ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the processes of emotional development with reference to those aspects that have particular relevance for twins and for the creation of a phantasy twin. It focuses on Kleinian and post-Kleinian conceptualizations of development. Meltzer and Harris Williams propose a fundamentally different sequence of development in the infant where they write of the ordinary beautiful baby with his ordinary devoted beautiful mother as the primary condition of the infant as it emerges from the womb. The creation of a phantasy twin is a narcissistic affair based on the processes of splitting and projective identification operating between parts of the self, or between the self and an external object. Bion suggests that the breast is the infant's first imaginary twin, omnipotently created. Twinship is a narcissistic state of mind exemplifying a confusion of ego boundaries between the twins. The overvaluation of the twinship, compared with other relationships, represents what Rosenfeld describes as a libidinal narcissistic organization.
