Customer Reviews

Twins: And What They Tell Us About Who We Are

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An open-minded reading of this book will change the way you think about yourself and everyone you know. It's not just about identical twins, but about all of us, and what makes us who we are. I've read many books about twin research, and this is the best.

This is a unique book, a book that worth its weight in gold. All parents should read this book. All politicians and policy-makers should read this book. All school teachers should read this book. All social scientists should read this book. Why? Because this is the book that could end all debates on nature vs. nurture.

Identical twins are, in a sense, best gifts nature can give us to understand about ourselves especially if they were reared apart. This affords us to investigate whether environments and socioeconomic backgrounds, or the genetics have greater or major influence over our personalities, political and religious inclinations and so on.

This book mainly details studies done by Dr. Peter Neubauer (chapters 1 and 3 -- four sets of identical twins plus one set of identical triplets) and Dr. Thomas J. Bouchard (chapter 4 -- sixty six pairs of identical twins and two sets of identical triplets). Other major studies were also cited in this book.

The amazing conclusion from these studies showed that despite the different socioeconomic backgrounds and environments these twins and triplets were raised, they have, in many, many aspects, become the same person. This proves that nurture has very little to do with forming our personality, interests, inclinations, etc. and that nature is the dominate factor. Here is a quote from the last chapter of this book:

"We think we are born with the potential to be many things, and to behave in an infinite variety of ways, and that we consciously navigate a path through the obstacles and opportunities that life presents us with, through a faculty we called freewill. But when we read about twins who have been separated at birth and reunited in middle age only to discover that in many respects, they have become the same person. It suggests that ... The experiences that we presume have shaped us are little more than ornaments or curiosities we have picked up along the way and that the injunctions of our parents or the traumas of our youth that we believed to have been the lodestones of our character may have had little more effect on us than a book we may have read or a show we have seen on television ... Twin studies, have made a persuasive case that much of our identity is stamped on us from conception; to that extent, our lives seem to be pre-chosen -- all we have to do is live out the script that is written in our genes."

This book forces us to contemplate on the following important issues:

1. The government -- What are the roles of the government? What social programs government should drop and what new ones to add?
2. The education -- How to reshape and restructure?
3. Parenting -- How to raise children?
4. Social sciences and psychology -- What fields are invalidated by these studies and what fields are vindicated?
5. Political theories -- What fields are invalidated and validated?

This book provides proof for the perennial "Environment vs Genes" debate about humankind and personal destiny. After reading this book, I have come around 180 degrees - it's genes. Stories of separated twins leading essentially parallel lives are so compelling, that I realized that we are all propelled through our lives by personality. Our individual fates are controlled mostly by our abilities and instincts than by the conditions of our life. Those abilities and instincts are largely genetic. Far from being a kind of predestination, this frees us to live fully through our personalities, our selves. It frees us from the myth that we are victims of fate - we, our instincts and our abilities are all its shapers.

Frankly, if this book does change your view on who you are, you are not paying attention. Authoritative and even handed, the author raises questions that will stay with you long after the book is finished. One of the most absorbing books I've read in a long time (and I read a lot!).

Contains many interesting insights into twin behaviour and genetics. Wright shows not only the similarities between twins we'd expect but the differences too. However her writing lacks criticality and depth of understanding.

The book failed to address a few issues. While it discusses genetics factors at great length it fails to look at the function of the genes. Wright writes of genes like they are black boxes with their effects being a mere curiosity rather serving any naturally selected function. This viewpoint leads her to ignore many compelling questions.

For example, identical twins should be expected, from a "selfish" gene view, to have much more compassion for each other than fraternal twins. Do they? I still don't know. When Wright talks of twins who "fought" in the womb she doesn't even mention which sort they were. And with her typical lack of criticality, alternative explanations aren't even considered: couldn't the aggressor have been simply learning to control its motor functions in a natural (and well-documented) way? Wright doesn't give us their age (or stage of development) either, which would allow the readers to draw their own conclusions.

Wright also manages to show a lack of understanding of human emotions. She talks of love between partners as being simply a selection of attributes -- for if it were then identical twins would surely fall in love with the same people more often.

However it's still a compelling book in which the author takes the passenger seat in her tour of twins, their behaviour, historical perspectives and happenings.

I am very interested in twin studies and I enjoyed reading Wright's Remembering Satan, so I had positive expectations for this book. Unfortunately, it is so poorly written that the writing distracted from the content. It seems hastily patched together and poorly edited. The book is an expansion of the original New Yorker article, but in my opinion it adds little of value to the original.

This is more than simply book about identical twins - something very rare. This is really a book about every one of us. Want to understand where you came from and where you are going? Here's a great place to start learning.