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The Effects of Opposite‐Sex Twinship on the Adult twin
Author(s) -
Shirley Oliver
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/bjp.12197
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , honour , individuation , narrative , identity (music) , social psychology , psychoanalysis , linguistics , philosophy , physics , archaeology , acoustics , history
In this small‐scale indicative study I explored the issue of individuation in relation to the life stories of a group of adult opposite‐sex twins, using a psycho‐social approach and a narrative interview methodology (Hollway & Jefferson, 2013). I found that none of the six interviewees reported having had a close relationship with their mother in infancy and childhood but five said they had had a close relationship with their co‐twin, which endured in later life. Cleaving to the co‐twin seemed to complicate and disrupt identity formation and the development of mature adult relationships. I concluded that the respondents in the study had experienced a similar psycho‐social challenge to that of same‐sex twins – how to honour their twinship while at the same time attempting to forge a unique identity – but that they seemed to have faced an additional challenge when it came to developing adult relationships with members of the opposite sex.