1. A case of multiple personality
Thigpen & Cleckley (1954)

2. Aims
 Be able to define “personality”.
 Understand concepts of dissociation, and
multiple personality disorder
 Be able to explain the difference between MPD
and schizophrenia.
 Consider whether MPD is a real diagnosis.

3. What is personality?
 Activity
Pick five words that you think describe your
personality.

4. Personality
 The pattern of collective character, behavioural,
temperamental, emotional, and mental traits of
a person.
 Put together, these characteristics make us the
individuals which we are.
 But what happens when they don't fit together
to make a unified whole?

5. Multiple Personality Disorder
 The occurrence of two or more distinct
personalities within the same individual, each of
which is able to take control sometime in the
person's life.
 Also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder.

6. What is dissociation?
 Perceived detachment of the mind from the
emotional state or even from the body.
Dissociation is characterized by a sense of the
world as a dreamlike or unreal place and may
be accompanied by poor memory of the
specific events, which in severe form is known
as dissociative amnesia.
 Can be a useful coping strategy to deal with
embarrassing, stressful or painful incidents.
 Can also be a side effect of drugs or alcohol.

7. MPD as an extreme form of
dissociation
 A response to traumatic situations from which
there is no physical means of escape.
 If the person “goes away in their own head”
they can remove themselves from the pain and
function as though it had not occurred.
 An extreme form of “normal” dissociation.

8.  Putnam et al. (1983)
 Surveyed therapists who worked with DID/
MPD patients
 80% - suffered from physical abuse
 70% - suffered from sexual abuse

9. Diagnosing MPD
1. Patient has at least two distinct identities or
personality states. Each of these has its
own, relatively lasting pattern of sensing,
thinking about, and relating to self and
environment.
2. At least two of these personalities repeatedly
assume control of the patient’s behaviour.
3. Common forgetfulness can’t explain the
patient’s extensive inability to remember
important personal information.
4. The behaviour is not directly caused by
substance abuse or by a general medical
condition.

10. Schizophrenia vs MPD
Schizophrenia is a disorder where symptoms
include hallucinations and delusions. It is an
example of a psychotic disorder. Contact with
reality is impaired.
Multiple personality disorder is where two or more
personalities (or alters) exist within the same
person. Personalities will have different likes and
dislikes; they can be different ages, races or
sexes. It is an example of a neurotic disorder.
None of the personalities have difficulties with
reality testing.

11. Controversy: does MPD exist?

12. Does it really exist?
 Could be created in the therapist’s office
through the use of hypnotism and guided
imagery.
 Case of Bennet Braun and Patricia Burgus
 Repressed memory therapy (RMT) banned by
the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK,
because it is impossible to distinguish a true
memory from a false memory.

13. Write up your background summary
 You need to include:
definition of personality
Definition of Multiple Personality Disorder
Definition of Dissociation
Difference between MPD and schizophrenia
Criteria for diagnosing MPD
The debate about whether MPD is a real disorder,
or whether it’s caused by therapists

14. Aim
 To document the psychotherapeutic treatment
of a 25 year old woman who presented with a
history of severe headaches and blackouts, but
was later discovered to have multiple
personality disorder.

15. Method: Case Study
 Allows us to study
unusual phenomena
 Allows collection of
rich, detailed data
 Allows us to follow an
individual over a long
period of time.
 Individual differences
make it difficult to
generalise from a
case study.
 Possibility that
researchers may lose
objectivity
 Hard to replicate –
low reliability

16. Sample
 A 25 year old married woman, referred to a
psychiatrist because of severe headaches and
blackouts.

17. The case study
 Eve White was referred to a psychiatrist, Dr
Thigpen, because she experienced severe
headaches and blackouts that had no
physical cause.
 Therapy revealed some ordinary emotional
problems, and hypnosis was used to replace
missing memories.
 She had started to improve when her doctor
received a letter from her, in which the last
paragraph looked as though it had been written
by a child, and had nothing to do with the rest of
the letter.

