Customer Reviews

Not All Twins Are Alike: Psychological Profiles of Twinship

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Dr. Klein's book provided a good supplement to my quest for twin knowledge. Her study shows how twins, both identical and fraternal, can be very different and offers reasons why this happens. Being an identical twin myself, I related to her views about the importance of equal treatment, especially when she discussed "share punishment" when only one twin caused an incident of mischief. She states, and rightfully so, that parents of twins have a more difficult job than those of singletons.

I did get the impression that the author thinks environment wins out handily over genetics in determining who we are, i.e., nature loses to nurture. Further, parenting seems to be the dominant nurturing force according to her. I partially agree but this is all too simplistic. Other, more deeply researched publications indicate that a much more complex environmental and genetic mix is at work in determining who we really are.

Her suggestion (conclusion) on page 108 that fraternal twins are as close as identical is not valid based upon the very limited sample she studied. This conclusion, I think, was a shot at Dr. Nancy Segal's book, Entwined Lives, (which is still the best twin book around) and is probably aimed at creating a professional separation from other twin experts. Entwined Lives goes into great detail about likeness factors of twins, both fraternal and identical, normal siblings and others. Segal's research base is voluminous. Dr. Segal's book remains the best discussion of twins especially with regard to the nurture-nature debate.

I liked how Dr. Klein discussed the four types of twin relationships and how these affect our adult lives and could see some of those traits in me as an adult twin. The pages discussing twins in psychoanalysis reveal a lot of how individual twins can be affected by their twinship. This is the strength of her book and almost any twin will find this information insightful.

There are some aspects of this book that I found very illuminating, but as a fraternal twin there are several statements presented as fact that are absolutely false. I suspect that she is viewing all her data through the lens of her experience as an identical twin and as a woman. Furthermore, her data set of 30 twin pairs is far too small to encompass all the possible twin combinations and relationship dynamics. I enjoyed several parts of the book, but some conclusions need to be taken lightly. Also, she mostly ignores the differences between boys and girls when examining twin patterns.