Table of Contents

Foreword to the second edition

Introduction

1.     Twins – a rare phenomenon?

2.     Interview with a specialist in prenatal medicine/Ultrasound Scans

  • The life of a growing child inside the womb
  • The implantation of multiple egg cells is not always visible on an ultrasound scan

3.     From conception to birth

4.     The implantation of twins

  • Unidentical Twins/Identical Twins
  • Multiple identical embryos exist as well
  • The psychological significance of the different twin types
  • What can be seen on an ultrasound scan?
  • How frequently are twins born?

6.     Pregnancy by artificial fertilization

  • When is an artificial fertilization appropriate?
  • The preparation-How exactly does an artificial fertilization work?
  • The stimulation Conception in the laboratory
  • The transfer of embryos
  • How many women will actually become pregnant?
  • Financial, physical and psychological difficulties for the woman or the couple
  • Sperm donations by unknown sperm donors
  • Are children different who were born in laboratories?
  • Why are so many embryos created?

7.     Reduction of multiple embryos due to hormone treatment and artificial  Fertilization

  • Multiple embryos pose a big problem
  • How an embryo reduction is done

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8.     The embryo perceives and remembers

  • The Field Memory
  • Extra-Physical Memory
  • Body-linked Memory
  • The Hearing Sense
  • What does a developing human embryo hear
  • The Touch Sense
  • The Taste Sense
  • The Seeing Sense
  • An extensive network
  • Our brain and body are information banks
  • What does an unborn child remember

9.     What happens to the deceased embryo?

  • The significance of the placenta for the child after birth
  • The placenta – philosophy and cult in Bali and Australia
  • The ingrown embryo
  • The soul of the vanished twin

10.   Living twins are deeply attached to one another

  • Twins divide their skills between them
  • The drama at birth and its mark on a twin’s later life
  • An exception:
    When twins don’t get on at all – the story of Christian and Ingo

11.   One twin dies during birth

  • Christoph – his twin sister had died during birth
  • Marianne – her twin brother died shortly before birth

12.   The drama inside the womb

  • How I lost my brother – Thomas’ story
  • Acquired helplessness
  • An attempted abortion

13.   Is a pregnant mother aware of the death of a twin?

14.   The report of a midwife

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15.   The suffering of a surviving twin: the symptoms

  • Physical repercussions in the twin who was born alone
  • Organic malformations: Hearing difficulties
  • Spinal malformations
  • The ingrown foetus – Dermoidcyst and theratome Malformations of the genital organs
  • Psychosomatic repercussions:
    • Vertigo- Tightness in the chest/heart pain
    • Panic attacks, violent shivering, tachycardia and fear of death
    • Shivering fits and grinding of one’s teeth-
    • Skin diseases
    • Other psychosomatic disorders
  • Psychological repercussions of an early loss:
  • Guilt feelings -
    • because the survivor had more luck then the vanished twin
    • because one has taken the other’s place, thereby causing his death
    • because one has taken the other’s place, thereby causing his death
    • because -one has ‘devoured’ the other
    • because the survivor could not help the dying twin to stay alive
  • Loneliness
  • Loneliness and depression
  • My first winter without depression in 10 years
  • Sticking’ to friends
  • Weakness- Persecution complex, fear of physical contact and panic attacks in elevators
  • Panic Attacks
  • Jealousy
  • Dreams of a murderer and his victim
  • An insatiable hunger for touch
  • Repetitive bad luck and professional failure
  • Difficulties having children
  • Longing for death – In order to be reunited with the dead twin

16.   With one leg inside the realm of the dead

  • Janina’s diabetes

17.   The left and right brain hemispheres of twins

  • Identical twins are not completely identical
  • Little Peter’s difficulties with math

18.   The difficulties experienced by a twin who was born alone

  • Reflections of a vanished twin in the daily activities of his surviving sibling
  • The job-If I am successful, I will betray my twin sister – Kathrin’s story
  • My soul was torn out of my body by an abortion – Barbara’s story
  • Animals replace the missing twin
  • Sophia’s Dog
  • The death of Janina’s cat
  • The horse
  • The long search for the lost twin in the big wide world
  • Visits to the gay sauna – Christoph’s story
  • A whole in the aura – Charlotte’s psychological hunger
  • The death of a close one reawakens the memory of the great catastrophe
  • My granny has died – Monika’s story
  • Tremendous jealousy – Doris
  • Disgust for oneself and for the partner – Monique

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19.   Relationships: twins love differently

  • If there is no other, he cannot be missed
  • Some half twins look for deep proximity in relationships, they want to fuse
  • Some half twins avoid deep proximity and relationships, they want to run away
  • Everybody has distinct relationship needs
  • At last I have found the right woman – Hermann
  • The desperate search for proximity – Andrea’s story
  • When a separation does not succeed – Johannes
  • When only one partner desires the other – Heiner’s story
  • Not with you and not without you – Gabriele’s story
  • Twelve years without a partner – Kathrin
  • A love triangle

20.   Difficult children often long for their lost twin

Françoise cannot sleep at night-Bob, the Ritalin-child

21.   When parents have lost a twin

  • A child sometimes replaces a lost twin
  • Coloured hair to replace the vanished twin sister of one’s mother – Colette’s story
  • Another pattern in comparison: sometimes the child represents a childhood sweetheart
  • Confusion about the relationship between mother and child
  • Irene suffers from migraines – she lacks her mother’s support
  • Panic attacks for fear of not being a good mother – Nadja

22.   A vanished twin as cause of other psychological problems

  • The gay buddy – Monika-Life support – Anja
  • No luck in love with the most beautiful woman in the world
  • Some autistic people have lost a twin
  • Some anorexics have lost a twin

23.   Rediscovering the vanished twin

  • How do we know that someone has lost a twin?
  • An Exploration of Mental Images
  • Physical Experiences during an Age Regression: The Scenic Reconstruction of the Uterus
  • Family Constellations
  • Kinesiological Muscle Testing
  • Deep Relaxation in Warm Water
    (Aqua-Release®, Watsu®, Aqua-Vida…)
  • Rebekka’s Report of an Aqua-Release®-Session in the Springs of Saturnia, Tuscany
  • Can this method also be applied to children

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24.   On the road towards healing

  • "Step out of there, little blood brother, … learn how to fall"
  • The other
  • A lost twin has not always the same impact
  • Recovery from the inner state of shock
  • Tapping of acupressure points
  • Shock recovery with the aid of eye muscle exercises
  • Some guilt feelings do not go away
  • Healing Rituals
  • Beware of elephants in a china shop
  • The cruel fate of some half twins
  • Jacqueline
  • A half twin sometimes doubts the existence of the other twin and cuts himself off from this experience
  • Other events that have a similar impact as the vanished twin
  • From desire for death to hunger of life
  • Lara’s interview five years after rediscovering the vanished twin
  • Ode for a vanished brother

26.   Artistic, sensitive or wise people – the strong points of surviving twins

27.   Musicians in search of their twin

  • Michael Jackson's secret longing
  • Lyrics full of longing
  • Leonard Cohen
  • Longing - A song by the author

28.   Vanished twins in fairy tales

  • Brother and Sister- Rapunzel

29.   Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  Bibliography

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The Surviving Twin Syndrome - Drama in the Womb