I'm Eve

by Chris Costner Sizemore, Elen Sain Pittillo

In collaboration with her cousin, the subject of the most famous case of multiple personality, portrayed in The Three Faces of Eve, tells of her three decades of uncontrollable personality changes and psychiatric treatment

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Biography, Memoir, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Autobiography

461 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Christine Costner Sizemore was a medical figure, author, and mental health advocate. She was the subject of the book The 3 Faces Of Eve , which was made into a successful motion picture in 1957. Joanne Woodward received an Academy Award for her portrayal of 'Eve'. She is believed to be the first documented case of Multiple Personality Disorder during the 20th Century.

Also wrote under the pseudonym Evelyn Lancaster.

Reviews

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chris is the woman that the movie "The Three Faces of Eve" portrayed. Unfortunately, for Chris, the movie, and subsequent books about her, didn't really tell the truth of Chris' life. So, she, and her cousin, Elen, decided to set the record straight by writing this book.

She goes as far back as she can recall, and tries to determine when each personality appeared, and why. She isn't always successful in her efforts, but she writes it all down, as honestly as possible. The book continues relating her life, and the lives of her many (more than three!) other personalities, until she reaches the age of forty-eight (1975).

She later wrote another book in 1989, A Mind of My Own: The Woman Who Was Known as "Eve" Tells the Story of Her Triumph Over Multiple Personality Disorder. She died at the age of 89.

3 Stars = I liked the book. I'm glad I read it.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris Costner Sizemore's account of her struggle with multiple personalities is much more interesting than The Three Faces of Eve, which was written by two of her psychotherapists. Sizemore goes into depth about how the fracture of her personality occurred. Rather than being based on one or two traumatic experiences, the splits happened over a period of years. Rather than having three personalities, she had approximately twenty. Rather than being cured, Chris still wrestled with imultiples at the end of her book.

One of the most interesting parts in a consistently fascinating story is Chris' treatment at the hands of the infamous Dr. Corbett H. Thigpen who administered shock therapy to his patients. Thigpen and another psychotherapist who worked with Chris, Hervey M. Cleckley, wrote the three faces book, and sold the rights to Chris' life story to Twentieth Century Fox without her knowledge or permission. She took the two doctors to court on that one, and won.

Unlike many ghostwritten books, in this one, the co-author assumes an active role, particularly at the end of the story. Multiple personality disorder is probably the rarest psychological condition in the DSM-IV, contrary to what the media presents. This book is a valuable contribution to psychiatric literature because it is an honest portrayal of one woman's devolvement into a frightening panoply of personalities, and her heroic efforts to reintegrate those personalities into one healthy whole.

[Bri Fidelity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siouxsie and the Banshees brought me here. This book brought me to Chris Costner Sizemore's later A Mind of My Own (1989), her earlier Strangers In My Body (1958) and Thigpen and Cleckley's famous The Three Faces of Eve (1957). Together, they led me to an enduring puzzle:

Just who exactly are the '22 faces' of Eve?

I can't for the life of me work it out.

I'm Eve provides us with the following possibilities:

1. Our Heroine: Experiences her first dissociative states at age two; disappears for good somewhere between the ages of six and ten; returns to herself decades later with a great many second-hand memories, two grown children and a lot of explaining to do.

2. The Red Haired Girl: The very first alter; 'the other little girl'. Chris perceives her as an imaginary playmate, doing all the things that she is afraid to do or forbidden to do or - as the fantasy gallops on unchecked - too nice to do. The first of the bad-girl alters.

3. The Freckle Girl: I think Chris's first permanent replacement - there are a number of other alters between the Red Haired Girl and the Freckle Girl, but the text lets them go unnamed, and the first-person annotations by present-day Chris are mostly absent - and thus the first proper good-girl alter. She is the predominant personality for the rest of Chris's childhood and adolescence, and is responsible for both of her early marriages. It is the Freckle Girl who conceives and gives birth to Taffy, Sizemore's daughter.

4. The Big-Eyed Girl: The attention-seeking bad-girl to the Freckle Girl's good-girl. Calm and unruffled in her villainy. Perpetrates many of the destructive actions attributed to Eve Black in The Three Faces of Eve and Strangers In My Body - or, at least, those the Red Haired Girl didn't do.

5. The Singing Girl: Alternates with the Freckle Girl and the Big-Eyed Girl: they're actively good and bad, but she's simply indifferent (something which gets the Freckle Girl into trouble nearly as often as the Big-Eyed Girl's exploits). Named, naturally, for her singing, which she does all the time - usually when she's supposed to be doing something else.

6. The Lying Girl: Another good-girl alter, so named because she 'lies' constantly about her innocence after she has plainly just done whatever it is she's being accused of. Our Heroine, looking back, is unsure whether she is a real alter or whether she's still the Freckle Girl; the fact that the Freckle Girl shows up later in the narrative is a strong hint that it was, perhaps, her all along.