19.  When Thigpen & Cleckley asked her about the
letter, she became agitated, and asked if
hearing voices was a symptom of madness.
 Then, after a moment of silence where she put
her hands to her head,her posture and
demeanour changed, and Eve Black
appeared.

20. Eve White vs Eve Black
 Original Video Footage

21.  Thigpen & Cleckley spent the next 14 months
(approx 100 hours) interviewing Eve White
(EW) and Eve Black (EB).
 Initially, in order to interview EB, EW had to be
hypnotised. This complicated EW's life
because it meant that EB was able to pop out
more easily at other times too.
 EB was aware of all EW did, but the same was
not true in reverse. When EB was out, she
often behaved mischievously and would leave
EW to be punished. This was substantiated by
her husband and parents.

22. Procedure
 A series of interviews, spanning 14 months and
approx 100 hours
 Used hypnosis to access Eve Black.
 Used standardised psychometric tests (IQ
and memory)
 Used EEG readings
 Used projective tests (Rorschach; human
figures drawing)

23. What do you see?

24. Results: Eve Black vs Eve White
 Eve Black never made herself known to EW's
child or husband, who she despised, nor to
EW's parents.
 She was able to pass herself off as EW,
imitating her tone of voice and gestures.
 However, EW's parents were aware of
unexplained changes in her, which they
described as her “strange little habits”.
 EW's husband also noticed some incidents: eg
he complained that she had bought an array of
expensive clothes; EW says she has no

25. Eve White vs Eve Black
 Eve White: demure, retiring, often looks sad,
reads and composes poetry, industrious, lacks
spontaneity, seldom playful or joking, speaks
softly, dresses simply, devoted to daughter.
 Eve Black: party girl, childish, vain, egocentric,
amusing and likeable, uses slang, dresses
provocatively, light-hearted, despises EW's
child and husband.

26. Eve Black vs Eve White: events
others noticed…

27. Evidence of differences between
Eve White and Eve Black
 Wechsler Intelligence Test
EW: 110
EB: 104
 Wechsler Memory Tests
EW: Superior
EB: Inferior
 Rorschach test & drawings of human figures
EW: Some anxiety, obsessive compulsive traits, rigid &
hostile
EB: Hysterical tendencies.
 Parents noticed different behaviour (incident when she
wandered off); so did husband (incident when she bought
expensive clothes)

28. Results/Findings contd
 After eight months of therapy, a third
personality, Jane, emerged.
 She seemed to be a compromise between EB
and EW. She knew of both Eves, showed
compassion towards EW's daughter, and was
able to take over Eve White's tasks at work and
home.

29. EEG results
 An EEG showed differences between the three
personalities:
 Tenseness was most pronounced in EB, next
EW and then Jane.
 EW and Jane had a fairly similar alpha rhythm,
whereas EB’s was a little faster, on the
borderline between normal and abnormally fast.
Slightly fast records are sometimes associated
with psychopathic personality.
 EB showed evidence of restlessness and
general tension, whereas the others didn’t.

30.  It was suggested that if Jane could stay in
charge the patient would probably recover.
 But the therapists recognised that it would be
morally wrong for them to “kill off” any one
personality. Ultimately, the decision about
which personality should survive must be the
patient’s.

31. Evidence of differences between
Eve White and Eve Black
 EEG
EW: 11 cycles per second (normal)
EB: 12.5 cycles per second (slightly fast;
sometimes associated with psychopathic
personality.)
 Personality dynamics
EW: Repressive of her feelings
EB: Regressive
 Hypnosis
EW: Easily hypnotised
EB: Not hypnotisable

32.  What do the test differences suggest about Eve
White and Eve Black?
 They are two different personalities,.
 Eve White had a higher IQ and memory
function, but Eve Black was psychologically
healthier – regressed rather than repressed.
 Eve Black's role was to embody all the angry
feelings, thus enabling Eve White to maintain a
socially acceptable persona.

