Sybil

1) An identity disorder is when a person shows multiple identities or personalities, each having their own ways of interacting and dealing with things. