IMS 103 Assignment Blog

 In The Three Faces of Eve, Eve, played by Joanne Woodward, is described as having an illness known as Multiple Personality Disorder. If she had been ill in Early Modern England (1500-1700), she would have been described as possessed by the devil. Read the account of a woman's possession, "A True and most dreadfull Discourse." What's the difference between thinking about a person's unusual behavior as a disease (strange actions = illness) and thinking about it as a spiritual problem (strange actions = possession)? Write about the consequences of each metaphorical equation: do we treat Eve differently than we do Margaret Cooper? do we hold them accountable in different ways? Would Ian Hacking say that the writer of "A True and Most Dreadfull Discourse" is wrong and the writer of The Three Faces of Eve is right about what truly afflicts these women? If not, why not?

The difference in thinking about a person’s unusual behavior as an illness versus thinking of it as a spiritual problem is that a person doesn’t consciously decide to be ill. Illness happens to you, you can’t control when it strikes (as I so well know!). Yet it’s more plausible to believe that a person would believe to be possessed, or believe to have a spiritual problem.

It’s hard to say how we treat Eve differently from Margaret Cooper, as we haven’t seen The Three Faces of Eve yet. However, I would say that for Eve, since she has multiple personality disorder, we would treat her as if she’s sick with something she can’t control. She can’t decide to be better – she’ll need medicine and psychiatric counseling to start recovering. For treating Margaret, it would be likely that she would be told she’s faking it, or that she just needs to decide to get over it. That’s the feeling you get when you hear “possession” or “spiritual problem,” because the patient has decided to allow herself to be affected.

Again, as we haven’t seen The Three Faces of Eve, it’s hard to say what Ian Hacking would say about truly affects Eve. I shall revist this assignment after watching the clips in class, so that I can make the most of my thoughts.