my website. They are seniors in college, both pursuing the same degree. J told me that she and her sister have been fighting constantly. They are both unhappy living with each other. They have lived together for most of their college years. Both began freshmen year living with different roommates; however, by the second semester of sophomore year, the girls moved in […]
Category Archives: Psychology
Thoughts About the Play My Sister
Recently, I attended a production of the play My Sister at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles. Written by playwright Janet Schlapkohl, My Sister is a story about identical twin sisters who come to Berlin in the 1930s to realize their dream of becoming a successful actress and writer team. Emily and Elizabeth Hinkler are identical twin sisters and superb actresses in this searing drama. The character Matilde suffers from what appears to be cerebral palsy. Nonetheless, she is a […]
Give Credit Where and When It’s Due
A friend of mine shared a story about her seven-year-old twin girls that highlights how important it is to enlighten people who work with twins about appropriate management of the twin connection. She told me that one of her daughters clearly excels in the gymnastics class that she attends with her twin sister. Mom is convinced that the gym teacher has not moved her daughter to the next level because her twin sister has not demonstrated the required skill to […]
Guatemala Dreamin’
I recently returned from a glorious ten-day trip to Guatemala. The idea of the trip was sparked about a year and a half ago though an Internet exchange I had with a psychologist from Guatemala City researching twin issues. Beatriz Cadena de Schwank was treating an eight-year-old twin in her practice and sought a consultation. She belongs to a private mental health group that she founded with six other women colleagues about five years ago. Their practice is called Proyecto […]
Without You, Who Am I?
Recently I have been troubled by the many calls I have received from twins having difficulty coping without their sibling. A while ago, a young man in his early thirties shared his twin dilemma. He poignantly related that he does not miss his brother in a physical sense because he lives just a few hours away; rather, he misses the way he feels about himself when his brother is around—calm, secure, and confident. This pair of identical twin men had […]