Sensationalism of Sybil Dorsett

by Lysa Taylor for English 306

A distraught girl lay helplessly on the psychiatrist’s mustard yellow couch. She was shaking as tears stained her milky white skin. The psychiatrist, Dr. Wilbur, picked up a tiny sculpture of a horse and gave it to the shaking young woman. “It’s alright. You are safe here. Look at the horse and tell me what you remember,” Dr. Wilbur said in a calm voice. “It’s not safe!” the girl began to scream, “the people are everywhere! The people…the people will get me!” Dr. Wilbur remained calm and asked, “Who are you at this moment?” The girl looked into the psychiatrist’s eyes and spat through gritted teeth, “I’m Peggy!” “Peggy you need to calm down. I want to speak to Vicky.” The girl immediately sat up and looked at Dr. Wilbur with a smile on her face, “Bonjour Dr. Wilbur. How are you doing today?” Dr. Wilbur seemed relieved as she sighed, “Vicky, I need to speak to all of you. Are you comfortable with that?” Vicky nodded her head and lay on the couch. Dr. Wilbur held the horse figurine in front of Vicky’s face, “Just relax dear…” After a few seconds, Vicky was hypnotized and began to tell Dr. Wilbur the horrors that happened in her childhood.

This was a scenario based on the popular tale of Sybil—the girl with sixteen personalities. In the 1970’s, a book titled Sybil was published and the story rocked the United States—and soon after the world. Sybil Dorsett, whose real name is Shirley Mason, supposedly had sixteen distinct personalities that were created after her mother physically and emotionally abused her when she was a child. This abuse ranged from forced enemas to being locked inside a wooden box suspended in mid-air in a barn. After the success of the book, a movie of the same title was released in 1976. This movie starred Joanne Woodward and Sally Field who respectfully did a wonderful job at the roles they were given. Sally Field played the role of Sybil while Joanne Woodward played the part of Dr. Cornelia Wilbur (Petrie, 2006).

What was remarkable about the book and the movie was not only the incredible story that they told, but the effect that it had on the nation. After the release of the book, thousands of people were diagnosed with multiple personality disorder (Bates, 2011). This rare disorder had seemingly spiraled out of control. What was it about this book that caused many people to identify with it? The generation of the 1970s was very susceptible to the story of Sybil. The ideas of this time period could account for why multiple personality disorder (now referred to as dissociative identity disorder) seemed like a possible reason for some cases of mental unrest.

Different mediums have arisen in history that contributed to the idea of being able to have more than one person living inside your head. Long ago, there were “images of shamans changed into animal forms or embodying spirits in Paleolithic cave paintings” (Cocurull). These paintings showed the idea of a separate personality existing within a human being. Jumping forward to the Victorian Era, the popular fiction novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde became another example of the idea of multiple personality disorder regarding the characters in the title (Singh & Chakrabarti, 2008). Even before the arrival of Sybil the Movie, there was a movie about multiple personality disorder that was quite popular in 1957. This movie was called The Three Faces of Eve. It told the story of a woman named Eve who was diagnosed with MPD by Dr. Corbett Thigpen. Eve had three personalities. One was ‘good’, the other ‘bad’, and the last was a combination of the two (Arkell, 2011). The idea of MPD had already been established through the media, so why did the story of Sybil skyrocket this disorder into being included in the official list of psychiatric disorders?

Before the novel Sybil was placed on shelves across the United States, there were only less than fifty cases of MPD worldwide (Freyd, 2006). According to Pamela Freyd who is a member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, the sudden increase in cases of MPD was substantially due to the public and people in the medical field being enticed by an elaborate story that turned out to be completely false. The story was so compelling that it became a medical fad for professionals to diagnosis patients with MPD. These misdiagnoses caused great strife for many people after the debut of Sybil. Here is an excerpt from a letter that Freyd wrote to CBS in regards to their desire to remake the movie:

FULTZ v. CARR and WALKER, 1996, settled out of court, one for $1.57 million, and the other for a confidential amount.  Patient sought help for mild depression and weight problems.  She was misdiagnosed with childhood sexual abuse, ritual abuse and MPD.  Her preschool children were also treated and persuaded that they were abused by a cult.

