Thigpen and Cleckley

AIMS: 

• to document the psychotherapeutic treatment of a 25 year old woman who presented with a history or servere headaches and blackouts but was later discovered to have multiple personality disorder

METHOD:

• Case study

PARTICIPANTS:

• Eve White (3 personalities - Eve Black and Jane)
• 25 year old american woman
• doctors puzzled by headaches/blackouts so referred to Thigpen and Cleckley

PROCEDURE:

• EW appeared depressed/withdrawn - suffering from marital difficulties
• between first few sessions receieved letter from EW with final paragraph in 3rd person/different handwriting
• EW said she was hearing voices, during therapy had headache and Eve Black (2nd personality) came out, EW spoke of EB in 3rd person
• It was EB's decision when to go back into the sub-consciousness 
• 2 very different personalities - EW = gentral and introvert, EB = flirtatious and extrovert. Thigpen and Cleckley were accused of being biased - subjective?
• Independent experts conducted psychometric testing (IQ/Memory) and projective tests
• After 8 months 3rd personality came out (Jane) - more mature/sensible
• T&C wanted to make Jane dominant personality - ETHICS?
• More psychometric testing + EEGS
• Over 14 months 100+ hours of interviews

RESULTS:

• EW husband reported she had bought clothes, prompted EW to speak about hearing voices and EB came out for first time…