The book Sybil is the story of Sybil Isabel Dorsett which was the name used for the woman later identified as Shirley Ardell Mason. Mason was raised by a schizophrenic mother who perpetrated unthinkable acts of abuse on her. The abuse started within her first year of life and continued until she moved out of state to go to school. The only way that she could deal with the abuse without dying or losing her mind was to split off in to 16 different personalities over the years. Each personality helped Sybil (Shirley) deal with a different part of her life that she wasn’t able to handle herself. There was a personality for anger and one for fear. There were also personalities that became the people that Sybil always wanted to be. The psychiatrist who treated her for 11 years said at one point that the personality called Vicky was more whole than Sybil ever was. It took 11 years before Sybil was finally able to integrate all of her personalities and become a whole person who could function without losing time. Sybil went on to become a professor of art and lived a fairly happy life. She was very close to Dr. Wilbur her whole life. It wasn’t until after her death that her true identity was discovered. There were many paintings found in her home after her death. These works of art showed the styles of her personalities both as a group and solo. These paintings and sketches are being sold by art galleries and are fetching high dollars because of their author. The interest in her story has recently come to the forefront again since there was a remake of the original movie that is showing on Lifetime. This story is one that is so sad and so hard to believe. It is amazing to consider that someone could do the horrible things her mother did to Sybil. It is hard to imagine that Sybil survived the horrible acts in as good a shape as she did. This is an amazing read and goes so much more deeply in to the story than either of the movies ever did. I highly suggest this one for anyone who watched the movies and wanted to know what really happened.