COOL v. OLSON, 1997, $2.4 million.  Defendant agreed to settle after 15 days of courtroom testimony.  Psychiatrist induced horrific and frightening memories of abuse, including demonic possession and misdiagnosed MPD.  Olsen convinced Cool she had 120 personalities, one of which was a duck.  (He then charged her insurance company for group therapy.)  Patient had originally entered therapy for bulimia and help after a traumatic event had befallen the family.

HAMANNE v. HUMENANSKY, 1995, $2.46 million.  Woman sought treatment for anxiety after a move, but was diagnosed with MPD and told she experienced childhood sexual and ritual abuse.

CARL v. KERAGA, 1997, $ 5.8 million.  Woman claims she was misdiagnosed and told she had over 500 personalities to cope with childhood abuse.  Her teenage children were also hypnotized and told they were victims of a cult.

GALE v. BRAUN, SACHS and HAMMOND, 2004, $7.5 million settlement.  Woman with mild depression was brainwashed into believing she was MPD, a member of a cult, and required sterilization in order not to bear any more babies to be sacrificed for the cult.  Gale, 52, never had any children.

BURGESS v. BRAUN, 1997, $10.6 million settlement.  Patient originally sought treatment for postpartum depression but was diagnosed MPD as a result of supposed sexual and ritual abuse including cannibalism and torture.  Her preschool children were also hospitalized, diagnosed MPD, and treated for satanic ritual abuse (SRA).

This movie caused devastation in the lives of many people because of the sensationalism of the film and the original book. Professionals in the medical field were too quick to swallow the information in the novel. With some medical professionals diagnosing their patients with MPD for the smallest of reasons, it is no wonder that it created a boom in the number of cases during this time period and beyond. Things are very different in the 2000s.

Now, the disorder has been revised and is now called Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). According to the Cleveland Clinic, “dissociative disorders are mental illnesses that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity and/or perception.” Before this revision was made, MPD was defined as “the existence within the individual of two or most distinct personalities, each of which is dominant at a particular time. The personality that is dominant at any particular time determines the individual’s behavior. Each individual personality is complex and integrated with its own unique behavior patterns and social relationships. Two or more alter personalities must exhibit individually distinct and consistent alter personality-specific behavior on at least three occasions. There is evidence of some type of amnesia or combinations of types of amnesia among alter personalities. The amnesia does not have to include all [of] the alters” (“Multiple personality disorder overview”, 1997). Clearly, the latter was too broad and could be applied to a number of different conditions which is what caused so many misdiagnoses. Freyd wanted CBS to educate it’s viewers on the new facts that have arisen in the case of Sybil. The story was investigated in recent years which shed light on the fact that most of the story was untrue.

Debbie Nathan is a journalist who investigated the case of Sybil. She wrote a novel called Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case. She claims that the story of Sybil was fabricated by Dr. Wilbur, Shirley Mason (Sybil), and Flora Schreiber. Schreiber wrote the famous book Sybil and the three women agreed to split the profits. Sybil’s identity was kept a secret from the public, however a journalist named Monty Norris was sent on an assignment to confirm if Sybil was actually Shirley Mason. He visited her hometown and confirmed his suspicions after talking to a few people who knew her. As he began to write his journal article, Schreiber began to worry that if Sybil’s identity was revealed to the public, her work would be “fact-checked and completely discredited” (Nathan 2011).

Ultimately, jealousy was the downfall of this elaborate story. Schreiber did not like the attention that Dr. Wilbur was receiving for her story. She wanted to out Sybil and expose her to the public out of spite and referred to Dr. Wilbur and Shirley as “despicable women”. Tapes and transcripts of therapy sessions were found in later years that debunked the story. Sybil was often coerced into creating false memories of abuse and was also heavily drugged during many sessions. This coercion also applied to other patients who were being treated for MPD. These suspicious methods of treatment brought suspicion on the story. With most of the facts coming into question, the names of Flora Schreiber and Connie Wilbur were tarnished. Shirley Mason also became a reclusive person who was afraid to venture out into public now that her identity was known.

