Barbara Klein, Ed.D.

"I got so much out of reading this book about twin identity, as a mother of twins and especially compared to another scholarly book I've read which was also written by a female twin - Raising Emotionally Healthy Twins by Dr. J. F. which was frankly quite off-putting.

Dr. Barbara Klein (whose practice is in Brentwood) is very generous with her personal experiences as a twin and also judiciously prudent in the way she selectively shares many of her case studies. The tone of this book is informative and grounded, and she manages to reach and entertain several different audiences (that of therapists of twins, twins themselves, and parents and other family members of twins).

Twins don't actually realize they are themselves until 4 months, or simply put "(infant) twins do not know whose foot belongs to whom". (My own fraternal twins consistently mis-identified themselves in photographs as their twin sister until they were about three and a half years old.) Dr. Klein says twins like to take care of others, are naturally very empathic, and have an increased capacity for closeness. She attributes their deep longing for intimacy to twins being "born married". She writes, "You can't get a new mother and you can't get a new twin".

I also learned a lot about the heart breaking subject of twin loss from this book; and cannot wait for my girls to get old enough to answer the list of questions Dr. Klein provides (How Therapists Can Better Understand the Problems Twins Have Relating to Others)."

 From Goodreads.com

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13549118-alone-in-the-mirror#other_reviews