'Sybil': "I have essentially been lying"

wfgodot

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'I have essentially been lying': Best-selling child abuse and split personality memoir Sybil exposed as a FAKE (Daily Mail)
It was a best selling 'true story' that planted the notion of repressed memory syndrome in the American consciousness.

The shocking account of Sybil, a girl with 16 separate personalities that developed as a result of horrendous childhood abuses, sold seven million copies, and even spawned a recognised syndrome, 'multiple personality disorder.'
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A new book has denounced the account as fiction, cooked up by three individuals hungry for fame and fortune: [Shirley] Mason, her therapist Cornelia (Connie) Wilbur and journalist Flora Schreiber.
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In a 1958 letter held in the archives at New York’s John Jay College, Mason confessed that she didn't 'have any multiple personalities, ' the New York Post reported.

In the letter uncovered by Nathan, Mason writes: 'I am all of them. I have essentially been lying… as trying to show you I felt I needed help.'

She added in the letter: 'Quite thrilling. Got me a lot of attention.'
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the rest, with pictures, at link above
 
Awwww man! I'll admit it, I believed it was authentic. I've been had! (But I think Sally Field rocked that role in the movie!)
 
All i can say is WOW!! This is the shot heard round the world for every practicing psychiatrist (past and present) right now!!
Personally, i never believed in it, but Dang!!! What a revelation!!!
 
I read the book and saw the movie. It seemed unbelievable but hey, they marketed it as the truth! WHO KNEW? Not me!

What a fraud! :maddening:
 
wow. just wow. That has become the lynchpin for an entire area of practice that IMO must now be called into question.

Thanks woofie
 
Not trying to be Mr Smarty-Pants, but I've long doubted MPD (and look askance too at repressed memory syndrome). Harrowing book even if it is fiction, and yes, Sally Field's great in the film role too!
 
Think of all of the "Frasers" around the world who have made her "illness" their lives' work...good grief.
 
I'm disgusted.

I read the book back in the 70's, saw the movie too. I'll never think of enemas the same again! :eek: There's some kind of sick mind at work to even come up with some of that stuff. imo
 
hahaha a (almost) 50-year fraud?

wow, they were good

although to be fair, she did need help and she got exploited instead

I know I'll never see her medical records but I'm really curious now - esp. the ones in later years - can you imagine being a therapist treating her, knowing the book was a fraud and not ever being able to tell anyone?! that would suck
 
I think I have the book around here somewhere and I think I never finished it ... least I don't remember much from it if I did
 
Maybe she is lying now, or one of her personalities is, just for the attention and the thrill.
 
I wonder where she was in her treatment when she wrote that letter? The reason I asked is because IIRC often the 'host' with MPD is not aware of having multiple personalities. It is only after years of treatment that they learn and recognize they have multiple personalities.

I have met at least one MPD diagnosed person. She was at the stage that she knew she had the disorder, but hadn't been integrated yet. And her personalities didn't 'talk' to each other. But even I could recognize a couple of her personalities. They dressed differently, talked differently, acted differently etc. It was enough of a difference that I believed her.

Anybody ever heard of Billie Milligan from Ohio? I read a book about him. If he wasn't an MPD he really should have been in the movies.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2007/10/28/BILLY.ART_ART_10-28-07_A1_EV89AGB.html
 
Quite unsettling news, to be sure, woofie. I remember being a pre-teen when I became interested in true crime. Not long after that I heard about Sybil. I read the book, saw the movie and was quite intrigued. Her story fueled a thirst for knowledge about mental illness. Then when my father was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, I became almost obsessed with reading any true case histories that I could find on people with assorted mental illnesses.

If Sybil's therapist was in on this deceit, and is still practicing, she needs to have her license pulled.

In my opinion, this is a slap in the face of those who truly do suffer from any form of mental illness.
 
Read the book, saw the movie twice and watched a Discovery program about her. I thought it sounded crazy, but who's to doubt something deemed true.:banghead:
 
I hate being duped. That book was required reading when I was in high school and a report was written. Do you realize the fun I could have had in those now wasted hours? Drats! I want my time back!
 
I'd be curious to know her diagnosis now that MPD is off the table. Surely she has some serious issues, personality disorder?
 
I believed it. My teacher in my high school psychology class actually showed us that movie, and I was horrified by the abuse depicted. I'm actually kind of surprised we watched that in school because it was pretty violent. It was pretty upsetting to me at the time.
 
I am not seeing any other reports of this think will wait and see what else comes to light before I say anything
 

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