Sybil is an interesting story when read from the viewpoint of it being false. New editions of the book come with a disclaimer that says that the facts of the book are questionable and should not be taken as concrete facts. The story also shows how dangerous sensationalism can be when it comes to people’s health. This story caused many psychiatrists to lose their jobs and also destroyed many lives. With headlines such as “Twenty-five years after multiple personalities became the hot diagnosis, therapists are saying ‘Oops’” and “The most famous case of multiple personality disorder wasn’t what it seemed” (Freyd 2006) , it is my hope that the next story to capture the minds of my generation will be one that is fact-checked left and right. Otherwise, we can be in for another Sybil epidemic.

A distraught girl lay helplessly on the psychiatrist’s mustard yellow couch. She was shaking as tears stained her milky white skin. The psychiatrist, Dr. Wilbur, picked up a tiny sculpture of a horse and gave it to the shaking young woman. “It’s alright. You are safe here. Look at the horse and tell me what you remember,” Dr. Wilbur said in a calm voice. “It’s not safe!” the girl began to scream, “the people are everywhere! The people…the people will get me!” Dr. Wilbur remained calm and asked, “Who are you at this moment?” The girl looked into the psychiatrist’s eyes and spat through gritted teeth, “I’m Peggy!” “Peggy you need to calm down. I want to speak to Vicky.” The girl immediately sat up and looked at Dr. Wilbur with a smile on her face, “Bonjour Dr. Wilbur. How are you doing today?” Dr. Wilbur seemed relieved as she sighed, “Vicky, I need to speak to all of you. Are you comfortable with that?” Vicky nodded her head and lay on the couch. Dr. Wilbur held the horse figurine in front of Vicky’s face, “Just relax dear…” After a few seconds, Vicky was hypnotized and began to tell Dr. Wilbur the horrors that happened in her childhood.

This was a scenario based on the popular tale of Sybil—the girl with sixteen personalities. In the 1970’s, a book titled Sybil was published and the story rocked the United States—and soon after the world. Sybil Dorsett, whose real name is Shirley Mason, supposedly had sixteen distinct personalities that were created after her mother physically and emotionally abused her when she was a child. This abuse ranged from forced enemas to being locked inside a wooden box suspended in mid-air in a barn. After the success of the book, a movie of the same title was released in 1976. This movie starred Joanne Woodward and Sally Field who respectfully did a wonderful job at the roles they were given. Sally Field played the role of Sybil while Joanne Woodward played the part of Dr. Cornelia Wilbur (Petrie, 2006).

What was remarkable about the book and the movie was not only the incredible story that they told, but the effect that it had on the nation. After the release of the book, thousands of people were diagnosed with multiple personality disorder (Bates, 2011). This rare disorder had seemingly spiraled out of control. What was it about this book that caused many people to identify with it? The generation of the 1970s was very susceptible to the story of Sybil. The ideas of this time period could account for why multiple personality disorder (now referred to as dissociative identity disorder) seemed like a possible reason for some cases of mental unrest.

Different mediums have arisen in history that contributed to the idea of being able to have more than one person living inside your head. Long ago, there were “images of shamans changed into animal forms or embodying spirits in Paleolithic cave paintings” (Cocurull). These paintings showed the idea of a separate personality existing within a human being. Jumping forward to the Victorian Era, the popular fiction novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde became another example of the idea of multiple personality disorder regarding the characters in the title (Singh & Chakrabarti, 2008). Even before the arrival of Sybil the Movie, there was a movie about multiple personality disorder that was quite popular in 1957. This movie was called The Three Faces of Eve. It told the story of a woman named Eve who was diagnosed with MPD by Dr. Corbett Thigpen. Eve had three personalities. One was ‘good’, the other ‘bad’, and the last was a combination of the two (Arkell, 2011). The idea of MPD had already been established through the media, so why did the story of Sybil skyrocket this disorder into being included in the official list of psychiatric disorders?

