LabPet wrote:
SteveK, I do not usually tell anyone, but......My father died when I turned 12 after a serious 4 year illness (osteo sarcoma). I had older parents of European descent, btw. My father was neurotypical; a successful charismatic man with kindness (he understood me and was probably more kind than anyone to me ever). His only brother, 6 yrs older, was profoundly autistic, entirely mute, and institutionalized his entire life. My father and his brother looked like identical twins. And, I look like the very feminine form of my father - same coloring (dark blond hair, green eyes, pale/yellowish skin, other features, etc.). When my father referred to his brother, which was rarely, he was the Doppelganger (= the other side; two halves to the whole). They had the same first name. I met the Doppelganger. To me, an autistic child, I was massively confused: Computational Error....I "made the switch" somehow and thought the Doppelganger was my father (by definition, one in the same, two halves to the whole). So confusing......especially after my father was dead and I visited the institution.
Maybe this was too revealing - I still struggle with this. Which is which?
Well Doppelganger IS a german word meaning duplicate. Still, unless they were IVF, they weren't monozygotic.
Steve