Chris Costner-Sizemore
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Christine "Chris" Costner-Sizemore (born April 4, 1927) is a woman who, in the 1950s, was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. Her case was depicted in the book and film The Three Faces of Eve by her psychiatrists, Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley. She lived for many years in South Carolina.
In accordance with then-current modes of thought on the disorder, Thigpen reported that Costner-Sizemore had developed multiple personalities as a result of her witnessing two deaths and a horrifying accident within three months as a small child.
While The Three Faces of Eve was written by Thigpen and Cleckley with limited input from Costner-Sizemore, her later books I'm Eve and A Mind Of My Own fill in details. According to psychiatrists who worked with her after she moved from South Carolina, Costner-Sizemore did not experience three selves, but approximately 20. The doctors reported that her selves presented in groups of three at a time.[1]
Costner-Sizemore reports feeling exploited and objectified by the media blitz surrounding the book and film. Upon discovering in 1988 that her legal rights to her own life story had been signed away to 20th Century Fox by Thigpen, Costner-Sizemore went to Manhattan's Federal District Court to contest the contract, and won.<[2] [3]
Costner-Sizemore was the inspiration for the song Christine (song) by the English rock band Siouxsie & the Banshees.
[edit] References
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007) |
- ^ Costner, Chris, with Elen Pittillo, I'm Eve. The Compelling Story of the International Case Of Multiple Personality. Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1977.
- ^ Costner, Chris, A Mind of My Own: The Woman Who Was Known As "Eve" Tells the Story of Her Triumph over Multiple Personality Disorder. William Morrow & Co, 1989.
- ^ Entertainment Tonight, interview with Costner-Sizemore and Bobbi Edricks, 1988. RealAudio stream here
