Dear Nina
My study has been only with the sole survivors of a twin conception, so I am not sure about disruption between Alpha and Beta monozygotic twins. However the story of The Silent Twins suggests that there is a constant survival struggle that can be very difficult.
This is a quote from my own book about this:
"A survival struggle
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The twin survival struggle seems to be strongest between MZ twins.
They tend to identify with each other and copy each other more than
DZ twins. Even so, each MZ twin is extremely careful to maintain some
sense of their own individuality within the twin pair. This creates a kind
of paradoxical intimacy or survival struggle.
In Marjorie Wallace’s book The Silent Twins, June and Jennifer
Gibbons, two MZ twin sisters, were so taken up with their twin survival
struggle that even when young they lived separate from their family in
an upstairs room at home. They had their own language and spoke to
hardly anyone else. They tried to maintain some kind of equality between
them but Jennifer was born 10 minutes after June, which created a lifelong
problem. As the first-born, Alpha twin, June assumed dominance within
the pair. Jennifer the Beta twin struggled desperately to create equality
but without success. The twins kept obsessive diaries in tiny print that
revealed their claustrophobic love-hate relationship. Something had to
give and eventually Jennifer died from a mysterious heart condition at the
age of 29.
This example shows how creating equality while maintaining
individuality can be a difficult balance to maintain between twins. It
requires moment-by-moment concentration on the state of the twin
bond, often at the expense of other relationships."
References
Hayton A ( 2011) "Womb twin survivors, the lost twin in the Dream of the Womb" page 129
Wallace M ( 1996) The Silent twins p. 269
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