Sybil Exposed

I did like the book, I wish the author could elaborate more details about Shirley with herself and her own thoughts about her inn and feelings that she was thinking was right when we can read its not , maybe her journal would help some how. I'll watch movie maybe I will understand better.

This was quite an interesting book. But not for the obvious reason.

I vividly remember reading the book "Sybil" as a very young teenager and then later, watching the movie. My Godfather was a criminal psychiatrist and both my parents were in the medical field. They frequently worked together on various projects, and my mom was in charge of the only psych ward we had in town at the time. When my dad and I would pick mom up from work, I would invariably witness some truly bizarre behaviors from my mom's patients while we were waiting around for her to finish her rounds. And there were ALL KINDS of patients' stories that would be discussed and debated around the dinner table (no names mentioned, of course).

Because I was introduced to "mind science" at such a young age, I did find the book, Sybil, fascinating, but I was not so enthralled with it as so many young women supposedly were according to this author's writing. And I sure as hell couldn't relate to it on a personal level. It seemed possible, as anything is possible, even if not probable, but it was so far removed from my experiences growing up, that, to me, it was and would continue to be a very rare case.

There was no heightened sense of "Sybil Mania" or "MPD Mania" that I was ever aware of in my community, nor among my friends, their parents, or among anyone else I knew, for that matter. In fact, I don't know of any of my friend's who read the book, or saw the movie, or had even heard of who this Sybil person was. I actually remember NOT discussing it with them because they knew nothing of it, and probably would have thought it was just another crazy movie that didn't make sense to them. Not that we were ignorant or naive, but we had other "teenager interests and issues."

In the meantime, while I was fully aware of Sybil's story, I was completely unaware of the rest of the world's reaction. I must have been at that age when I was more interested in boys than in reading the New York Times, or watching the news, and I missed all the hub-bub.

Therefore, in reading Sybil Exposed now, as an adult, what I DO find most fascinating about this book is how the rest of the world whipped themselves into such a frenzy over it, and that so many innocent people were accused of doing horrible things to children, while everyone else - cops, lawyers, doctors, judges, and most frighteningly of all, our peers - JURORS - were so willing to accept it as truth and convict these poor people with not a shred of real evidence. That a judge would swear in and hear testimony from each of a woman's 6 "alters" (multiple personalities) and consider it as evidence against a man she accused of raping her with the explanation that it wasn't her "real" self, but her 6 year old alter personality who had sex with the man ~ and that he SHOULD HAVE RECOGNIZED HER CHILD ALTER and not have had sex with her is beyond the scope of my vocabulary to express my utter outrage and disbelief that a judge and jury could be so negligent with a man whose life they held in their hands. And that the man was determined guilty because of the woman's alter witnesses is ... just ... Overwhelmingly absurd!!!

Certainly, child abuse occurs and it has consequences, and we are more aware of it now than we were back then. But the equation of people in our society who are easily conned, highly suggestible, overly dramatic, hysterical, panicked, and just flat out not too bright coupled with people in the field of psychology who are money hungry, selfish, self-promoting, ego driven, fame mongering, dangerous nit-wits, who all teamed up to repeat the Salem Witch Trials, and re-enact The Crucible is sad testament to our existence.

Above and beyond the theme of whether or not MPD is a valid psychological condition, or if any of these atrocities did actually happen to Sybil/Shirley, the message I heard loud and clear in reading this book is that we, as the human race, are a scary bunch of idiots doomed to repeat history over and over again (as in the Witch Trials, etc.) to the detriment of us all. Sybil Exposed made that perfectly clear, although I doubt that was the author's intent. This book's intent was to question the validity of MPD and Sybil/Shirley, but what came out of it instead was the undeniable fact that we simply do not ever learn from our mistakes throughout our history, and THAT is what I find most disturbing ... because ~ WHAT'S NEXT?!

The book is excellent investigating reporting. It debunks the Sybil claim and opens the readers eyes to the fraud that was committed. I was sad for Sybil for she was "raped" by her doctor, her own insecurities, the writer of the first book and now this one.