Sybil:The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities by Flora Rheta Schrieber

I cannot remember the first time I watched the movie, Sybil, but I remember enjoying it. The thought of a person having sixteen personalities was absurd to me; but I understood why a person would disassociate after going to the traumas that Sybil had gone through. I know there is a lot of controversy around the real story of Shirley Ardell Mason (known as Sybil in the book and subsequent movie). I plan on exploring those controversies when I read Sybil Exposed next. But for this review, I am not taking that into consideration. I am reviewing Sybil and the effects this book had on me. I strive to remain unbiased when reading non-fiction, and that is what I will do.

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

Sybil had always been odd. She had extreme mood swings; her personality would change drastically in unexplainable ways; she would lose chunks of time, anywhere from hours to years. Life for Sybil had been this way since she was three and a half. She knew she was different, but feared letting others in on this feeling. When she began treatment with Dr. Connie Wilbur, the last thing that either of them expected was that sixteen other personalities were also part of Sybil. Over the course of eleven years, Sybil, Dr. Wilbur, and the other personalities worked through the horrors that Sybil was subjected to at the hands of her mother, Hattie, and the subsequent issues that arose from what she experienced at such a young, tender age. Through many ups and downs, Sybil, Wilbur, and the personalities, along with Sybil's father, Willard, and acquaintances in Sybil's life, Sybil was able to integrate her personalities and finally live a full life that was completely her own.

This book was a really hard read for me. Not because the book was difficult; while some of the psychological jargon was advanced, context clues and Google made understanding content matter easy. No, what made the book difficult, at least for the first 300 or so pages, was the disturbing content. The most unsettling parts were what Sybil was subjected to by Hattie. This following passage contains disturbing content.

"What followed was not always the same. A favorite ritual, however, was to separate Sybil's legs with a long wooden spoon, tie her feet to the spoon with dish towels, and then string her to the end of a light bulb cord, suspended from the ceiling. The child was left to swing in space while the mother proceeded to the water faucet to wait for the water to get cold. After muttering, 'Well, it's not going to get any colder,' she would fill the adult-sized enema bag to capacity and return with it to her daughter. As the child swung in space, the mother would insert the enema tip into the child's urethra and fill the bladder with cold water. 'I did it,' Hattie would scream triumphantly when we mission was accomplished. 'I did it.' The scream was followed by laughter, which went on and on.

These early morning rituals also included unneeded enemas, which Hattie gave her daughter with frightening frequency. Almost invariably it was an enema of cold water administered from an adult-sized bag, containing about twice as much water as would normally be given to a child or infant. After the enema Hattie insisted that the child walk around the room holding in the water. This resulted in severe cramps. But if Sybil cried, Hattie would beat her and say, 'I'll really give you something to cry about.'" (p. 215)

Other tortures included Hattie sticking items, like buttonhooks and tiny boxes, inside Sybil, tying her to the piano while Hattie played the piano and requiring her to hold in an enema, and locking her in wheat crib where she could have suffocated to death. Another disturbing instance that Sybil was forced to witness for the first nine years of her life was watching her parents have sex. The crib that she slept in remained in her parents room, and they would have intercourse a few times a week, even though Sybil was there and usually awake. 

(Source: Giphy)

Sybil's mother, according to research done by Wilbur, was schizophrenic. Sybil would describe periods like the ones above where her mother would laugh historically at her daughters turmoil, or at absolutely nothing at all; or she would have periods of catatonia, where it was up to Sybil and her father to feed, dress, bathe, etc., her mother. Sybil preferred her mother this way because she would not be abused during these moments. Other research shows that there were other emotionally unwell people on both sides of the family. Multiple members suffered from depression and anxiety, to more severe cases of schizophrenia and maybe another case of multiple personality (which is now called Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID). 

(Source: Giphy)

Due to the traumas Sybil was subjected to and the family history of mental health issues, it is no surprise that Sybil split into different personalities to help her cope with the horrors and help her express the emotions that had been deprived her. The different personalities were all different aspects of Sybil. While everyone has different personalities depending on their situation and surrounding, Sybil could only show certain emotions when the other personalities took over. When Sybil became angry, she would disassociate into the Peggy's, Peggy Ann and Peggy Lou. When Sybil would become depressed, Mary would appear and send Sybil further into depression, and would leave it to Vicky, a more vivacious personality, to pull them through. When Sybil needed to be handy and repair something, she would disassociate into Mike and Sid, the suppressed male versions of herself. For every emotion, there was a personality to control it, and until all sixteen (seventeen if you include Sybil) learned to accept and integrate with the waking Sybil could Sybil live a life of her own.

I do not know if this was faked, although I am sure I will have a better idea when I read Sybil Exposed, I do know that if any of this is true, it is extremely disturbing. If Sybil's mother was schizophrenic and her father did nothing to protect Sybil, that is disturbing. If Sybil's mother did any of the horrors described, even the less frightening ones, that is disturbing. The thought that anyone could do that to a child, their child, horrifies and saddens me. The book became easier to read once Sybil has her breakthrough about accepting the others and the horrors she faced at the hands of her mother. Reading about her recovery was enlightening and inspiring. If someone could go through something so traumatic and be so thoroughly shattered, and still put the pieces together, then anything should be possible. On the other hand, if this is fake, for someone to make up these stories and spin it as fakes makes me more nauseous than the book did. Either, this book is upsetting.

(Source: Giphy)

Rating: 6/10

Author: Flora Rheta Schriber

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Biography, Mental Health

Dates Read: August 13-September 5, 2018