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'Sybil' is one big psych-out (multiple personalities was multiple lies)
New York Post ^ | October 16, 2011 | KYLE SMITH

Posted on 10/17/2011 6:51:30 AM PDT by decimon

“Sybil,” the shocking true story of a woman shattered into 16 distinct personalities that helped her to dig up repressed memories of monstrous childhood sexual abuse, sold nearly 7 million copies when it was published in 1973. A serialized version ran in newspapers around the nation as readers gasped at “scenes of Sybil’s demented mother defecating on lawns, conducting lesbian orgies and raping her daughter with kitchen utensils. This kind of sex and perversion had never before been published on the ‘women’s’ pages,” writes author Debbie Nathan in a new book. “Sybil” was adapted into an Emmy-winning 1976 TV miniseries starring Sally Field and Joanne Woodward that was viewed by one-fifth of the American public.

And it was an utter fraud.

>

Shirley continued, “I do not have any multiple personalities ... I do not even have a ‘double’ ... I am all of them. I have essentially been lying ... as trying to show you I felt I needed help ... Quite thrilling. Got me a lot of attention.”

The therapist, who was already talking up her prize patient at psychiatry conferences, dismissed the letter as “resistance” and pushed on with the drugs and the therapy -- this time, five days a week. Soon Shirley was again putting on a split-personality show in Connie’s office. No one else except her roommate was ever treated to these performances.

>

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Health/Medicine; Religion; Society
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1 posted on 10/17/2011 6:51:34 AM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon

lols.


2 posted on 10/17/2011 6:53:24 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (...then they came for the guitars, and we kicked their sorry faggot asses into the dust)
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To: decimon

And today, probably an accepted lifestyle; one eulogized by the “gay” community.


3 posted on 10/17/2011 6:58:01 AM PDT by Neoliberalnot ((Read "The Grey Book" for an alternative to corruption in DC))
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To: decimon

The establishment media lies?!?! Say it ain’t so. I am totally disillusioned.


4 posted on 10/17/2011 6:58:23 AM PDT by all the best
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To: decimon

The whole concept of “repressed memories” was BS from the get=go, and obviously so. Either you remember something or you don’t.


5 posted on 10/17/2011 7:02:03 AM PDT by Tublecane
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To: decimon

I don’t know the details; but, I believe establishing ‘bi-polar’ status as a disability helps get your ticket punched for free housing and even tuition assistance...maybe through SSA.


6 posted on 10/17/2011 7:05:02 AM PDT by lacrew (Mr. Soetoro, we regret to inform you that your race card is over the credit limit.)
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To: decimon

All I remember is that Sally Field was very impressive in the movie. Just one man’s opinion, and I was probably in my teens then.


7 posted on 10/17/2011 7:05:29 AM PDT by Mich Patriot (A government agency is the closest thing to eternal life you'll ever see on Earth. RReagan)
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To: decimon
"Shirley continued, “I do not have any multiple personalities ... I do not even have a ‘double’ ... I am all of them. I have essentially been lying ... as trying to show you I felt I needed help ... Quite thrilling. Got me a lot of attention."

Uh huh.... How do we know this isn't just personality #17 emerging?

8 posted on 10/17/2011 7:09:49 AM PDT by Hatteras
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To: decimon

I read this article yesterday but I think this story was debunked years ago.

Sunday NYTimes book review ignores books by Ann Coulter and Thomas Sowell but has time to review editor Jill Abramson’s dumb book about...her dog.


9 posted on 10/17/2011 7:10:05 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Let's have a Cain Mutiny!)
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To: Tublecane

I beileve in repressed memories only in the vein that you “don’t seem to remember the event”, but if someone who was there suddenly comes along and asks you about it, you will remember clearly.

That is, you remember some stuff clearly but it just never comes to mind unless someone brings it up. And if nobody ever brings it up, well, it never comes up - so you have “repressed” the memory.

