Sybil Exposed

This book is fascinating! Almost everyone is aware of the Sybil story (the woman with 16 personalities), but what few people know is that the story was manufactured. This book tells the story of the three women who made this hoax possible: Dr. Connie Wilbur (the psychiatrist), Shirley Mason ("Sybil"), and Flora Schreiber (the author of Sybil). Here's the lowdown...

• Shirley had pernicious anemia. Symptoms of pernicious anemia include fatigue, rapid heart rate, depression, mild cognitive impairment, and pins and needles sensations in the fingers and toes.
• Pernicious anemia was not understood when Shirley was coming of age, so her symptoms were misunderstood as being psychological in nature.
• Shirley thus sought help from Dr. Wilbur.
• Dr. Wilbur was very career driven and fascinated by the idea of multiple personality disorder (MPD; as it came to be known, before it was known as DID).
• Dr. Wilbur arrived at the decision that Shirley had MPD, and she informed Shirley of this diagnosis. She then proceeded to prescribe and administer numerous addictive and potentially dangerous drugs, to which Shirley became addicted. They agreed that they would write a book about Shirley to make them rich.
• Shirley was eager to please Dr. Wilbur, so she manufactured personality after personality to gain her attention.
• Dr. Wilbur and Shirley engaged in a very inappropriate relationship, which involved going on vacations together, Shirley working for Dr. Wilbur, and them even living together for a period of time. Some individuals believe they were engaged in a romantic relationship.
• They later met Flora, who was interested in the big scoop. At first, she was clueless about the fact that it was a fraud, but she realized along the way that everything was whack. However, she didn't want to lose face (or money), so she decided to write the book anyway, making up more details along the way.
• They all then willingly broadcast their fraud to the world. Dr. Wilbur and Flora became rich and famous, but Shirley got outed repeatedly due to the fact that Flora barely covered Shirley's identity. Shirley essentially lived the rest of her life in hiding.

I was blown away by all of this. I also found it very educational. I learned a lot about Seventh Day Adventism (Shirley's religion) and several aspects of mental health history. I would encourage anyone to read this book. I guarantee you will learn something.