ABSTRACT
The conflict with the imaginary twin is also linked with the existence of elements related to the sense of sight used with the aim of exploring and controlling the environment. If elements of “twinning” are common in the transference even in singletons, the presence of an “actual twin” makes things peculiar both in the person’s development as a child and adolescent and in the transference. The “twin transference” involves intense narcissistic functioning and fantasies of merging with/adhering to the object, deeply supported by powerful adhesive and projective identifications, and has deep impact on the creation of a separate internal tri-dimensional space. A sense of separateness might develop gradually, in terms of what has been described as a move from “the identical twin transference” to the “non-identical twin transference”. It is significant that the wife so easily becomes a representative of the twin transference, and of the maternal transference, too.
