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Running Head: Sybil 1 Sybil Kayla DeMeo The College of New Jersey April 2015 Running Head: Sybil 2 Sybil is a movie portrayal of a real life woman named, Shirley Ardell Mason. In the book, her name is Sybil Isabel Dorset. Sybil Dorset is one of the first known cases of Dissociative Identity or Multiple Personality Disorder. “Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a severe condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in— and alternately take control of—an individual”, as stated by Psychology Today (2014). Multiple Personality Disorder results from a break in the host personality, rather than the actual creation of new personalities. There has been a great deal of research and debate on this disorder that still continues even today. The movie “Sybil” describes Sybil’s life and the sixteen different personalities inside of her. The movie begins with Sybil, who is an elementary school teacher. After suffering from a breakdown in front of her class, she is given an examination of her brain by Doctor Cornelia Wilbur, who becomes her psychologist for the duration of the therapy. Doctor Wilbur becomes invested in Sybil’s extremely rare case of Dissociative Identity Disorder. This disorder is the condition in which the sufferer has endured severe physical and/or sexual abuse in his or her childhood. The abuse must be so severe that the victim subconsciously creates “alters” as a coping mechanism in order to escape because they cannot deal with the trauma they are experiencing. Typically, the host, the main personality, is unaware of the existence of the “alters”. These other personalities are all repressed parts of the host’s personality. The only way to cure this condition is to make the host personality aware of the existence of the other personalities. The patient diagnosed with this disorder will experience blackouts during the time that the other personalities are taking control. Usually, there is some indicator that the personality is Running Head: Sybil 3 about to switch, like a head nod or change of expression. Depending on the situation, the personality best suited to deal with the presenting issue is the one that will take control. Sybil had endured a long childhood of sexual and physical abuse afflicted upon by her schizophrenic mother, Hattie Dorsett. This abuse happened when Sibyl was young and her father did nothing to even acknowledge the child abuse of his wife. When confronted about it, he simply dismissed the accusation by saying that child raising is a women’s job. Sybil’s mother degraded and physically abused her. She broke many of Sybil’s bones. She would give Sybil enemas and tie her to the piano while she played. If Sybil did not hold the water in, her mother would punish her more. The movie depicts the realities of the trauma Sybil had been emotionally and physically scarred by. When Sybil was young, her grandmother lived with them and protected her against the cruelties of her mother. Once she passed away, Sybil was left alone and exposed to her mother’s abuse, which was so harsh that it would eventually destroy her life and sanity. Sybil was very alone in her world and eventually fell in love with a boy named Tommy. Tommy was Sybil’s first boyfriend. Tommy was everything to Sybil. One day, they were playing in the barn. They were sitting on a ledge high up and Tommy jumped from it and tragically landed on a pitch fork. Tommy died and Sybil was left, heartbroken and emotionally scarred. Watching the one she loved die in front of her very eyes so unexpectedly was unimaginably painful. From the deaths of her grandmother and boyfriend, her only support system, to her mother’s abuse, everything became too much for Sybil to handle. Eventually, the creation of her sixteen other personalities resulted as a coping mechanism. Sybil possesses sixteen interesting personalities that she is unaware of until the end of the movie. A few of these personalities are portrayed at length throughout the course of Sybil’s Running Head: Sybil 4 psychiatric sessions. First off, is the controller of Sybil’s personalities, Vanessa. Vanessa is sophisticated and French. Vanessa is close with Marcia, another of Sybil’s personalities. Marcia has a strong New York accent. Both Vanessa and Marcia come out simultaneously and converse with each other through Sybil. Ruthie, another personality, is a younger child that does not age. Sybil even possesses personalities that are of male genders. Mike and Sid are two of these. The movie Sybil, displays how dealing with Dissociative Identity Disorder completely consumed the life of Sybil Isabel Dorset. Sybil is not functional and suffers from outbursts in her everyday life, triggered by anything that reminds her of the trauma she repressed. Sybil had a lot of trust issues and this made it hard for her to establish any form of a friendship. She also could not establish any romantic relationships. Any men who showed interest in her were quickly scared off when she slipped up and showed them her “other sides”. Sybil describes her mother as a very good women to others because the knowledge of the abuse was not in her conscious awareness but in the memory of only her alters. Sybil blacks out during the time that her “alters” take over—in fact, she blacked out for two entire years of her life! Once Sybil meets Doctor Cornelia Wilbur, her journey to confronting the abuse she repressed and