The “blackout” of memories (where even when it IS brought up, you still don’t remember) is another thing. I don’t buy that.

My first marriage ended due to the “repressed memory” thing. I remember a counselor saying he was concerned that, with the exception of a single instance, could not remember my parents “spanking” me. Then I asked my mother if she ever spanked me and she brought up the exact same occurance (on her own) as the only time.

So much for “repressed” memories and identifiying the counselor as a quack.


10 posted on 10/17/2011 7:10:41 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: Tublecane
The whole concept of “repressed memories” was BS from the get=go, and obviously so. Either you remember something or you don’t.

Witch-Hunt alert.

11 posted on 10/17/2011 7:12:02 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (...then they came for the guitars, and we kicked their sorry faggot asses into the dust)
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To: Mich Patriot

That’s the role that put Field on the map. An amazing performance. The fact that it’s comletely fictional a story doesn’t mean that the movie doesn’t have power. It certainly works as a horror story and Field was terrific!


12 posted on 10/17/2011 7:12:06 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Let's have a Cain Mutiny!)
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To: decimon
Ha! I knew it! Of course, I've read about this before.

However, even when it first came out, I had serious doubts.

And you can't trust the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual. Anything that keeps changing definitions of mental illnesses to suit the current political winds is, by unchanging definition, Stalinist.

13 posted on 10/17/2011 7:15:52 AM PDT by chesley (Eat what you want, and die like a man. Never trust anyone who hasn't been punched in the face)
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To: cuban leaf

“I beileve in repressed memories only in the vein that you ‘don’t seem to remember the event’, but if someone who was there suddenly comes along and asks you about it, you will remember clearly.”

You wouldn’t have been repressing it, then. That’s garden variety remembering. If it were what we’re talking about, you’d need not “someone who was there” but a highly trained genius brain excavator, i.e. a psychiatrist, to dig in your head and tell you what you don’t know about yourself.

“That is, you remember some stuff clearly but it just never comes to mind unless someone brings it up. And if nobody ever brings it up, well, it never comes up - so you have ‘repressed’ the memory”

This has nothing to with the subject at hand, really. People not bringing it up doesn’t constitute repression.


14 posted on 10/17/2011 7:21:46 AM PDT by Tublecane
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To: Hatteras
Uh huh.... How do we know this isn't just personality #17 emerging?

That's what I keep asking myself.

15 posted on 10/17/2011 7:23:28 AM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon

Of course this multiple personalities stuff is BS.

No it isn’t

Yes it is.

Shut up!!!


16 posted on 10/17/2011 7:25:16 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: cuban leaf
The “blackout” of memories (where even when it IS brought up, you still don’t remember) is another thing. I don’t buy that.

I can attest to the reality of "blacked-out" memories. There are three traumatic events in my life that I can remember before and after, but not during. And knowing what surrounded them, I'm really glad I don't remember the "during."

17 posted on 10/17/2011 7:25:46 AM PDT by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: Tublecane

Have a friend who was repeatedly sexually abused by her dad (no doubt) from very early on. She did ‘repress’ very many memories, which only began to come back as she began to deal with what happened to her. She only ever had one personality, tho. If you don’t want to remember something, you sure enough can ‘repress’ it by choosing to forget it.


18 posted on 10/17/2011 7:26:31 AM PDT by dubyagee ("I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.")
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To: All

b


19 posted on 10/17/2011 7:26:35 AM PDT by Maverick68
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To: the invisib1e hand

“Witch-Hunt alert”

This may be a joke, but if you actually read Freud, Jung, etc. they go beyond the mere self-protection of individual psyche to posit horror at the origin of human culture. That is to say, we are neurotics not only because our parents had sex in front of us when we were babies, but also because we can dimly remember people practicing human sacrifice 65,000 years ago, or something. Which is insane, but, hey, what is psychology for?


20 posted on 10/17/2011 7:26:36 AM PDT by Tublecane
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