Much of the sensational story was fabricated, according to journalist and author Debbie Nathan. She reveals the truth about the case in her book, Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case, which she discussed in on The Current.
In the original book, Sybil is portrayed as a young woman who started seeing a psychoanalyst in New York City in the early 1950s. Nathan described what happened after a few sessions, as detailed in the book: "She had a very dramatic moment when she started smashing windows, and split into another personality, into a little girl. And as she went into further therapy with the therapist, she developed many other personalities, a total of 16. The therapist assumed that something terrible must have happened to her when she was a child to create this kind of splitting in her consciousness. So she spent many years working with her. And ultimately Sybil remembered terrible, hideous sexual abuse and torture by her mother, and once she came to remember that, she reintegrated and was able to have a happy life after that. So the book had a happy ending."
Sybil's case generated widespread fascination both in the general public and the medical community, and a group of psychiatrists and psychologists successfully lobbied to have multiple personality disorder included in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual). Once that happened, the disorder, which had been extremely rare, became a relatively common diagnosis. "In the entire history of Western civilization, there had been less than 200 [cases] over a period of centuries," Nathan said. "But after the book and film, suddenly there were hundreds and thousands. And by the late 1980s there were 40,000 cases diagnosed in the United States alone."
Sybil's real name was Shirley Mason, and she was brought up as a Seventh Day Adventist in rural Minnesota. The fundamentalist Christian sect taught that people shouldn't read fiction. But Shirley was a highly imaginative child, who loved to make up stories. "She lived in a fantasy world as a little girl," Nathan said. By the time Shirley was in college, she was having psychological problems, and she went to see Dr. Wilbur in the 1940s.
Dr. Wilbur had an interest in multiple personality disorder, and she recommended that Shirley read up on the subject; a mistake, in Nathan's view, as Shirley was so prone to fantasize. But it wasn't until a few years later, in the early 1950s, that Shirley returned to therapy and the multiple personalities emerged.
https://www.cbc.ca/books/who-was-sybil-the-true-story-behind-her-multiple-personalities-1.4268459
When we watched Sybil in High school psychology class I knew it was a scam back then - it was so obvious!!
But in Sybil Exposed, Nathan reveals what really powered the legend: a trio of women — the willing patient, her ambitious shrink and the imaginative journalist who spun their story into bestseller gold."
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