becoming one person again begins. Doctor Wilbur is the only female psychologist at her practice. She is initially instructed to take on Sybil’s case when her previous doctor decides her condition is something only a female could assist with. Wilbur is calm and understanding with Sybil. She is fascinated because Sybil’s condition is so rare and feels she will make psychological history with this case. Doctor Wilbur engages in long and frequent sessions with Sybil and they become very close. Sybil begins to completely trust Doctor Wilbur which helps increase the progress she makes during the therapy sessions. Normally, she hid her other personalities but she let Doctor Wilbur see every side of Running Head: Sybil 5 her. Doctor Wilbur’s colleagues completely reject the validity of Dissociative Identity Disorder. They show much amusement and credit Doctor Wilbur’s “insane” diagnosis as being the result of her being a woman. Just as displayed in the movie, the credibility of this disorder has been highly debated. This is already a seemingly unbelievable disorder, and this debate persists even today."Is DID a disorder with a unique and subtle set of core symptoms and behaviors that some clinicians do not see when it is before their eyes? Or is it willful malingering and/or iatrogenically caused symptoms created by the other clinicians who think something is here that is not (Gillig, 2009)?” Many skeptics of this disorder still exist for various reasons. Even medical doctors do not fully buy into the seemingly large array of personalities, taken on by the “DID” sufferer. Doctor Allen J. Frances states that, “The trigger is usually either the widespread copy-catting of a popular movie or book, or the fevered preachings of a charismatic MPD guru, or both (2014).” The belief that the patient is overdramatizing the personalities and acting is understandable. “A third and very important reason for the controversy is the fear that criminals will “get off” without being punished by a gullible justice system, which attributes behavior to another personality and does not hold the perpetrator responsible (Gillig, 2009).” Many people have attempted faking this disorder as a plea of insanity to free themselves from criminal charges. This has led to an even greater rejection by the public of considering this an actual disorder. Just recently, neurological studies have attained actual proof of Dissociative Identity Disorder. “The advent of functional brain imaging techniques and newer sophisticated structural brain imaging methods has considerably improved and will continue to further our understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of these conditions. The use of these techniques has shown that environmentally-driven alterations of cognition, perception, behavior and self-related Running Head: Sybil 6 processing are accompanied by metabolic and probably even structural brain changes (Staniloiu, Vitcu, Markowitsch, 2012)”. This discovery is beneficial to society because physical evidence will help this diagnosis gain merit so that patients struggling can get the help they need. I really enjoyed the movie, Sybil. It is hard to even fathom that this is an actual disorder and these events were based off of a real person. As dramatic as this disorder appears, it makes sense that someone that has experienced this level of trauma would need to escape in order to cope. Sybil is very unfortunate and her mother’s abuse was unimaginable and cruel. Sybil’s father was despicable as well. Sybil’s mother had schizophrenia but her father had absolutely no disorder and did nothing to save his own daughter, who was very young and defenseless against the manic episodes of her mentally disturbed mother. The movie “Sybil” was very well made. It offers an in-depth portrayal of the mental illness of Dissociative Identity Disorder. I believe that this movie has helped open up the eyes of the public. The story of Sybil was intriguing to many and the fact that it was actually based on true events in the life of Shirley Ardell Mason made it even more compelling. It is upsetting to see the degree of abuse that some people actual inflict on others—even their own children! Sybil is an excellent movie and it is interesting the lengths that the human mind will go to in order to cope with traumatic experiences. Running Head: Sybil 7 References (2014) Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder). PsychologyToday. Retrieved from: http://www.psychologytoday.com Frances, Allen J. (2014) Multiple Personality—Mental Disorder, Myth, or Metaphor? PsychologyToday. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com Gillig, Paulette. (2009) Dissociative Identity Disorder. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ Muller, Rene J. "A Patient with Dissociative Identity Disorder 'Switches' in the Emergency Room." A Patient with Dissociative Identity Disorder 'Switches' in the Emergency Room. Psychiatrictimes, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/ Nanton, Andrew. "Sybil Exposed: A Look at Dissociative Identity Disorder." Sybil Exposed: A Look at Dissociative Identity Disorder. Psychiatrictimes, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/ Staniloiu, Vitcu, Markowitsch. (2012). “Neuroimaging and Dissociative Disorders.” Intech. Retrieved from: http://www.intechopen.com/ Stern, Robert, McDonald. (2013) "Diagnosing Dissociation." EbscoHost. N.p., n.d. Web. Retrieved from: https://www.ebscohost.com/