Sandra A. Moore
As I drove down the slippery, rain-soaked, winding road on my way to another visit with Chris Sizemore, my thoughts took me back to the first time we had met. Then she was a novelty to me. I had actually realized my lifetime dream of meeting with Eve, the subject of the most famous case of multiple personality of modern time. The novelty of Chris Sizemore had quickly worn off; however, the warmth and openness with which Chris treated me made me realize that here was an ordinary woman with immense untapped potential, a young child perhaps, who was beginning to experience the excitement of getting to know herself. I felt very uncomfortable about going to see Chris this time, the way I might feel about going to see an old friend.
As I walked up the pathway to her home, I noticed that despite the pouring rain the front door was standing open as it had on my first visit, in anticipation of my arrival. Chris was waiting just inside and invited me to her family room where we enjoyed a beautiful fire and sipped hot tea while we chatted. The thought passed through my mind that I was sitting with ‘Eve,’ a petite, attractive, open woman who had endured the obvious conflicts of a life with not just one personality, or even three as the public had been lead to believe, but in fact had come to terms with 22 separate personalities before she entered her present state of stability, resolution.
Resolution for Chris has allowed her, yes, inspired her to share with the world in her first novel, I’m Eve, the trauma inherent in her fight for survival of the mental illness which had plagued her since the age of two. Among the many personalities of Chris Sizemore were artists and poets. On the following pages, Phoebe shares with you some of Chris’s art and poetry.
The pictures were painted by Chris Sizemore and by personalities which manifested themselves through her while she suffered with her illness. The caption below each picture refers to the title of her work, the artist personality who painted it, and the other pertinent information or excerpts from her poetry. A more substantial glimpse of her work was exhibited at the Fenwick Library in April of 1980. Walter (Jack) Sciutti, III photographed the works for Phoebe.
Sandra A. Moore was a student at George Mason University.
Chris Costner Sizemore was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder) in the 1950s. Her case was made public under a pseudonym by her psychologists, Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley, in the book and film, The Three Faces of Eve – the first public account of multiple personalities. She went public with her true identity in the 1970s. Her papers have been collected at the Duke University Library.