7. The Blind Girl: Alternates with the Lying Girl: named for her spells of pseudoblindness. Again, Our Heroine is unsure whether she's a separate alter or just the Big-Eyed Girl; again, the Big-Eyed Girl shows up later in the book as though nothing has happened.

8. The Little Poet: Alternates with the Freckle Girl and the Big-Eyed Girl later in the sequence. Named for her twee but heartfelt poetry, written on such diverse topics as existential loneliness, the rightness of the US cause in WWII, the general loveliness of her parents, and how much she loves handsome local boy Johnny Lake.

9. Chris White, also known as Eve White;
10. Chris Costner, also known as Eve Black;
11. Jane; also known as Jane Lancaster:

The three famous Faces of Eve, whose exploits are recorded - with some narrative liberties - by Drs. Thigpen and Cleckley. They're the archetypal good-girl/bad-girl/apathetic-girl trio grown up: the wife/mother image (Eve White); the party girl (Eve Black); the intellectual (Jane). They do not live happily ever after.

12. The Blind Lady: An Eve White wife/mother type alter, and the first to arise after Chris's therapy with Thigpen: named, again, for her spells of pseudoblindness. Appears during the tenure of the increasingly unstable Jane after her 'resolution' at the end of The Three Faces of Eve, and ultimately usurps her. She and ghostwriter Jim Poling write Strangers In My Body in 1958, using the pseudonym 'Evelyn Lancaster' ('Eve' is, in the original texts, supposedly short for Evelyn; I suppose to make it less patriarchical and weird).

13. The Bell Lady: The Blind Lady's rather more confident replacement: 'very mature and motherly[;] generous and civic-minded.' The first of the alters to collect a signature item - in this case, bells; she loves the sound of bells. Conceives and carries - this latter with some delighted interludes from the Blind Lady - Chris's son Bobby. Artistic and interested in politics. One of the longest-lived alters.

14. The Virgin: A rather comical figure created when Our Heroine's marriage is going through a bad patch: has no memory of her husband Don at all, and - like the earlier Jane - no memory of ever having had sex. Considers herself much older than her actual bodily years, and sprays her hair white with an aerosol to bolster this illusion.

15. The Card Girl: Collects playing cards - perhaps to use in fortune-telling, in which she fervently believes. Completely depressed, she works hard at Chris's dressmaking business, but has a habit of shoplifting 'cheap, inconsequential items that [strike] her fancy' from other businesses. Lives by her horoscopes. Not one of Our Heroine's favourites.

16. The Turtle Lady: Fascinated with turtles; collects turtle reproductions. A fantasist living in a make-believe world of her own, Chris's daughter Taffy 'often [observes] her posturing and murmuring endearingly before a wall, while caressing and bestowing impassioned kisses on its smooth, blank surface.' Her constant masturbation is a source of shame and horror to the other alters she coexists with, and to Our Heroine to this day (well, the time of publication, at any rate).

17. The Banana Split Girl: The first childlike alter, born after the death of Chris's mother; she seems to be about five years old. Eats only banana splits (according to Strangers In My Body, also a favourite food of Eve Black's), in such quantities that the next alter 'out' often feels the urge to be immediately sick.

18. The Purple Lady: A wife/mother image; she believes herself to be 58, her mother's age at the time of her death, and is painfully modest. Her favourite colour is purple; she decorates her room in it, and wears it wherever she goes. Contributes to the research for I'm Eve with her cousin Elen Portillo, before an unusually dramatic departure.

19. The Strawberry Girl: The second childlike alter (although she believes herself to be 26, she frequently regresses into much earlier, more embarrassing states). Goes barefoot, and eats nothing but strawberries. Persecutes the Purple Lady in a manner reminiscent of Eve Black's tormenting of Eve White, and, like her predecessor, drives the Purple Lady back into therapy - this time with the level-headed Dr. Tsitos, who refuses to encourage her illness at all. Has perhaps the most amusing departure scene of all the alters.

20. The Retrace Lady: The intellectual alter of the final trio. Spends some time quietly assessing the situation before she makes herself known. Believes that if she never retraces her steps, figuratively or literally, she won't make any mistakes and end up dead and gone like all her predecessors - a philosophy which entails, sometimes, travelling for miles upon tiresome miles on winding country roads to prevent herself from returning home by the same route. Also contributes to the research for I'm Eve.

21. Andréa de Cosná: The last gasp of Chris's increasingly unsatisfying defence mechanism, generated after she has 'returned' as herself. Helpless and completely mute. Neither Dr. Tsitos nor Chris take her very seriously as an alter - he considers her a 'fragmentation' rather than a 'full-blown manifestation', and refuses to let Chris dwell on her - perhaps because Chris is, with one or two exceptions, always aware of what Andréa is doing. She exists only for a few weeks, and has the second most amusing departure scene of all the alters.


