The Enigma of the Mind by Robert Campbell

An excerpt from the book The Enigma of the Mind by Robert Campbell and Time-Life books, a study of the human mind and multiple personalities.

A Review of Recent Books--Letting Them Speak for Themselves

THE ENIGMA OF THE MIND by Robert Campbell and the Editors of Time-Life Books, New York: Time-Life Books, 1976.

About the Book: Among the best reference books published in the U.S. are the sets of low-priced volumes prepared and produced by Time-Life Books, including The Emergence of Man, Life Science Library, The American Wilderness, and Human Behavior. They all have in common the virtues of being excellently researched, popularly written (packed with anecdotes), filled with understandable statistics, and superbly illustrated. The Enigma of the Mind (a volume in the Human Behavior series) is devoted to a survey and study of the human mind.

From the Book:

Behind the pensive gaze of Chris Sizemore lies a bizarre secret. She is the real-life heroine of The Three Faces of Eve, the famous film about a case of multiple personality, a woman who in effect was not one person, but three people with dissimilar characteristics.

The story began for Chris at the age of five, when her grandmother died and her mother made her kiss the corpse. A psychiatrist later concluded that the experience had triggered a psychological breakup in the girl. After that Chris was different people in turn. One of them, whom her psychiatrist called Eve White, was demure, retiring, almost saintly. Another--Eve Black--was a vain, rowdy, irresponsible woman who once tried to strangle her child. A third was Jane, a subtle mix of Eve White and Eve Black. The film was made about these three personalities. Chris was then 25 years old.

By her doctor's count, she later went on to assume 18 other personalities. One was the Spoon Lady, who collected spoons; another was the Blue Lady, who wore only that color. Some could sew or drive a car; others lacked those skills. At last, in 1975, Chris was declared fully recovered, and she revealed that she was the subject of the movie.

You Are Here: Trivia-Library Home » Excerpts from Recent Books » The Enigma of the Mind by Robert Campbell
« Getting Busted: Personal Experiences of Arrest, Trial, and PrisonA Dictionary of Gestures by Betty J. and Franz H. Bauml »