Before the novel Sybil was placed on shelves across the United States, there were only less than fifty cases of MPD worldwide (Freyd, 2006). According to Pamela Freyd who is a member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, the sudden increase in cases of MPD was substantially due to the public and people in the medical field being enticed by an elaborate story that turned out to be completely false. The story was so compelling that it became a medical fad for professionals to diagnosis patients with MPD. These misdiagnoses caused great strife for many people after the debut of Sybil. Here is an excerpt from a letter that Freyd wrote to CBS in regards to their desire to remake the movie:

FULTZ v. CARR and WALKER, 1996, settled out of court, one for $1.57 million, and the other for a confidential amount.  Patient sought help for mild depression and weight problems.  She was misdiagnosed with childhood sexual abuse, ritual abuse and MPD.  Her preschool children were also treated and persuaded that they were abused by a cult.

COOL v. OLSON, 1997, $2.4 million.  Defendant agreed to settle after 15 days of courtroom testimony.  Psychiatrist induced horrific and frightening memories of abuse, including demonic possession and misdiagnosed MPD.  Olsen convinced Cool she had 120 personalities, one of which was a duck.  (He then charged her insurance company for group therapy.)  Patient had originally entered therapy for bulimia and help after a traumatic event had befallen the family.

HAMANNE v. HUMENANSKY, 1995, $2.46 million.  Woman sought treatment for anxiety after a move, but was diagnosed with MPD and told she experienced childhood sexual and ritual abuse.

CARL v. KERAGA, 1997, $ 5.8 million.  Woman claims she was misdiagnosed and told she had over 500 personalities to cope with childhood abuse.  Her teenage children were also hypnotized and told they were victims of a cult.

GALE v. BRAUN, SACHS and HAMMOND, 2004, $7.5 million settlement.  Woman with mild depression was brainwashed into believing she was MPD, a member of a cult, and required sterilization in order not to bear any more babies to be sacrificed for the cult.  Gale, 52, never had any children.

BURGESS v. BRAUN, 1997, $10.6 million settlement.  Patient originally sought treatment for postpartum depression but was diagnosed MPD as a result of supposed sexual and ritual abuse including cannibalism and torture.  Her preschool children were also hospitalized, diagnosed MPD, and treated for satanic ritual abuse (SRA).

This movie caused devastation in the lives of many people because of the sensationalism of the film and the original book. Professionals in the medical field were too quick to swallow the information in the novel. With some medical professionals diagnosing their patients with MPD for the smallest of reasons, it is no wonder that it created a boom in the number of cases during this time period and beyond. Things are very different in the 2000s.

Now, the disorder has been revised and is now called Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). According to the Cleveland Clinic, “dissociative disorders are mental illnesses that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity and/or perception.” Before this revision was made, MPD was defined as “the existence within the individual of two or most distinct personalities, each of which is dominant at a particular time. The personality that is dominant at any particular time determines the individual’s behavior. Each individual personality is complex and integrated with its own unique behavior patterns and social relationships. Two or more alter personalities must exhibit individually distinct and consistent alter personality-specific behavior on at least three occasions. There is evidence of some type of amnesia or combinations of types of amnesia among alter personalities. The amnesia does not have to include all [of] the alters” (“Multiple personality disorder overview”, 1997). Clearly, the latter was too broad and could be applied to a number of different conditions which is what caused so many misdiagnoses. Freyd wanted CBS to educate it’s viewers on the new facts that have arisen in the case of Sybil. The story was investigated in recent years which shed light on the fact that most of the story was untrue.