33. Results contd.
 Thigpen and Cleckley claimed that the therapy
was successful and that “Eve” became well-
adjusted.
 However, in her book “I’m Eve”, Christine
Sizemore tells a more complicated story,
involving many more identities, and taking
much longer to resolve.

34. What does this study tell us about
behaviour?
 The case study suggests that people can
indeed suffer from multiple personality disorder.
 This can be shown in the study in which
objective differences could be found between
the personalities of Eve White and Eve Black,
as measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Test,
the Wechsler Memory Test, and EEG readings.
 However, it is possible that the researchers may
have become overly subjective, and been
deceived by the subject. It is also possible that
their own preconceptions may have influenced
the subject (eg use of leading questions).

35. Practical applications
 Understand the functioning of personality
 Suggests therapy options for those suffering
from Multiple Personality Disorder.

36. Ethics
 Withdrawal?
 Informed consent?
 Privacy?
 Welfare?
 Not aware that Thigpen & Cleckley were writing
a book for the general public
 Not aware that they filmed some of the therapy
sessions
 Received no benefit from the film “Three Faces
of Eve”

37. Ecological validity
 Low ecological validity, as Eve was interviewed
in an office setting, not observed in her daily
life. Therefore it may be that the experimenters
encouraged certain behaviours in Eve.

38. Quantitative and Qualitative Data
 Quantitative: EEG, psychometric tests (IQ,
memory)
 Qualitative: observations; Projective personality
tests (Rorschach test; drawings of human
figures test)

39. Longitudinal vs Snapshot
 Longitudinal: study took place of 14 months
(approx 100 hours).

40. Alternative
 Observe her in her own home using cameras.
 Advantage: More ecologically valid
 Disadvantage: If Eve is unaware of cameras,
deception is involved, as well as invasion of
privacy.
 Effect on results: Validity should increase: more
likely to see natural occurrences of the two
personalities and also prove the existence of
the other as if she is acting more likely to slip up
if unaware of being watched.

41. Alternative 2
 Use an independent researcher as an
interviewer
 Advantage: reduce experimenter bias, leading
questions etc
 Disadvantage: Difficult to ensure independence.
Difficult to build rapport, therefore may not get
valid responses from Eve
 Effect on results: May increase validity if
confounding variable of experimenter bias is
removed – but on the other hand, may
decrease it if rapport disappears so Eve does
not respond truthfully.

42. Strengths and Weaknesses
 Rich, qualitative data
 Quantitative data; use of
objective measures
 Data from family and husband
supported the idea that there
was two distinct personalities
 Film was taken and analysed
frame by frame of all three
persons and minute
measurements of the eyes
indicated that there was a
different pattern for each person
 Data gathered over long period
of time
 Thought-provoking
 May lead to further research
 Possibility of researchers being
deceived
 Subjectivity of researchers may
have influenced their findings
 One subject, therefore difficult
to generalise
 Demand
characteristics/experimental
demand could have altered her
behaviour
 Ethical problems
 MPD is very common in USA
but not in other countries
 How could authors have
measured “childishness” or
“responsibility” in Eve – these
are v. subjective judgements

43. Past exam question
 The Thigpen&Cleckley study looks at the
controversial diagnosis of “multiple personality”.
It is controversial because some people do not
believe there is such a condition. Suggest
TWO pieces of evidence from the case study
which suggest that the patient really did have a
multiple personality.
 Objective measures: EEG and psychometric
tests different for each personality
 Corroborated by subjective reports from her
family

44.  Explain one problem with using the evidence
from the study by Thigpen & Cleckley to support
the diagnosis that Eve had multiple personality
disorder.
 Physical evidence was weak. Differences in
EEG, and in psychometric and projective tests
were not very impressive. Subjectivity in the
researchers may have caused them to give too
much weight to this weak evidence.