Noted twin-study expert Segal (Psychology/California State Univ., Fullerton; Indivisible by Two, 2007, etc.) doubles the fascination with switched-at-birth twin research.
The author’s latest study took her to Spain’s Canary Islands to interview identical twins Alicia and Blanca, and Blanca’s biologically unrelated sister Carla. All three women were born in the same hospital in 1973, but hospital officials mistakenly sent Carla home as Blanca’s “identical twin.” Alicia, the real twin, was released to a different family and raised as a single child. Over the years, things seemed odd—Carla didn’t really look or act like her twin, for one—but the switch was only revealed after a coincidental encounter in a shopping mall when the women were 28. The shocking discovery had many effects, including emotional trauma and a lawsuit that dragged on for years. Both families were thrust into the media spotlight. Segal’s study of switched-at-birth twins reveals much insight into the nature-vs.-nurture paradigm. Identical twins Alicia and Blanca had the same walk and gestures, but Alicia also had similarities to her biological mother, whom she had never met—they even wore the same lipstick. Segal, a fraternal twin, spearheaded the study of virtual twins—i.e., “same age unrelated children reared together since infancy.” The author references other cases as well, like that of Brent and George, identical twins who met for the first time while at college. An expert glimpse into the many-faceted world of genetics, family culture and identity.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-61614-437-1
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An intimate and provocative glimpse into the lives of adolescent schoolgirls at two West Coast middle schools by journalist Orenstein (formerly managing editor of Mother Jones). Orenstein was motivated by the disturbing findings of a 1990 study from the American Association of University Women. It revealed that girls' self-esteem plummets as they reach adolescence, with a concomitant drop in academic achievement- -especially in math and science. By sixth grade, both boys and girls have learned to equate masculinity with opportunity and assertiveness and femininity with reserve and restraint. In her attempt to delve more deeply into this phenomenon, Orenstein observed and interviewed dozens of young girls inside and outside their classrooms. The resulting narratives are likely to move and vex readers. The classrooms at Weston Middle School ring with the symptoms: Even girls who consider themselves feminists tend to ``recede from class proceedings'' while their male classmates vociferously respond to teachers' questions; girls who are generally outspoken remain silent in the classroom. When probed, they tell Orenstein that they are afraid of having the wrong answer and of being embarrassed. They are not willing to take the risks that boys routinely take. The girls are overly involved with their appearance, with clothes and beauty products, instead of their studies. Sexual desirability becomes the central component of their self-image, with negative feelings often translating themselves into eating disorders. At the Audubon Middle School, with its predominantly minority population, it is apparent that ``the consequences of silence and marginalization for Latinas are especially dire.'' The Latina girls we meet often become gang members and mothers, while school becomes increasingly irrelevant. A comprehensive bibliography and annotated notes enhance Orenstein's ardent and significant exploration of the adolescent roots of key women's issues. (First serial to the New York Times Magazine)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-42575-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
While the coming of August is enough to send most psychoanalysts fleeing the needs of their patients for the beach, it appears that not even death can keep the wizened Fromm (On Being Human, 1993, etc.) from dispensing wisdom. Fromm gained renown less for his writings about clinical psychology than for his more contemplative works that fused the insights of psychoanalysis with those of existentialist philosophy to ask—and occasionally answer- -the Big Questions traditionally left to priests, rabbis, and barkeeps. But this posthumous collection focuses on the relationship between analyst and analysand, and its goal is much more modest than that of some of his other books. Fromm is concerned here, it seems, not with building a better world but with building a better shrink.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8264-0654-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Continuum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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