20th
“…Now she’s in purple and now she’s a turtle…”
I keep singing Siouxsie and the Banshees “Christine” to myself today.
For those of you who know this incredibly catchy song you probably know that the lyrics are inspired by the story of Christine Costner-Sizemore, a woman who was diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder in the 1950s. Three of her personalities (Eve White, Eve Black and Jane) inspired Joanne Woodward’s oscar winning performance in the 1957 movie “The Three Faces of Eve”. After the movie she also developed personalities that were referred to as “The Purple Lady” and “The Turtle Woman”, hence the lyrics above. In 1974 she says she “had to absorb all the others in order to find myself” and Christine, integrating, became “Chris”.
I find her legal battles with Fox particularly interesting. In 1956, at age 29, in her psychiatrist’s office in Augusta, GA , Christine signed her name and the names Eve White, Eve Black and Jane at the bottom of a contract that would enable Fox to use her story for “The Three Faces of Eve”. This contract gave Christine $7000 and gave Fox the rights to “”all versions of my life story heretofore published or hereafter published”. The implications of a contract like this seem vast. A legal battle commenced when Chris and her cousin wrote a book about her experiences “I’m Eve” and Sissy Spacek wanted to turn the book into a movie. People Magazine did an article on Chris that year (1989).
But the story goes on, Chris has been campaigning to raise awareness about mental health issues, calling out criminals who try to use dissociative identity disorders as part of their defense and living and remembering as an “integrated” person. Last year the BBC show Hard Talk did an interview with Chris, now in her eighties, about her life (you can watch the 3 part interview on youtube here). She agrees that her first psychiatrist inadvertently reinforced her disorder and says she now misses “Eve Black”, the party girl…
What a peculiar life to have led! And what kind of a person will be our generation’s Christine?
