Sybil Exposed
The Extraordinary Story Behind The Famous Multiple-Personality Case
DEBBIE NATHAN
Scribe, Psychology
Paperback, Ed: 01, 2011, 9781921844492
AUD $29.95 ex, AUD $32.95 inc
In stock at: 17 Jun 2013 19:00
In the 1950s, Sybil Dorsett, a young woman from a tiny Midwest town, was diagnosed with a new psychiatric condition – multiple personality disorder. Sybil was believed to have 16 separate personalities living within her: from aspiring carpenter Mike to intensely religious Nancy; from impertinent schoolgirls Peggy Lou and Peggy Ann to depressed grandmother Mary; from whimpering toddler Ruthie to the bookish, highly critical Clara. When Flora Rheta Schreiber wrote about the case in her 1973 book Sybil, it immediately became a bestseller. Soon the Sybil case was a pop-culture phenomenon, and it grew to near-mythic proportions. The case became a touchstone for issues surrounding identity and sexuality, influencing the way millions of people saw their bodies, relationships, and psyches. And it gave rise to a new wave of diagnoses: before Sybil, there had been fewer than 200 known cases of multiple personality disorder in history; afterwards, approximately 40,000 people were diagnosed in just a few years. In this groundbreaking book, journalist Debbie Nathan reveals, for the first time, that the Sybil case was an elaborate fraud – albeit one that the perpetrators may have half-believed. Nathan follows an enormous trail of papers, records, photos, and tapes to show that what really powered the legend was a trio of women who together spun their story into bestseller gold. The result is an intensely fascinating portrait of a pop-culture phenomenon and the complex psychological factors that primed the world to receive it.