Multiples: How to tell twins from triplets

In Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, we have a good example of fraternal twins who are different from each other in significant ways - which,  if we look carefully, may betray their pre-birth origins as a set of multiple embryos. They were so similar as very young children that they were able to play the same role interchangeably in Full House.

The directors and producers of Full House did not want people to know that Michelle was played by a set of twins, so the girls were credited as Mary-Kate Ashley Olsen for most of the show's run. It wasn't until the final season that they were credited Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Despite the fact that the Olsens are fraternal twins, their physical appearances were nonetheless similar enough so that few could tell the difference between the two.....

This from Squidoo:

Many of these things listed below were used to tell them apart when they were younger. Some can still be used now to tell them apart.

• Mary-Kate is left-handed. Ashley is right-handed.
•  Ashley is a little bit taller than Mary-Kate.
•  Ashely has a freckle above her lip

Sandy: an anorexic wombtwin survivor?

Sandy is married to a man who, when he found out what was wrong, gave her his loving reassurance that he would always be there for her. She has not been able to work for 5 years so he has paid all the bills for her treatment and therapy. For five years she has been suffering from anorexia, and he has spent a lot of money on her.

Today she said: "I am so angry with men, they are so insensitive. I have been in recovery for the last five years. I do OK most days but my head's still a mess. Now I am just over 100 lbs and I say something about switching back to this old therapist of mine who was easier to deal with but not covered by my insurance. Then he says, "Do you really need to keep going? It's not like you are too thin anymore?" Well, that sounded like I was a fat pig who was not worth the money. I know this man loves me and is just stressed about money but I am sitting here debating fasting for at least 30 days if not more...but it would be to punish him and myself too, obviously."

For five years Sandy has knowingly starved herself and weakened herself to the extent that she is exploiting her husband and draining him dry, of both money and patience. She is stretching the relationship about as far as it can go, for if he shows any signs that he is going back on his promise to pay for her treatment, she will punish him by starving. That will put him on a guilt trip and make him feel responsible for keeping her alive.

Now what if Sandy is a wombtwin survivor? What if this is her Dream of the Womb? Has she become her own Beta twin, starving to death because there is insufficient food available for her? What if there was a male twin in the womb who died and she survived?

To see the truth we need to turn this story upside down: Sandy was the one who got all the food in the womb, and drained her twin brother of sufficient nutrients to survive. She is the strong survivor, able to survive on very little herself (as many wombtwin survivors are) and prepared to risk everything in this relationship. One day she may be left alone, abandoned by the male who was once her intimate companion. Surely she is re-enacting her Dream of the Womb. If she is, then all this would be a perfectly normal response, for quite obviously Sandy has no idea so far that she is a wombtwin survivor. She must therefore continually relive the life and death of her wombtwin, for as we now know, nothing - not loving relationships or even life itself - is more important than that.

The wombtwin hypothesis can save you money!

On this site I read about K, a young woman with an eating disorder.

K had suffered from an eating disorder for many years. She had gone from therapy to therapy and ended up with a male psychoanalyst, who was prepared to see her five times a week, when she lay on a couch and spoke at length about her inner feelings and desires. When she began the therapy she was in deep despair.

As the therapy continued the eating disorder resolved but was replaced by a series of very dangerous accidents resulting in severe and disabling injury that occurred each time she was betrayed and disappointed by a boy friend. The therapy was very stormy as K began to feel suicidal, and the therapist began to feel as if he was in some sense keeping K alive. He worked hard to keep the therapy going, even allowing her free treatments and irregular meetings.

It was clear that here was a case of self-destructive behavior. The therapist made K promise not to kill herself. Together they traced this tendency to "early and profound childhood disappointments". K felt unlovable and therefore deserved punishment. It was assumed that K's mother did not want her and was not emotionally available, and K felt she should not have been born at all. The therapist became deeply concerned about the unprofessional depth of his involvement with this clent. He had to learn to stand back a little and let her heal on her own and be responsible for her own life. The therapy ended when at last K found a man who loved her, they married and she had children: twins.

This therapy had continued for fifteen years. That is more than 700 hours of therapy.

The report abstract ends with these words : ".... the crucial importance of longterm psychoanalytic therapy as a life-saving procedure in cases where it is appropriate, in spite of the great amount of time and expense involved."

You bet. This is surely a blatant case of an undiscovered wombtwin survivor who lost a twin brother before birth. The therapist - obviously a kind and very empathetic man - made a nice stand-in. Life was liveable for K while he was there for her. When will they learn????