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Sybil: The true and extraordinary story of a woman possessed by sixteen separate personalities

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It is impossible to say a book on such a sensitive and horrific issue as child abuse is a great book to read; in fact, this book is probably one of the most difficult ones to read that you will ever come across. Having studied psychology, it is a known fact that Multiple Personality Disorder(MPD) is associated with child abuse. The personality "splits" when the human psyche can no longer cope with the pain of abuse.

Sybil is a story of such abuse at the hands of a mentally disturbed mother - sexual, physical and emotional abuse prevail. Sybil is a true story based on one of the most severe cases of MPD and child abuse in history. Over a span of twenty years, it reveals the various "personalities" living within one woman. How one could even survive such atrocities is beyond belief. The time period of this story ends in the 40's. Today, research continues on this subject and much has been learned since Sybil's case, but one can never have enough knowledge.

Sybil's personalities eventually merge and in 1998, the real Sybil died, finding, we hope, final peace and contentment. If you are interested in books on MPD, another true life story is, First Person Plural: My Life as a Multiple, by Cameron West, PH.D.

In 1954, a thin, nervous young woman walked into the office of New York psychiatrist Cornelia Wilbur complaining of unusual "spells". She would inexplicably "lose time", fading out of consciousness and coming to again hours or even days later, often in an unfamiliar city and wearing clothing she never remembered buying. Believing it to be a case of hysteria, Dr. Wilbur embarks on what she thinks will be a routine course of treatment. Until, that is, her patient strode into the office one day with a confident, almost aristocratic air. "Sybil couldn't come," she says, "you can call me Vicky." Dr. Wilbur realized she was dealing with a victim of multiple personality disorder, then almost unheard of. For Dr. Wilbur and the young woman (whom the author gives the pseudonym of Sybil) it was the beginning of an emotionally exhausting eleven-year journey to make a fractured human being whole again.

In the course of her treatment, Sybil proved to have no less than sixteen different personalities (including two male alters, Mike and Sid). The sophisticated Vicky was the "record keeper" of the selves, holding back the memories too painful for Sybil and the others to know. Peggy Lou was the repository of Sybil's anger--defiant, belligerent, contemptuous of Sybil and terrified of breaking glass; Vanessa, a redhead with impressive musical talent. Some, like Ruthie, were barely more than toddlers mentally.

Vicky had good reason to keep the memories in check. Sybil had endured a childhood so horrible the word "nightmarish" doesn't do it justice. The child of a schizophrenic mother, (called "Hattie") and a passive, distant Fundamentalist father, Sybil never knew what awful or outlandish thing her mother was liable to do. An abused child before the term existed, Sybil was forced to endure physical and sexual torture that seems chilling even in our tabloid tell-all age. Rape and inexplicable, unnecessary forced enemas were a daily ritual until the age of six or seven--the angry, frightened Peggy Lou had to emerge to endure the unending agony.

Schreiber paints a vivid portrait of Sybil's family and the conservative town in which she grew up, and while we discover a clear history of schizophrenia on the maternal side of Sybil's family, Schreiber places most of the blame at the feet of Sybil's father Willard. He had known of his wife Hattie's schizophrenia from the time Sybil was six, when Hattie submerged into a mysterious catatonic state for an entire winter. Yet he made no attempt to hospitalize her, weakly protesting that he couldn't separate a mother and her child. The child's one escape from this hellish woman came in the form of her grandmother--when she died, Sybil's self disappeared. When she re-emerges, she finds herself in a fifth-grade classroom--almost two years later.

After years of harrowing, almost fatal crises, Sybil's selves are eventually reunited in 1965--when she is forty-two. For forty of those years, she was a living mosaic, a collection of parts. Hers was touted as a classic case of MPD and childhood abuse. Yet, not long after the death of the real Sybil in the early nineties, controversy arose over the accuracy of the account. Some professionals alleged that Sybil had not been a multiple personality at all, and may in fact have never been abused. Dr. Wilbur knew this, they maintain, as did the author--the "personalities" had supposedly been planted in Sybil's mind under hypnosis. The truth may never be known, but it is an undeniable fact such cases do occur, and as such, "Sybil" is a primer for anyone wanting to know the nature and origins of multiple personality.

If you are interested in psychology Sybil is a must read. It is about a girl with sixteen personalities. It is based on a true story about her life. It is very well written and although it may get a little confusing, you eventually learn to recognize each individual personality within Sybil.
This book is a tantalizing journey through Sybil's life and journey to become whole again. It involves some graphic descriptions of horrible events that made Sybil split into multiple personalities and therefore may not be appropriate for children under 13 years of age.
I have learned a lot from this book and it has opened my eyes to the interesting field of psychology. I would have to call it one of the most interesting books I have ever read and I look forward to reading it again.
Therefore I hope everyone can take time out of his or her busy schedule to read this book.

The case history of "Sybil" brought the mental malady of multiple personality disorder to the general public. Prior to the accounts of "Eve" (Chris Sizemore, the world's most famous person to have survived with this disorder) and "Sybil," many misperceptions about the illness were touted as fact. For example, many experts discounted the existence of multiple personality disorder and often saw it as a form of malingering.

Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, who died in 1994 made psychiatric history with Sybil. Together they work to pierce the "Clock Incomprehensible," fugue states where Sybil cannot account for her whereabouts or actions. During their several years of hard work together, doctor and patient uncover a total of 16 separate and distinct personalities. Born in 1923, Sybil's various "selves" were "born" over 20-year time span, from 1926 to 1946. Vanessa is the only personality who is able to play the piano. Mike and Sid are her male personalities. Vicky is her cosmopolitan, cultured personality. Vicky and Vanessa appear to be the most appealing personalities and all 16 were created to cope with Sybil's psychotic mother.

Angry and dangerously mentally ill, the woman had a history of sexually abusing children. Sybil remembered seeing the mother naked and bouncing a naked neighbor's baby between her legs. The mother would also defecate on neighbor's lawns. She inserted objects into Sybil's body almost from the time Sybil was an infant; she forced the girl to drink laxatives and refused to let her release solid waste; she suspended her from the ceiling; she choked her; left her in a corn crib to smother; beat her with an array of sundry objects and permanently scarred her body with a button hook. Sybil's father appears to be singularly ineffectual; he dodges the mother and years later claims to have had no knowledge of the woman's extreme cruelty.

Sybil's acceptance of the personalities takes time as well. Dr. Wilbur uses hypnosis to fuse the personalities and after several hypnotherapy sessions, Sybil agrees to accept all of the personalities and their abilities be merged into one, herself. By 1965 Sybil is an "integrated" unit.

A gifted artist, several of Sybil's personalities drew and painted. The real Sybil died in 1998 and her profession was listed as "artist."

I was simply blown away by this novel. It was deeply disturbing to read about the abuse that Sybil suffered at the hands of her mother. However, it was fascinating to read about how her mind had tried to protect her from the abuse by splintering into 16 other personalities.

I am not sure I would recommend this novel to anyone who comes from an abusive background. I have childhood abuse in my background and it was very hard for me to read portions of this novel. That would be my only hesitation in recommending this novel. It is truly amazing to read!

I actually saw the movie first and was blown away by it. Then I read the book, and "knowing" what was coming was even more devestated! What a powerful, jaw-dropping experience it was for me to read this. I'm reminded of other books dealing with child abuse ("A Child Called It" or McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood"--though the latter is actually funny at times, if you can believe that). But Sybil remains top of the list with regards to horror stories. The pacing of the book is just incredible, and the build up to the "climax" is truly well-crafted. Highly recommended, but not for the faint-of-heart!

This book is impossible to put down; I started reading it and just couldn't seem to stop. It is wonderfully written narrative, which leads to insights of the human mind and abnormal psychology. "Sybil" causes great philosophical questions of mind and body to arise. The horrific account of sexual and mental abuse will shock you. This book is a must read, it is an account that I shall never forget.

My sister read this book for a college psychology class when I was around 8 or 9 and I remember her speaking of it incredulously. I finally read it when I was a bit older, and became so fascinated by the case of Sybil and her inner struggle for self-discovery. The film version with Sally Field was brilliant! I have read and re-read this book, endlessly engrossed with the whole issue of multiple personality and the sad, frightening reality of child abuse. Sybil is such a courageous, yet tragic person. I was saddened to hear of her death, but believe by coming forward during her frightening ordeal she has helped many of others struggling with a similar situation. In a class by itself. See the movie too!

I read this book over 20 years ago. It was one of the first books I read as an adult. It remains today the most fascinating book I have ever read. We are so used to outlandish fictional stories being thrown at us that we become jaded. Creatures that visit from other planets or monsters that have no purpose other than to scare teenagers are commonplace but unreal. What is much scarier than they could ever be is the real world. So horribly betrayed by what should be the most trusted person in her world - her mother; that Sybil must write her own science fiction story to survive. I remember staying up through the night reading this book. While the TV movie with Sally Field obviously isn't as detailed as the book, it too is riveting. To this day, I grow pale whenever the actress who played Sybil's mother Hattie appears on my TV - in anything. No other actor or actress has that effect on me. The recent airing of the TV movie has brought all this back to me. This is a great story of someone beating the odds and the eventual triumph of good over evil.

This book is a riveting true story revolving around a young
woman's two decade harrowing struggle to become one. Sybil,
an multiple personality disorder victim, is the result of an
abusive schizophrenic mother whose abusive rituals included
the painful, disgusting process of hanging Subil suspended from
the ceiling and scarring her... In order to overcome
her overwhelming emotions, Sybil creates a vast collectionof

totally separate, individual personalities, which gradually
develops into a staggering total of 16. For years, Sybil
vents her many different emotions into each of her categorized
personalities, some of which are Mary (a religious figure,
portrayed after Sybil's actual "saintly" grandmother), Peggy
Lou (a tempestuous, confident fire-breathing country bumpkin),
Vicky ( the stylish, sophisticated "keeper" of the "girls"),
Venessa ( an impressive musical talent ), and even two male
figures, modeled after her father's covetted sons. When Sybil
becomes so disoriented in the tug of war between personalities,
she must get treatment. Dr. Wilbur becomes Sybil's guiding light
in her intense journey for oneness, trying to reveal the
secret behind Sybil's inexplicable abrupt personality "switches"
through years of psychological therapy. Eventually, Sybil
does claim victory over her disorder and becomes one again.
This is the most incredible, most riveting true story I've ever
read! You'll be devoured by its pages, it is so all-consuming.
"Sybil" is so amazing, one must question its truth. What a
great book! Not only is it just a literary read, it is definitely an incredible human experience! It palpitates with
substance and beauty, and presents richly woven, detailed
characters. Absolutely unbelievable! Sybil rules!