I have been ignoring my book blog for quite a while now, despite reading a lot of books lately. My initial aplogies to my book blog. I want to make up to you by making you feel a little special this year and dressing you up suitably with a lot more posts and a better look.
So, coming to the review part. I've read a few good books in the last four months. I think it is high time I posted a review on those. I choose the most recent book I read, for my review.
My mother does not read. Anything. Even a newspaper. And not certainly English. Hence I was surprised when she told me about this amazing book she's read many many years ago. SYBIL. I kept hearing on and off about it from her and decided to pick it up for my collection. After many trips to book stores and being told that the book is out of stock, I finally managed to find it at Odyssey, about a month back. And I started reading it with immediate effect. I am glad I did.
SYBIL is a book published in 1973, written by Flora Rheta Schreiber about a true-life story of a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder. I had never heard of the book, and until I finished reading it, I didnt know that SYBIL is actually a pseudonym of a woman named Shirley Arden Mason. Hers is perhaps the most famous case of multiple personality disorder. The pseudonym was given to protect her privacy.
SYBIL, was born on 25th January, 1923 in Minnesota. She had a history of blackouts and emotional breakouts, and finally entered psychotherapy with Dr Cornelia Wilbur a Freudian Psychiatrist. Their sessions together form the basis for this book and its narrative. After extensive therapy, it is discovered that SYBIL has 16 different personalities, which disassociate themselves from the central personality. The biggest task is to integrate these disassociated ones with the central one in order to have SYBIL lead a normal life. The book is based on the therapy, treatment and triumph of this woman to overcome a mental disability, which would take several years of determination and sometimes hopelessness.
It was a shocking read for me, in a way scary, when I thought what would I do if I were in that situation. Would I recover from it? How would I feel when unknown people come up to me and claim to know me? It was an eerie read, but surely engrossing.
I find it difficult to write a review on this true-life story. I would recommend it as a must read, though. I found it hard to put down and the case of 16 different personalities to a woman are perplexing and baffling. It is scary, but still, it is definitely worth a read.
Instead of giving just the excerpts, I'll attach a sketch of the 16 personalities of SYBIL ISABEL DORSETT.
Sybil Isabel Dorsett (1923): a depleted person; the waking self.
Victoria Antoinette Scharleau(1926): nicknamed Vicky; a self-assured, sophisticated, attractive blonde; the memory trace of Sybil's selves.
Peggy Lou Baldwin (1926): an assertive, enthusiastic, and often angry pixie with a pug nose, a Dutch haircut, and a mischievous smile.
Peggy Ann Baldwin (1926): a counterpart of Peggy Lou with similar physical characteristics; she is more often fearful than angry.
Mary Lucinda Saunders Dorsett (1933): a thoughtful, contemplative, maternal, homeloving person; she is plump and has long dark-brown hair parted on the side.
Marcia Lynn Dorsett (1927): last name sometimes Baldwin; a writer and painter; extremely emotional; she has a shield-shaped face, gray eyes, and brown hair parted on the side.
Vanessa Gail Dorsett (1935): intensely dramatic and extremely attractive; a tall redhead with a willowy figure, light brown eyes, and an expressive oval face.
Mike Dorsett (1928): one of Sybil's two male selves; a builder and a carpenter, he has olive skin, dark hair, and brown eyes.
Sid Dorsett (1928): one of Sybil's two male selves; a carpenter and a general handyman; he has fair skin, dark hair, and blue eyes.
Nancy Lou Ann Baldwin (date undetermined): interested in politics as fulfillment of biblical prophecy and intensely afraid of Roman Catholics; fey; her physical characteristics resemble those of the Peggys.
Sybil Ann Dorsett (1928): listless to the point of neurasthenia; pale and timid with ash-blonde hair, an oval face, and a straight nose.
Ruthie Dorsett (date undetermined): a baby; one of the lesser developed selves.
Clara Dorsett (date undetermined): intensely religious; highly critical of the waking Sybil.
Helen Dorsett (1929): intensely afraid but determined to achieve fulfillment; she has light brown hair, hazel eyes, a straight nose, and thin lips.
Marjorie Dorsett (1928): serene, vivacious, and quick to laugh; a tease; a small, willowy brunette with fair skin and a pug nose.
The Blonde (1946): nameless; a perpetual teenager; has blonde curly hair and a lilting voice.
The New Sybil (1965): the seventeenth self; an amalgam of the other sixteen selves.
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