Three Identical Strangers directed by Tim Wardle produced by CNN and distributed by Neon 2018, 96 min. The Twinning Reaction directed by Lori Shinsheki distributed and printed by 7th Art Releasing 2017, 55 min.

A reflection on two recent films about the same extraordinary experiment

As someone interested in the psychology of twinship, when I saw the two documentaries Three Identical Strangers and The Twinning Reaction, I knew I wanted to write about them. These movies each expose the same riveting and disturbing experiment that took place in New York in the 1960s. Dr. Peter Neubauer and his assistant Dr. Viola Bernard, both prominent psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, attempted to address the perennial question about “nature vs. nurture” by separating identical twin and triplet units, arranging for them to be adopted and raised by different families as singletons, and studying their development at regular intervals during their childhood. The adoption agency that placed these children, Louise Wise Services, was privy to the experiment, but neither the biological or adoptive parents, nor the twins and triplets themselves, had any knowledge of the situation. I was captivated and thought there might be general interest, too, because of a fascination with twins these days. Everyone has them: George and Amal Clooney, Jay Z and Beyoncé, Buster and Kristen Posey, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and probably many of your patients.

The stories told by these two documentaries are not new. They've been exposed before, by Lawrence Wright in the 1995 New Yorker piece,