A Mind of My Own provides us with a different set of options. It preserves most of the original list, with one or two omissions, and adds at least four more names to the roster:

1. Our Heroine;

2. The Red-Headed Girl;

3. The Good Little Girl: Mentioned only once. All we know is that she was 'out' when Chris was baptised, presumably at some point in early childhood.

4. The Run-Away Girl;
5. The Hiding Girl;
6. The Innocent Girl:

Mentioned only once, and all together: Chris's three alters when living at the Strother place, the favourite of her many childhood homes. They probably all coexist with the core Christine at one point or another, and some of their antics - if not their names and the specifics of their comings and goings - are recorded in I'm Eve.

7. The Singing Girl;

8. The Big-Eyed Girl;

9. The Poet;

10. The Liar - But not the Blind Girl, which raises all sorts of questions.

11. The Freckle Girl;

12. Eve White; 13. Eve Black; and 14. Jane;

15. The Blind Lady;

16. Evelyn Lancaster - Mentioned just once in the same breath as the Blind Lady - but definitely as a separate alter. I charitably assume this is a proofing error and not a retcon.

17. The Bell Lady;

18. The Card Girl;

19. The Turtle Lady;

20. The Banana Split Girl;

21. The Purple Lady;

22. The Strawberry Girl;

23. The Retrace Lady;

24. Andréa de Cosná.


Note the absence from the previous list of The Virgin and The Blind Girl.


Considerations:


• I'm Eve makes a point of noting that there are nine child personalities before the Eves and that the Blind Lady is the thirteenth (p. 356).

• Our Heroine herself is probably one of the 22. In A Mind of My Own she writes that researching her past with Elen Portillo (p.103) - before the appearance of the Andréa de Cosná personality - is more like researching a biography of 22 different women than an autobiography (p. 67), and in her poem 'The Black Tambourine' she describes herself as 'a murderess [...] twenty-one strong' (p. 120).

• For these same reasons, Andréa de Cosná is probably not one of the 22. Poor Andréa.

• The Blind Girl and the Lying Girl might not exist as separate entities:

The lying girl and the blind girl! There was always one who lied. But she didn't lie really, she just got the blame for the singing girl's actions, which she didn't remember. But this one is so ugly and rejected, and nobody liked her. She didn't even like herself! Her face is covered with freckles. She looks like the freckle girl, but she is bigger, older. She's even religious and cringing like the freckle girl. Could they be the same one - just grown older? Or maybe she is someone else coming to do the same things. But the blind girl is almost pretty, and she has no freckles! Her skin is white and clear and the eyes are beautiful, so big and blue. She looks a little like the big-eyed girl! Could they be the same, too? But if so, where did the freckles go? But she does stretch her eyes the same way.

Answers on a postcard, anyone with access to the Chris Sizemore papers at Duke!

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others have said, I liked this book better than The 3 Faces of Eve. I liked hearing her story from her perspective. I find true life stories have the added interest of knowing that it really happened. I enjoyed the book.

[Denise Spicer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This 509 page book tells in tedious detail the story of a celebrity pathological liar. Born in 1927 into a huge dysfunctional extended family the author tells her version of her life. Popularized by the award winning movie “Three Faces of Eve”, starring Joanne Woodward, this book purports to all the continuing saga of “Eve” and all her other “personalities”. Although perhaps over dramatic in parts, the book is fairly well-written (by her cousin, publisher/editor?) but it is overly sympathetic to the excuses this individual has made over her entire lifetime. The book is interesting historically and inadvertently exposes the psychiatric industry as not only unscientific but unethical. The now controversial theories surrounding the “multiple personality” mental health diagnosis had its hey-day in the 50’s and 60’s and led to interesting T. V.,/movie plot lines (Perry Mason for example) but did little to help those individuals become healthier while making their therapists and related story tellers wealthy.

[Fishface · Rating 5 out of 5]

Autobiography of the patient described in "the Three Faces Of Eve," the author had a drastically more complex and troubled life than her own analysts appeared to realize. I don't know if Sizemore was actively trying to make her previous biographers look like schmucks, but she did a good job.

[Lisa James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stellar! This is one of those books that I found almost impossible to put down. One of those books where you sit in bed thinking, ok, just a few pages to relax before sleep, & suddenly it's 4 am kind of books. This is the story behind the movie, The Three Faces of Eve, as told by "Eve" herself. It's SO sad in places, yet it's riveting.

