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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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To: dfwgator
Of course this multiple personalities stuff is BS.

You sound like someone who has never lived with a woman during a pregnancy.

If you had you to would believe.

41 posted on 10/17/2011 8:24:36 AM PDT by mouser (Run the rats out its the only chance we have)
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To: CharacterCounts

Actually I’ve never had a relative borrow money. They’ve accepted donations and gifts but never borrowed with the need to repay. I guess it’s all the definition.


42 posted on 10/17/2011 8:28:16 AM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: decimon

More evidence for the authors of the story of the decline and fall of Western civilization . . .


43 posted on 10/17/2011 8:37:34 AM PDT by cvq3842
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To: decimon

I strongly believe in multiple personalities.

I strongly believe in multiple personalities. Who said that?

Seriously, there’s a professional in Houston who believes some people with multiple personality disorder are demon possessed.


44 posted on 10/17/2011 8:39:58 AM PDT by Terry Mross (I'll only vote for a SECOND party.)
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To: decimon

I have no idea what went on in the “Sybil” case. I do remember that Wilbur was highly suspected by her collegues which always put up red flags for me.

In the book she addresses the letter as a time when Sybil simply didn’t want to do therapy anymore - it was getting too painful, so Sybil wrote her a letter saying she had really all made it up, thank you, so she didn’t need anymore help and therapy. It did seem a little too pat, and she did continue after that with therapy.

I’ve always wondered. However, the book does document a lot of injuries to the young Sybil supposedly caused by her mother. And it does state the mother was catatonic for a year, and diagnosed with a mental disorder. That would seem to me as some kind of proof for truth.


45 posted on 10/17/2011 8:43:39 AM PDT by I still care (I miss my friends, bagels, and the NYC skyline - but not the taxes. I love the South.)
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To: Mr. K
I cannot recall any benefit to the guy at all. In fact, one personality was trying to stop the other from buying a car they could not afford.

There's the benefit. It's the same in all of us but he's playing it up. It's your internal conflict or the little angel whispering in one ear and the devil whispering in the other. The "devil" or the "whaaa, I want" side is all for getting the new over budget car while on the other hand the angel or your practical side knows you can't afford it.

46 posted on 10/17/2011 8:47:31 AM PDT by bgill (There, happy now?)
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To: count-your-change

That’s not the way I remember it. It’s YOU who owes ME money.


47 posted on 10/17/2011 8:49:55 AM PDT by bgill (There, happy now?)
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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.

That's how I try to deal with the Carter administration.

48 posted on 10/17/2011 8:59:31 AM PDT by Poison Pill
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To: dfwgator

LOL!


49 posted on 10/17/2011 9:02:59 AM PDT by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: Terry Mross

“... there’s a professional in Houston who believes some people with multiple personality disorder are demon possessed”.

Well, that I can believe. When I was in college, I worked Security at a local hospital. There was a closed/lock psych ward on the top floor. Long story short, Security was called to help assist putting a patient in four point restraints. Now.. picture this. A black woman, about five feet two inches and maybe 100 pounds. She started to say in a very female voice, “He’s coming”. Then she “changed”. I don’t know how else to describe it. Her voice became that of a mans. She started swearing and six Security officers had the hardest time of their life getting her into the restraints.

I was the only female officer and the other five male officers were really BIG men. Her throat and face changed appearance. After the longest 15 minutes of our lives, we were able to secure the patient and left the room. It was then that I said, “Is she possessed?!” to one of the nurses. I will tell you this... it was the strangest thing I had ever seen. So... whether multiple personalities exist or not... the thought of demon possession entered my mind and several others that day. The nurse did tell us she had multiple personalities. Who knows?


50 posted on 10/17/2011 9:03:38 AM PDT by momtothree
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To: Mr. K

My husband’s previous wife was diagnosed with multiple personalities. She would even spell her name differently depending on the personality that was ‘out’. From the stories he’s told me, it does seem that it was real. Very strange...


51 posted on 10/17/2011 9:06:03 AM PDT by Twotone (Marte Et Clypeo)
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To: bgill

That’s just your “Reverse Personality” coming out to overwhelm your “I have the money right here” personality. Fight it by opening your wallet.
Don’t you feel better now?


52 posted on 10/17/2011 9:12:48 AM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: dagogo redux

Are you really a Buddhist?


53 posted on 10/17/2011 9:15:38 AM PDT by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: Tublecane
Either you remember something or you don’t.

Didn't you say that before? :-)

54 posted on 10/17/2011 9:17:48 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: All

55 posted on 10/17/2011 9:27:15 AM PDT by Fawn (No TO PERRY!!!!!!!!!)
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To: decimon

That’s what I keep asking myself.


Which “self”? ;)


56 posted on 10/17/2011 9:30:44 AM PDT by freedomlover (Make sure you're in love - before you move in the heavy stuff)
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To: dagogo redux

Awesome post. And I learned a new word too.

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=iatrogenic+&pbx=1&oq=iatrogenic+&aq=f&aqi=g4&aql=1&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3484l3484l0l5781l1l1l0l0l0l0l125l125l0.1l1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=68e70c9e138cc725&biw=1024&bih=601


57 posted on 10/17/2011 9:34:36 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS! This means liberals AND libertarians (same thing) NO LIBS!)
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To: dagogo redux

This is from some decades past so please make allowance.

A story from, IIRC, a psychiatrist. He said he was taught and had believed that a person should display but one personality. Then one day he sat down to write several overdue letters to people he knew. When he finished it struck him that the letters were all different. Each was written according to the relationship he had with the addressee. That experience changed his view on personality.

That was sketchy but I guess you’ll get the drift.


58 posted on 10/17/2011 9:35:06 AM PDT by decimon
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To: freedomlover
That’s what I keep asking myself.

Which “self”? ;)

We don't recall.

59 posted on 10/17/2011 9:37:44 AM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon
Despite what some people think memories can be and are suppressed under certain conditions. Severe Car accidents for instance are frequently forgotten, sometimes the few seconds leading up to the accident, the accident itself and sometimes a short period of time after the accident. This is quite common and probably the brains way of keeping people from freaking out and reliving the accident over and over in their minds. I imagine that some forms of child abuse would cause the same black outs of certain memories, altho I don't think sexual abuse would necessarily qualify unless it was accompanied by a lot of pain, which I would imagine is frequently the case.

As for multiple personalities I don't actually believe in them unless the person is actually schitzo and then that is slightly different.

60 posted on 10/17/2011 10:49:28 AM PDT by calex59
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