Thigpen and Cleckley

AS and A Level Psychology

Thigpen and Cleckley (1954) – ‘A case of multiple personality’

Case study of a 25-year-old married woman referred to two psychiatrists for severe headaches and blackouts but soon discovered to have a multiple personality.

The first few interviews of the woman, Eve White, only found her to have ‘several important emotional difficulties’ and ‘set of marital conflicts and personal frustrations’.

The first indication of multiple personality came when the psychiatrist received a letter from Eve that she did not remember sending and which contained a note at the end written in a different and childish handwriting.

On her next visit, after a period of unusual agitation, she reported that she occasionally had the impression that she heard a voice in her head-and then suddenly and spontaneously showed a dramatic change in her behaviour, revealing the character (and answering to the name) of Eve Black.

Over a period of 14 months and around 100 hours of interview time, the two psychiatrists investigated the two Eves, first using hypnosis, but later without the need for it.

Eve White was found not to have access to the awareness and memories of Eve Black (experiencing blackouts when Eve Black took over control), although the reverse was true for Eve Black (who often used the ability to disrupt Eve White’s life by taking over and getting her into trouble or by giving her headaches)

Later, during the course of therapy, a third personality emerged called ...

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Over a period of 14 months and around 100 hours of interview time, the two psychiatrists investigated the two Eves, first using hypnosis, but later without the need for it.

Eve White was found not to have access to the awareness and memories of Eve Black (experiencing blackouts when Eve Black took over control), although the reverse was true for Eve Black (who often used the ability to disrupt Eve White’s life by taking over and getting her into trouble or by giving her headaches)

Later, during the course of therapy, a third personality emerged called Jane – again suddenly and with a different set of characteristics.
Jane had access to the consciousness of both Eves, but incomplete access to their memories before her emergence, and could only emerge through Eve White.

Evidence for the existence of multiple personality:

Thigpen and Cleckley provide different sources of evidence for the existence of a multiple personality in their patient.

Personality distinctions gained through interview:

Character – Eve White was described as self controlled, serious, matter of fact and meticulously truthful. Eve Black was childish, carefree, shallow, mischievous and a fluent liar.
Attitudes – Eve White was distressed about her failing marriage and showed a warm love for her daughter. Eve Black thought Eve White’s distress and love was silly and seemed ‘immune to major affective events’ in human relationships.
Behavior – Eve White behaved in a responsible and reserved way, while Eve Black was irresponsible, pleasure and excitement seeking, and sought the company of strangers to avoid discovery.
Mannerisms – the authors stated that there were a thousand minute alterations in manner, gesture, expression, posture, of nuances in reflex… of glance’ between the two Eves.

Personality distinctions gained through independent psychological testing:

Psychometric tests – The IQ of Eve White was 110, whereas the IQ of Eve Black was 104. They differed also in memory function.

Projective testing – the Rorschach projective ink-blot test was used. It revealed that Eve Black showed regression and hysterical tendencies, but seemed to be far healthier than Eve White. Eve White showed repression, anxiety, obsessive, compulsive traits and an inability to deal with her hostility in the test. The test revealed one personality at two stages of life – that Eve Black represented a regression to a carefree state as a way of dealing with her dislike of marriage and maternal pressures.

Personality distinctions gained through physiological EEG testing:

Eve White and Jane were found to show similar EEG readings, with Eve Black definitely distinguishable from the other two.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the case study method in this investigation?
How valid do you think the tests were that were used as sources of evidence for the existence of a multiple personality in the patient?
Overall, do you think that Eve was not faking it and multiple personality disorder is a valid diagnosis? Why or why not?
‘Eve White’ was not the patient’s real name. Why was a pseudonym used instead?
What do you think the legal implications would have been for Eve White if Eve Black had committed a crime?

Peer Reviews

Here's what a star student thought of this essay

sydneyhopcroft

7th of Apr 2012

Quality of writing

The Quality of Written Communication is fine. There are a couple of typing errors, which could easily be rectified by a spell-check and proof-read, but nothing here compromises the clarity of the writing so much that it loses what the candidate is trying to say. There is no need for complex punctuation like colon and semi-colons here and the answer is primarily written in note form.

Level of analysis

The Level of information given is very good. AS Psychology on the OCR level, for the Core Studies exam, is absolutely killer, and often very pedantic pieces of information can be called for when the respective studies are huge, so it is great to see such a thorough level of detail shown in these notes. I would perhaps like to see a less disjointed read, with perhaps the bullet points linking together a little more, though this is not something that would lose the candidate marks in their answer. It is clear here that the candidate is being mark predominantly on accuracy, and this is something they excel at - all points made are very accurate, from the personality descriptions to the psychometric and projective test results.

Response to question

This is not so much an essay as an important review article of the Thigpen & Cleckley study from 1954 into a case of multiple personality disorder. My best guess is that this is revision material and would be submitted as an ongoing piece of homework/coursework. The focus is very consistent and all the points are accurate. A bit more detail could be useful and the question proposed at the end of the revision notes do seem to suggest that part of this coursework piece is missing. I would stress the need for paragraphs usually but, as this is revision material, it makes sense that there are only brief sections of information cut down into nicely coordinated areas of study.

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