Twin Luck: Twins reunite after 20 years

Two twins, Tamara Rabi and Adriana Scott, born in Mexico, separated
at birth and adopted by American families, live separate lives until they
go to away to college. Then a friend of a friend at Tamara's 20th
birthday party, tells the birthday girl that there is another person at
Hofstra University in New York that looks just like her, was adopted,
originally from Mexico and has the same birthday. That person turns out
to be her identical twin sister, Adrianna Scott. Neither knew of the each
other beforehand.

This real-life fairy tale of two twins reuniting, Adriana—who
was raised in a Catholic family in Long Island—and Tamara—who
was raised Jewish in an apartment off of Central Park—made national
news this week. The two twins are now in the process of getting to know
each other, trying to find out how much they can be alike after never
before seeing each other.

"The idea that there is another person just like you is reason
enough for fascination," says Lawrence Balter, PhD, professor of applied
psychology at New York University. He notes that the two would be
interesting to study, to see if any of their similarities can be
attributed to their genetic connection.

Other are not so sure that the twins will have much in common.
People's fascination with twins comes from their idealized closeness,
argues Ricardo Ainslie, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin.
"A part of all of us longs for that perfect reciprocal engagement with
another person," says Ainslie. "Twins are an embodiment that
notion."

Both experts note that twins are often not as closely linked as we
would like them to be. Some twins reach the point where they stop
speaking to each other. "I don't think that they are happy being confused
with one another," says Ainslie.

Ricardo Ainslie is the author of
The Psychology of Twinship(Jason Aronson,
1997)

Lawrence Balter is the author of
Parenthood in America: An Encyclopedia(ABC-CLIO,
2000).