Corbett H. Thigpen
Dr. Corbett H. Thigpen (January 8, 1919 – March 19, 1999) was an American psychiatrist and co-author of the internationally-popular, nonfictional book The Three Faces of Eve (1957).[1]
Early life and career
Born in Macon, Georgia, Thigpen helped his family live through the Great Depression by turning his interest in amateur magic to professional account at age 14, making presentations to local civic clubs. His lifelong involvement in this hobby resulted in his being inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Southeastern Association of Magicians. By contrast he considered among his highest achievements his earning of the Eagle Scout Award of the Boy Scouts of America and supported that group throughout his life.
Educationally, having attended North Georgia State College and University, in 1971 Dr. Thigpen served as President of its Alumni Association and was named Outstanding Alumnus in 1971–72 after helping lead a successful fight in the Georgia General Assembly to maintain the military character of the school. Further, being a 1942 graduate of Mercer University in Macon, in 1997 he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of that school. He graduated from the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) in Augusta in 1945, having served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and continued to serve, but as a Captain and physician, until mustering out in 1948.
Dr. Thigpen then entered into the private practice of psychiatry with Dr. Hervey M. Cleckley, a brilliant and highly accomplished physician. Together, for much of the 1940s and most of the 1950s, they comprised the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at MCG, being then and there the only teachers in those fields, while also maintaining their private practice. Treatments they used included coma therapy, electroshock therapy (ECT), deep sleep therapy and lobotomy. Cleckley later wrote in The Mask of Sanity that "Dr. Corbett H. Thigpen, my medical associate of many years, has played a major part in the development and the revision of this work".
Dr. Thigpen rose to the status of Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at MCG. A former medical student and Augusta doctor has remarked that in his academic career Dr. Thigpen's class was the only one in which the professor received a standing ovation after every lecture. He was also known internationally for his research, publishing more than 40 professional papers.
Multiple personality
In 1957, with Dr. Cleckley, he co-authored the book The Three Faces of Eve, the first popular account of a case of multiple personalities (now called Dissociative Identity Disorder). They had previously published a research article on their patient 'Eve' in 1954, documenting the psychiatric sessions and how they came to view it as a case of 'multiple personality'.[2] Such a diagnosis had fallen into relative disuse in psychiatry, but Thigpen and Cleckley felt they had identified a rare case; others have questioned the use of hypnosis and suggestion in creating some if not all of the characterization, and the diagnosis of Multiple Personality Disorder (now Dissociative Identity Disorder) remains controversial despite, or because of, upsurges in diagnoses in America.[3]
The book was made into a film, The Three Faces of Eve, released later in 1957 and starring Joanne Woodward, who earned an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role. Thigpen and Cleckley served as advisor to Producer/Director Nunnally Johnson and received writing credits on the film. At the authors' behest the film strictly and without exaggeration followed the actual patient's life and treatment. Documentation exists that the patient and all pertinent members of her family received compensation for their permissions to publish their stories. Dr. Thigpen ended his life on good terms with the patient.
