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“Who is older?”
“We're both older!”
Psychoanalytic theory and practice have conceptualized psychology and identity in highly individualistic ways. The limitations of these conceptualizations become particularly apparent when we try to apply them to patients who are twins. It used to be fairly rare to encounter twins in a therapy practice, but that is becoming less and less true as the birth rate of twins has risen dramatically over the past several decades. Interrogating the ways in which current psychoanalytic theory falls short of addressing the unique psychological needs of twins (and other multiples) elucidates a fundamental, individualistic bias in the field. In lieu of understanding the unique psychology of people who were born as twins, those who were born as singletons — parents, friends, partners, teachers, and therapists — tend to impose and interpolate our own “majority” cultural, political, and psychological biases on the minority twin population (Althusser, 1971). Contemporary American neoliberal ideologies, psychoanalytic theories, and our own familial experiences have led us to think in individualistic and binary terms that do not readily apply to healthy twin psychology and have led twins to feel misunderstood by those who care for and try to help them. The relational identities and psychologies of twins fundamentally challenge our understanding of psychic health, with significant implications for twins and non-twins alike.
Using Winnicott's (1965, 1971) ideas as a template, it has been my thesis