Sybil Dorsett's Case

1. What is your diagnosis? Cite behaviors for support.

Sybil Dorsett's case is one of the most celebrated in the field of Psychology. In the first part of the film, we can see that Sybil is like just any normal human being -- has a job and interacts with people just like everyone else. Then the scene wherein a screeching sound is made by the playground swing come in and we are now presented with what seems to be a flashback of someone being hoisted up by an old woman. It's just normal to have flashbacks yes, but what made me think that this girl, Sybil, really has a problem was when, as she was leading the kids that she teach back to the bus, all of a sudden, she found herself in the water. And the odd thing here is that she did not know how she got there. She went home after that and there she continued to behave strangely; she would act as if somebody else is in the room and talk to him/her. She then bruises herself when she hit the window with her hand and that is when she goes to the hospital and the doctor that checked up on her noticed that she might have a neuropsychological disorder. He then referred her to Dr. Wilbur who then handled her. Sybil reported to be experiencing the following: having blackouts, tunnel vision, sometimes feeling like she is in another place, does not like being touched and that one time she woke up to find out that she is two years older. As she continued with her session with Dr. Wilbur, one would notice that sometimes she would remain catatonic for a considerably long period of time and would take no notice of the time. She even gets irritated by the mere ticking of a clock. Taking note of these behaviors exhibited by Sybil, she then is diagnosed to have the Dissociative Identity Disorder [formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder]. This disorder is now identified to be common effects of severe trauma in early childhood, mostly of repeated emotional, physical and sexual abuse. When a person is faced with an extremely traumatic situation from which there is no physical escape, one would sometimes resort by "going away" in his/her head. They may use this so as to protect themselves from the pain or trauma that they are currently experiencing and by doing this "going way", one continues to function normally. In the film, amongst the different alternate personalities that she was believed to have, we have met a few of the identities being portrayed by Sybil: Peggy, the nine-year old child and Vicky, the one who seems to know everything that each "person" inside Sybil does, was a sophisticated, self-assured French woman; she claims to be being friends to each one of the alter personalities. Whenever Sybil feels something that she would not be able to handle as Sybil herself, she then "switches" to one of the personalities inside her in order to be able to face the situation. This "switching" has sort of become her survival technique in facing life.

2. How did she develop this disorder? Be specific.

When Sybil was at a very young age, she continued to experience abuse - physical, emotional and sexual. Sybil's tortures were primarily inflicted by her mother. There was one time wherein her mother tied her up and hoisted her up a pulley and then locked her inside the box with her purple crayon. This happened a day before Christmas and so after that, Sybil has disliked the day before Christmas. She was also prevented by her mother to do things that kids her age usually do - like play with her crayons, hop and sing to songs while going around the house and spend time with her grandmother. Her mother was believed to have a disorder also and this contributed to the lack of love, attention and affection that Sybil should have received from her. Her mother also used to push up items up into her daughter's vagina. All these things experienced by Sybil contributed to the development of the disorder. Whenever the wake self, Sybil, was unable to cope with the situation, she then switched to one of the personalities--Peggy, Vicky etcetra - that she has inside in order to deal with the problem. All of these things led Sybil to feel anger and hatred towards her mother. The things that her mother did to her were seen to be the root cause for the development of her disorder; she was neglected and was not provided for the basic things that a child needs at a very young age - love and affection.