I recently watched the movie in Psychology… and I’m just curious - what exactly did the mother do to her? Also, what was she hoping to achieve by the procedure?
I don’t remember any specific “procedure” the mother performed with a specific intent. Just the usual physical and sexual abuse that an insane person would inflict on a child. I don’t know if the book is still in print (and it’s been ages since I read it) but I seem to recall at one point the mother violated her with one of those hooks used for buttoning shoes back in the day. If you told me the mother did this with some intent to “achieve” something I’d have a hard time believing it.
Oh, sorry… the particular incident I mostly want to know about was the scene at the end, with the tube, the hot-water-bottle, and the broom.
The shoe-button hook. Playing “horsie” with her friends, the midnight defecation walks. . …
The above is from the book, which I read before I saw the movie. I saw the movie over 20 years ago and I remember thinking they’d never show that on a T.V. movie. And they didn’t.
BTW, there is some question as to the how much was real, and how much was made up.
Of course there is a question. What is sad is the moronic nature of the poster who starts off the page.
Note that her hostility about “talking therapists,” which I assume is how she refers to cognative therapy, is not unlike people who refer to anyone with a belief in a higher power as beliving in a Magical Sky Pixie.
The therapy used for working with people with Dissociative Identity Disorder these days differs somewhat from Dr. Wilbur’s technique. In part this is a result of looking at what is effective and what is detrimental. It would appear that people who strongly rely on dissociation as a defense are also more easily hypnotized, and more suggestible. It’s important to remember that nobody knew this in Sybil’s day. Dr. Wilbur was pretty psychodynamic and concerned with the past. These days, even with people who have experienced trauma in the past without developing DID, many therapists focus on helping the person function in the here-and-now, don’t use hypnosis, and aren’t so concerned about the origins of the different ego states.
The rate of child abuse experiences is much higher in mentally ill adults than it is in the non-mentally ill.
I believe what you’re refering to is the mother giving the child an enema, which she supposedly did on a daily basis.
The issue is that her mother gave her an enema and then made her hold it in while tied to the piano, which mother then played. Mother was a charmer in a number of ways.
I didn’t think Mom gave her a bowel-enema; I thought she gave her a bladder-enema & THEN tied her to the piano to hold it.
RE the buttonhook- Mom was doing some home gynecological surgery & may have intended to sterilize Sybil (it worked). I still can’t watch that scene.
Btw, the real-life Sybil passed away a couple years ago after living a quiet life as a somewhat reclusive but not hermit-like librarian & regularly attended the local Seventh-Day Adventist church. She was reportedly pleasant & seemingly happy. Several townspeople figured out who she was but those who did were very respectful of her privacy & felt somewhat protective of her.
Yep, she lived here in my town, Lexington, Ky. She was an art teacher and did quite a few paintings. Unfortunately, after she died many of her works were bought not so much for their own merit but just because they were done by “Sybil”.
Midnight defecation walks? H’uh?
She also made her sleep in a crib in her parents’ room until she was eleven, I believe. She had to watch her parents having sex.
Sybil’s mother used to go for walks with her at night and shit on the lawns of people she didn’t like. (At least that’s what the book says.)
dwyr- is that where she passed away? I thought it was somewhere in New England? and the art teacher part sounds familiar- it’s been a couple years since I read the article so I may have gotten some facts wrong but I recall definitely the tone was that of a quiet peaceful life
FriarTed
Yes, she died here in Lexington. Rumors had been floating around for some time but her identity wasn’t officiallly revealed until afterwards.
My understanding is that people who knew “the real Sybil” said she was really good people.
Slight hijack, but this site is dedicated to the artwork of Shirley Mason (the “real” Sybil).
One good thing about her identity being known is that many things were declassified, such as the religion in which she was reared (Seventh Day Adventist), the names of her parents, and a bit more detail about her childhood that wasn’t released in the book for fear of identifying her.
She lived in Lexington to be near Dr. Wilbur. Long before she died, there were many skeptics in the psychiatric profession who seriously doubt the existence of multiple personalities, so her case has a lot of lit from the past couple of decades if you’re interested.
I think there’s a biography of Mason/Wilbur in the works as well.
Totally off the subject, but that miniseries scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. Truly makes me realize how gifted Sally Field can be, though, just as Woodward did a great job playing the multi-personable woman in THREE FACES OF EVE. (For a non-gifted actress’s take on the subject, see Shelley Long in WHEN RABBIT HOWLS, the “other” bestselling multiple personality book.)