Sybil Sparknotes

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In the book Sybil, written by Flora Rheta Schreiber discuss the life story of Sybil Isabel Dorsett, who has developed 16 distinct personalities because of her childhood abuse. Sybil story became one of the most severe cases ever recorded with multiple personalities. Which is currently called Dissociative Identity Disorder in the current DSM-V. “Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a severe condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in—and alternately take control of—an individual. The person also experiences memory loss that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness” (Psychology Today, 2008, para 1). Sybil’s distinct sense of selves helped protect her from the trauma she experienced as a child. These selves was Ruthie Dorsett a toddler who never ages. Vanessa Gail Dorsett and Marcia Lynn Dorsett emerged at different times, but developed a close personal relationship with one another …show more content…

Wilber plays the important role in reuniting the sixteen personalities, allow Sybil to have control over her body without long blackouts. Dr. Wilber assistance Sybil in facing the trauma from her childhood. Dr. Wilber speaks to Sybil’s through other selves as these selves acted as gatekeepers the horrifying abuse, taking parts of Sybil life and storing these memories. Dr. Wilber was successful in being able to identify Sybil main alters who held these memories through hypnosis (Schreiber, 1995). “The victim of abuse may only be able to stage a psychologically-based escape. Ross, following Hilgard, argues that there appear to be two ways for the ego to escape the memories of the abuse: repression or dissociation. He refers to a horizontal split as a way to divide consciousness by the pushing of painful memories below the level of consciousness. The other strategy is to divide consciousness by creating vertical splits between the segments which are separated by amnesic barriers” (Foui, Unit 9, 2014 p.

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