Debbie Nathan is a journalist who investigated the case of Sybil. She wrote a novel called Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case. She claims that the story of Sybil was fabricated by Dr. Wilbur, Shirley Mason (Sybil), and Flora Schreiber. Schreiber wrote the famous book Sybil and the three women agreed to split the profits. Sybil’s identity was kept a secret from the public, however a journalist named Monty Norris was sent on an assignment to confirm if Sybil was actually Shirley Mason. He visited her hometown and confirmed his suspicions after talking to a few people who knew her. As he began to write his journal article, Schreiber began to worry that if Sybil’s identity was revealed to the public, her work would be “fact-checked and completely discredited” (Nathan 2011).

Ultimately, jealousy was the downfall of this elaborate story. Schreiber did not like the attention that Dr. Wilbur was receiving for her story. She wanted to out Sybil and expose her to the public out of spite and referred to Dr. Wilbur and Shirley as “despicable women”. Tapes and transcripts of therapy sessions were found in later years that debunked the story. Sybil was often coerced into creating false memories of abuse and was also heavily drugged during many sessions. This coercion also applied to other patients who were being treated for MPD. These suspicious methods of treatment brought suspicion on the story. With most of the facts coming into question, the names of Flora Schreiber and Connie Wilbur were tarnished. Shirley Mason also became a reclusive person who was afraid to venture out into public now that her identity was known.

Sybil is an interesting story when read from the viewpoint of it being false. New editions of the book come with a disclaimer that says that the facts of the book are questionable and should not be taken as concrete facts. The story also shows how dangerous sensationalism can be when it comes to people’s health. This story caused many psychiatrists to lose their jobs and also destroyed many lives. With headlines such as “Twenty-five years after multiple personalities became the hot diagnosis, therapists are saying ‘Oops’” and “The most famous case of multiple personality disorder wasn’t what it seemed” (Freyd 2006) , it is my hope that the next story to capture the minds of my generation will be one that is fact-checked left and right. Otherwise, we can be in for another Sybil epidemic.

References

Arkell, E. (2011, December 07). The myth of multiple personality disorder. Retrieved from http://io9.com/5865263/whats-the-truth-behind-multiple-personality-disorder

Bates, S. (2011). I Contain Multitudes. Wilson Quarterly, 35(4), 14.

Cocurull, J. (n.d.). A history of dissociative identity disorder (formerly called multiple personality disorder). Retrieved from http://www.fortea.us/english/psiquiatria/history.htm

Freyd, P. (2006, January 30). Letter from fmsf to cbs. Retrieved from http://www.fmsfonline.org/CBS20060130.html

Nathan, D. (2011). Sybil exposed: the extraordinary story behind the famous multiple personality case. New York, NY: Free Press.

Petrie , D. (Director) (2006). Sybil [DVD].

Singh, S., & Chakrabarti , S. (2008). A study in dualism: the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde. Indian Journal of psychiatry, 50(3), 221-223. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2738358/

Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder). (2012, March 29). Retrieved from http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_identity_disorder_multiple_personality_disorder.aspx

Multiple personality disorder overview (twc 1997). (1997). Retrieved from http://www.2multiples.com/twcrew/9_page.html

Arkell, E. (2011, December 07). The myth of multiple personality disorder. Retrieved from http://io9.com/5865263/whats-the-truth-behind-multiple-personality-disorder

Bates, S. (2011). I Contain Multitudes. Wilson Quarterly, 35(4), 14.

Cocurull, J. (n.d.). A history of dissociative identity disorder (formerly called multiple personality disorder). Retrieved from http://www.fortea.us/english/psiquiatria/history.htm

Freyd, P. (2006, January 30). Letter from fmsf to cbs. Retrieved from http://www.fmsfonline.org/CBS20060130.html

Nathan, D. (2011). Sybil exposed: the extraordinary story behind the famous multiple personality case. New York, NY: Free Press.

Petrie , D. (Director) (2006). Sybil [DVD].

Singh, S., & Chakrabarti , S. (2008). A study in dualism: the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde. Indian Journal of psychiatry, 50(3), 221-223. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2738358/

Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder). (2012, March 29). Retrieved from http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_identity_disorder_multiple_personality_disorder.aspx

Multiple personality disorder overview (twc 1997). (1997). Retrieved from http://www.2multiples.com/twcrew/9_page.html