ABSTRACT
There are deep unconscious issues that affect both the twin relationship and our perception of it. This chapter looks at how people idealise the twin relationship, how they project properties onto them that are their own, and are based on their own early experiences in life, and how this affects development in twins. Twins are viewed with awe in many societies, where they may be treated as gifts from the gods, or alternatively as evil omens to be banished or killed, often along with the mother who bore them. For twins the developmental issues are additionally complicated by the actual fact of the presence of another baby of the same age, ever-present in the life and mind of each baby, of mother, father, and other siblings. The presence of another baby will invariably affect the relationships between each infant and mother in the fundamental early stages of development, and later with father and other family members.
