ABSTRACT
The widely held fantasy of twins as exemplars of the ultimate in human closeness, intimacy, and connection belies the reality of twins’ lived experience. This introduction refutes these widely held misconceptions about twins and replaces them with a genuine understanding of twins’ real-life experiences; the work thus offers new perspectives on what it means to be a twin living in a non-twin-world. Twin-ship is paradoxical in that it is intrinsically both harmonious and conflicted, thus creating intense ups and downs of twin experience. Four key themes that emerge from the hitherto-unheard real-life stories of 30 twins who share accounts of their life struggles are discussed. A brief overview of each of its ten chapters is presented. The introduction explains how the work blends Klein’s psychological, Hart’s social-scientific, and Martinez’s phenomenological expertise, while also weaving together clinical psychological experience, cutting-edge academic scholarship, and twin personal experiences. Finally, the introduction observes that in helping twins (and all those interested in human relationships) to achieve deeper understanding of what it means to be a twin, the work also aspires to provide psychological solace for the twins that read it.
