Brody presents clinical material suggesting that twins in dreams represent the dreamer and his mother and that this 'double representation has a symbolic significance beyond the use of common language'. In none of the dreams reported had real twins entered into the waking thoughts of the previous day. The type of relationship between mother and dreamer depicted is a pre-genital, oral union—a fusion with the breast at nursing (Lewin).

Confirmatory material is presented from mythology and folk-lore. The widespread belief that twin children possess magical powers over nature, the custom of burying twins near water, and the universal belief that one twin draws sustenance from the other at the latter's expense, are all shown to be understandable on the assumption that twins symbolize a power-giving union with the mother.