Sybil (book)
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Cover of the first edition
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| Author | Flora Rheta Schreiber |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Henry Regnery Company |
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Publication date
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1973 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 359 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 57119767 |
Sybil is a 1973 book by Flora Rheta Schreiber about the treatment of Sybil Dorsett (a pseudonym for Shirley Ardell Mason) for dissociative identity disorder (then referred to as multiple personality disorder) by her psychoanalyst, Cornelia B. Wilbur.
The book was made into two television movies of the same name, once in 1976 and again in 2007.
Mason is given the pseudonym "Sybil" by her therapist to protect her privacy. Originally in treatment for social anxiety and memory loss, after extended therapy involving amobarbital and hypnosis interviews, Sybil manifests sixteen personalities. Wilbur encouraged Sybil's various selves to communicate and reveal information about her life. Wilbur writes that Sybil's multiple personality disorder was a result of the severe physical and sexual abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of her mother, Hattie.
The book begins with a list of Sybil's "alters", together with the year in which each appeared to have dissociated from the central personality. The names of these selves were also changed to ensure privacy.
The book's narrative describes Sybil's selves gradually becoming co-conscious, able to communicate and share responsibilities, and having musical compositions and art published under their various names. Wilbur attempts to integrate Sybil's various selves, first convincing them via hypnosis that they are all the same age, then encouraging them to merge. At the book's end, a new, optimistic self called "The Blonde" emerges, preceding Sybil's final integration into a single, whole individual with full knowledge of her past and present life.
The book had an initial print run of 400,000. The book is believed by Mark Pendergrast and Joan Acocella to have established the template for the later upsurge in the diagnoses of dissociative identity disorders.
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