ABSTRACT
The twins of myths and legends illuminate understanding of the processes of twinning. This chapter explores several mythical or legendary stories to illustrate some important dynamic processes of twinning including splitting and the creation of a double, love, hate, and rivalry. Myths and fairy tales have been described as 'the products of ethnic imagination'; or dynamic tales that explain the past, the present and the future. Bion proposes that a myth' is for the group what a 'model' is for the individual. There are several myths in which splitting or the creation of a double is central, and in which the creation of mythical twins elucidates the processes involved in twinning. Adam and Lilith were an incompatible twin-like pair who could neither reconcile their differences, nor function satisfactorily alone. The myth of Narcissus has been extensively explored in psychoanalytic works. Narcissus and Echo are linked by their lack of development of self and hence of a capacity for object relationships.
