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Twin Experiments Reflection - Mel

The document discusses a controversial 1960s study led by psychiatrist Peter Neubauer that separated twin and triplet births between adoptive families to examine their psychological development. Unfortunately, the study caused lasting trauma to the children involved. Three of the separated children committed suicide. When the twins and one set of triplets reunited as adults, they realized how similar they were and felt they had been deprived of their closest relationships for 20 years as "guinea pigs" in the unethical study. While the researchers intended to study competition for parental attention, the children suffered severe psychological impacts from the separation.

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Melisa Acar
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51 views

Twin Experiments Reflection - Mel

The document discusses a controversial 1960s study led by psychiatrist Peter Neubauer that separated twin and triplet births between adoptive families to examine their psychological development. Unfortunately, the study caused lasting trauma to the children involved. Three of the separated children committed suicide. When the twins and one set of triplets reunited as adults, they realized how similar they were and felt they had been deprived of their closest relationships for 20 years as "guinea pigs" in the unethical study. While the researchers intended to study competition for parental attention, the children suffered severe psychological impacts from the separation.

Uploaded by

Melisa Acar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Many twin pairs and one set of triplets were placed in different households in the 1960s

by clinical psychiatrist Peter Neubauer and a New York adoption agency to examine their lives

prospectively. Unfortunately, with the negatives of the study far passing the positives, I believe

the entirety of the study was cruel and damaged the study's victims tremendously.

Even though the study might have started with good intentions, separating twins for

adoption was started not for the sake of experimenting, but because it was deemed the best

choice for the kids. By separating the twins, they hoped that they would not compete for their

adoptive mother's attention. Unfortunately, as other adoption agencies started doing closed

adoptions, it became an experiment without the parents or infants knowing or consenting. The

devastating part, in my opinion, was the fact that a family specifically asked for twins more than

once, and other families later confirmed they would've been more than happy to adopt both

twins.

The triplets, Robert, Eddy, and David, met at the age of 19 by chance and instantly

clicked when they all got to know one another and realized they were copy and pasted versions

of each other. They had so much in common from cigarette brands, wrestling in their past, even

the same taste in women, and similar trauma experienced as a kid. Ellen and Melanie, the twins,

had a similar encounter-meant when they met at the age of 23, where it was by coincidence and

could have happened at any time in their lives. They also instantly clicked and later found out

they were mirrored twins, Melanie being left and Ellen being right. I believe it was destiny; they

all lived in new york their whole lives without moving, and met each other at a point in their

lives that wasn't too early but wasn't too late.

They all had something similar to say about the study and could all agree they

were robbed of their closest relationship for almost 20 years, and it's something that couldn't be
forgiven or undone. Both Robert and Melanie compared Dr. Neubauer to Nazi scientist Josef

Mengele, who conducted horrendous experimentation on twins. Former Nazi Dr. Neubauer's

adoption business served the Jewish population of New York. They had said they felt like guinea

pigs their whole lives with people coming to their houses to test and interrogate them, and I don't

blame them. Both the twins and triplets vividly remember their testing and could agree it wasn't

enjoyed. Ellen had always dreamed of a twin, and they both felt like a part of them was missing

before they met, which I think is absolutely crazy but also heartbreaking to think for 20 years,

they felt incomplete.

The real damage done to them was beyond cruel and unimaginable. Growing up, Robert

developed separation anxiety from the separation of his brothers. Given that they had

experienced comparable trauma as physically abused infants, all three of the boys received

psychiatric treatment as teens. Three of the separated kids at birth committed suicide, including

one of the triplets, Eddy Galland, who committed suicide in 1995 at the age of 34. The

assumption is that he committed suicide did so in response to the separation. It is incredibly

heartbreaking for the other two triplets to not only lose 19 years with eddy but lose him for a

second time and permanently.

The two surviving triplets and the pair of twins successfully gained access to part of the

study information. However, I believe they should have been entitled to all of the research, given

they went through so much to conduct it. Unfortunately, it wasn't determined how much of the

study they received, but they most likely won't live to see the complete research (releasing in

2065) given they'd be around 100 years old, which isn't impossible but not likely. I know David

and Robert have kids of their own, I wonder if their kids will be alive to see the study results be

released into the world, but would they look into the study in detail?
Additional References

Stewart, S. (2018, June 25). Separated-at-birth triplets met tragic end after shocking

psych experiment. New York Post.

https://nypost.com/2018/06/23/these-triplets-were-separated-at-birth-for-a-twisted

-psych-study/

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