In the book and film 'Eve' is cured of her alternate personalities, but the real life person—Chris Costner Sizemore—has stated that she was not free of them until many years later. She also alleges that she was not aware the session reports would be published outside of medical circles, or that she was signing over rights to her life story forever (for £3 for the book rights to McGraw-Hill which sold 2 million copies and $5000 for the visual rights[4] (relatives received $2000)). She fought unsuccessfully to stop the publication of videos of her treatment sessions, but in 1989 successfully sued the film studio 20th Century Fox when it wanted to make a parody remake of its film and tried to use a 1956 contract she had signed, without legal representation via Thigpen, to prevent Sissy Spacek optioning Sizemore's own published book on her life.[3][5] When Sizemore returned to Augusta for a speaking tour in 1982 neither Thigpen or Cleckley attended and she did not visit them, though in 2008 she described the diagnosis and treatment of her as courageous.[6] In 1994 Thigpen and Cleckley published a brief communication in an international hypnosis journal cautioning against over-use of the diagnosis of Multiple Personality Disorder.[7]
Politics
During the mid-1960s Dr. Thigpen actively stated his opposition to the policy direction of the Vietnam War, believing that it was not being fought to win, and vehemently disagreed with increasing the role of government in citizens' lives, particularly in the medical field, a trend he predicted would result in a decrease in the general quality of healthcare. To express these ideas, Thigpen wrote the speech "A Psychiatrist Looks At His Nation" and presented it approximately 150 times across Georgia and South Carolina over about a two-year period. As a result, in 1968 he was awarded the Freedom Foundation's George Washington Medal. Further, he was named a member of the Distinguished Speakers of America. All these addresses were undertaken at his own expense and apparently devoid of political ambition. Specifically, the Georgia Republican Party asked that he consider running for governor and later for the U.S. Senate; he respectfully declined both, indicating that the times probably were not ripe.
Later life and career
Dr. Thigpen continued his practice of psychiatry until 1987, when vertigo forced retirement. In 1988 he was honored with proclamations of good citizenship by the Mayor of Augusta and the Governor of Georgia.
Bibliography
Book:
Thigpen, C. H. and Cleckley, H. M., The Three Faces of Eve, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1957. [Translated into 27 languages]
Journal Articles:
Thigpen, C. H. and Cleckley, H. M., "A Case of Multiple Personality," The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 495: 135–151, January, 1954. [Also presented at American Psychiatric Association(APA) Convention, May, 1953]
Cleckley, H. M. and Thigpen, C. H.: "The Dynamics of Illusion," American Journal of Psychiatry, 112: 334–342, November, 1955. [Presented at APA Convention,May, 1955]
Thigpen, F. B., Thigpen, C. H., and Cleckley, H. M., The Use of Electric-Convulsive Therapy in Morphine, Meperidine and Related Alkaloid Additions, The American Journal of Psychiatry, 109: 895–898, June, 1953.
Thigpen, C. H. and Moss, B. F., Jr., "Unusual Paranoid Manifestations in a Case of Psychomotor Epilepsy and Narcolepsy," Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 122: 381–385, October, 1955. [Presented at Georgia Medical Association Meeting, May, 1955]
Thigpen, C. H. and Cleckley, H. M., "Freudian Psychodynamics--Science or Mirage?" The New Physician(Journal of the Student American Medical Association),10: 97–101, April, 1961.
Thigpen, C. H., "Renaissance Man," Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, 20–22, January, 1985.
Thigpen, C. H. and Cleckley, H. M.: A Case Study of Multiple Personality, 1954, Pennsylvania State University, Psychological Cinema Registry, University Park, PA.
Thigpen C. H. and Cleckley, H. M.: A Modern Properly Administered Electroconvulsive Treatment, 1979. (Presented at the APA Convention, San Francisco, CA, May, 1980.
References
- ↑ Hervey Cleckley and Corbett Thigpen, Augusta Chronicle, Web posted January 1, 2000
- ↑ A case of multiple personality. Thigpen, C.H. & Cleckley, H. (1954) Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49, 135-51 Full Text
- 1 2 OCR Psychology: AS Core Studies and Psychological Investigations Psychology Press, 2013
- ↑ 15 YEARS AFTER RECOVERY, `EVE' ENJOYS THE BEST OF HER 22 PERSONALITIES By Ellen Futterman, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 6 1989
- ↑ Film's 'Eve' Fights to Tell Her Story Dale White, Wilmington Morning Star, July 10, 1989, Page 1D and 3D
- ↑ The Three Faces of Eve Original entry by Susan D. Morris, University of Georgia Libraries, 08/03/2007, Last edited by NGE Staff on 03/14/2013
- ↑ On the incidence of multiple personality disorder: A brief communication International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Volume 32, Issue 2, 1984 DOI:10.1080/00207148408416004
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