[Iamshadow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike the pale shadows that came before it, Eve (or, I'm Eve) is a rich illustration of the world and social structure that Chris Costner Sizemore came from, as much as it's about her multiplicity. Written with her cousin Elen after a battle to get the rights to her life story back from her former therapists, Eve is a beautiful, evocative and complex story of a very unusual system structure in a multiple, and how Chris& lived, loved, evolved and emerged over nearly fifty years of life. Be sure to go on to read the sequel, A Mind of My Own, after you finish to see how their life changed after the spontaneous integration of her final system members into Chris, the system member she thinks is her original self.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. I prefer Chris' story to her doctors' exploitation, but I become inpatient with her illness myself. Most other material I've read concerning dissociative disorders has been in the context of the criminal system, erupting from trauma(s) early in life. This story is an anomaly to me because the only known possible traumas would not be considered overtly traumatic and Chris' personalities began multiplying at such a young age. It is amazing, however, what the functioning brain is capable of concocting in an effort to survive what it perceives as danger.

[Alejandra Wundram · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think this is one of the worse books I have ever read. What could be a compelling story is lost between endless pages of terrible prose. Although I respect the author for sharing her experiences, I would not recommend it.

[Mary Weas]

Fascinating book. Tells the story much better than The Three Faces of Eve because it was written by the woman who lived the story. It also has 20 additional years of her experiences and her life whereas the doctor's book stops in the mid 1950's.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd heard a lot about this book so I picked it up. It didn't disappoint; I liked it and would recommend it...especially to women.

[Hannekeverhorst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sadly, this can be real life. Itz a real eye opener, although it may seem unrealistic. This book made me sit in awe of the human mind, and all the tricks it can play...

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book! What Chris has gone through over the course of her life - she's much braver than I.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

The true biography of the woman whose story was only partially told in the book and movie, "Three Faces of Eve," which depicted dissociative identity or multiple personality disorder. In her own mind-wrenching, heart-grabbing introspective, Chris Costner and her cousin Ellen open up the tormented mind of the real "Eve." Unlike the movie portrayal, she was not "cured" when the third personality, "Jane," emerged as an assumed integration of the other two. She suffered deep psychological terror, physical ailments, and familial disruption through a succession of nineteen other personalities over twenty more years. This book provides not only a personal perspective of the tortured existence of someone suffering severe psychological disorder, but also an objective, sometimes dispassionate insight into causation and amplification. A must-read for anyone interested in better understanding mental health.

[Cheka Firefly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I used to be a completionist but not after this. Sorry.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda makes you wonder why our imaginary friend (when we were younger) never evolved into this. Many split personalities.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I read this in 1978 I still remember being mesmerized by this story. It was very good.

[Sorrythankyou79 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. Fascinating account of multiple personalities, and having seen The Three Faces of Eve, I was thrilled to find this book. It's just so interesting to read about how life really was for Chris. I highly recommend it.

[Sincerely, Jane (18) · Rating 4 out of 5]

After studying Thigpen & Cleckley's case of MPD, I became sceptical when I began reading this book because of the discrepancies between the two. I found it odd to read at first, as it is written like a novel, descriptive and detailed, so detailed in fact I found it hard to believe such things could be remembered. However, this book truly is a wonderful insight into Christine's life, and even though it does not have the psychological jargon and theories of Thigpen & Cleckley, it seems to me a more genuine, truthful, reliable account of Christine, not just an MPD sufferer. Even though I was never sceptical about the existence of MPD/dissociative disorder after studying Thigpen & Cleckley and their abundance of qualitative and quantitative data which supports this as truth (I find it difficult to believe someone could manipulate their brainwaves to fool an EEG as an actress), I am most certainly sceptical about the professionalism of Dr Thigpen in particular, and his apparent exploitation of "Eve". Overall this is a fascinating account, a much more detailed insight into the life of "Eve" herself and her life prior to, and after, treatment.

[Vicki Gooding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike some of the accounts of multiple personality I've read, the different selves of this woman were so blatantly unlike the other personalities within it was very obvious and confusing to those who knew her that she had a real problem. Her story is both fascinating and horrifying.

[Tamara A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is okay but lacks a sense of accuracy. While I do not doubt her diagnosis and problems, her past seems a little embellished. When it got towards the end and dealt more with the troubles of writing her own book I quit reading, as I lost interest.

[Jess Zerr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating sorry but it suffers from being written by the patient. It blames and weedles it's way through the facts in a manner I found to be supremely exhausting.
That being said, professionally, the tale that emerges through the whining is interesting.

[Laura Craner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out my review of this book on my blog:
http://butnotunhappy.blogspot.com/200...

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book while in college. Created an appetite for continued reading in this area.

[Lore LongSoulSystem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me costó trabajo e intenté leerlo como 3 veces, y ahora sé por qué. Había algunas cosas similares que resonaron con mi propia historia que aún tenía que trabajar yo misma.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an entertaining book, even though "multiple personalities" is a load of crap.