Christine "Chris" Costner Sizemore was an American woman who, in the 1950s, was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder. Her case, with a pseudonym used, was depicted in the 1950s book The Three Faces of Eve, written by her psychiatrists, Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley, upon which a film that starred Joanne Woodward was based. She went public with her true identity in the 1970s.
Background
Sizemore was born Christine Costner on April 4, 1927, to parents Acie and Zueline Hastings Costner in Edgefield, South Carolina. In accordance with then-current modes of thought on the disorder, Thigpen reported that Sizemore had developed multiple personalities as a result of her witnessing two deaths and a horrifying accident within three months as a small child. However, in Sizemore's own report, these traumatic incidents only triggered the evidencing of selves which were already present:
Despite authorities' claims to the contrary, my former alters were not fragments of my birth personality. They were entities, whole in their own rights, who coexisted with my birth personality before I was born. They were not me, but they remain intrinsically related to what it means to be me.
Thigpen and Cleckley diagnosed Sizemore and treated her at no cost for several years. In 1956, while still under their care, she signed the rights to her life story to 20th Century Fox - although it was later alleged that she had signed this without legal representation and using the names of her alternate personalities. The Three Faces of Eve became a bestseller when it was published in 1957. This was written by Thigpen and Cleckley with limited input from Sizemore. In 1958 she co-wrote Strangers in My Body: The FinalFace of Eve, using the pseudonym of Evelyn Lancaster. She wrote two later follow-ups: I'm Eve, written with Elen Sain Pittillo; and A Mind of My Own. In 1970 she started treatment with Tony Tsitos, whom she credited with making the greatest progress in integrating the divergent personalities over the next four years. According to both Sizemore and psychiatrists who worked with her after her treatment with Thigpen and Cleckley, it was not until she was in Tsitos' care that she became aware that she experienced not three selves, but more than 20 personalities that eventually were unified. It was reported that her selves were presented in groups of three at a time. Sizemore reported feeling exploited and objectified by the media blitz surrounding the book and film of Three Faces of Eve. Upon discovering in 1988 that her legal rights to her own life story had been signed away to 20th Century Fox by Thigpen, Sizemore went to Manhattan's Federal District Court to contest the contract. She accepted an out-of-court settlement, and no further films were made. Sizemore's papers, covering 1952 through 1989, have been acquired by the Duke University Library. An overview of the collection and a summary of Sizemore's story are included on its website. Sizemore was interviewed on the BBC News channel series Hardtalk on March 25, 2009.
