Entwined Lives
Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior
by Nancy Segal, Ph.D.
Published by Penguin Group
Nancy L. Segal is Distinguished Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences and Director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University, Fullerton. She is also the author of . She has been a guest on "Good Morning America," "Dateline NBC," "Nightline," "The Today Show," "Discovery Health," "Body Watch," and "CNN News." Her work has been featured in Discover, Psychology Today, and Biography.
Preeminent twin researcher and fraternal twin Dr. Nancy Segal is a psychology professor and director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University. Her book "Entwined Lives" combines case histories and recent research in exploring the life of twins and the special relationship they share.
Expertly researched, Dr. Segal's book includes discussions on intelligence and personality traits, the physical growth of twins, twins reared apart, unusual twin types, the nature verses nurture debate, and modern fertility treatments that bring about multiple children.
Also covered are famous twins, conjoined twins, twins in the animal kingdom and the loss of a twin. "Entwined Lives" is a significant study of twins and a valuable resource for parents of twins and for twins themselves. Includes a detailed glossary of terms.
396 pages, softbound from Twinsmagazine.com
Chapter Index:
•Acknowledgements
•Forward
•Preface: Not Like Me
•Introduction
•Identical and Fraternal Twins: Living Laboratories
•Identical, But Not the Same: Differences Between Identical Twins
•Natural Experiments: Unusual Twin Types
•Developing in Tandem: Intelligence and Special Mental Skills
•Unfolding Lives: Personality Traits, Mental Disorders and Atypical Behaviors
•Friendship Extraordinaire: Twins' Special Relationship
•Twist of Fate: Twins Reared Apart
•Another Twist of Fate: Children Adopted Together
•Lonesome Crowd: Loss of a Twin
•Making Multiples: New Fertility Treatments and Beyond
•Two-Base Hits and Triple Toe Loops: Physical Growth and Athletic Prowess
•Noah's Ark: Twins in the Nonhuman Animal Kingdom
•The Other Half: Noteworthy Twins
•Double Indemnity: Twins in the Courtroom
•Separate Minds in Shared Bodies: Conjoined Twins
•Double Entendre: Twinship's Many Meanings
•Afterward: Part of Me
•Glossary
•Notes
From Amazon.com
Fascinating, Nov 3 2001
Reviewer: Erika Mitchell
This book provides an encyclopedic overview of research about twins. When I first opened the book, my initial reaction was "ouch", because of the densely packed font. The reason for the denseness is that Segal has so many topics to cover and so much information to share with us that the letters had to be squeezed to get it all into one volume. But not to fear - - there are pictures sprinkled throughout the text.
Segal, a twin herself, has been researching twins for over 20 years, since her undergraduate studies. This book sums up much of that research in a format that is approachable by general audiences (and includes extensive endnotes to help interested readers find the studies that are cited). The many topics in her book include: identical twins, fraternal twins, twins reared apart, children adopted together, conjoined twins, non-human twins, friendship between twins, loss of a twin, famous twins, mental skills, athletic skills, and behavioral traits.
One of the most interesting results of Segal's and others' twin research is the strong influence that genes have on intelligence, behavioral traits, and athletic ability. Segal reports that identical twins, reared together or apart, are remarkably similar in these areas, and become more so as they get older. The similarity is weaker with fraternal twins, siblings, and cousins, and hardly found at all between unrelated same-aged children raised together. Certain health factors on the other hand, seem to be more dependent on environmental factors and life choices than on genetics, such as aging of the skin and heart disease. Many of Segal's results come from research on identical twins reared apart, in whom strong similarities point to genetic programming since the environments in which they were raised were different. The logical opposite of identical twins reared apart is unrelated same-aged children reared together, in whom any similarities would suggest environmental influences. Segal has a short chapter on such siblings, but this area could really use more research to complement what has been done with twins reared apart.
This book is absolutely fascinating for what it says, not only about twins and other multiples, about the siblings and parents of twins, about adopted children, but also about humans in general.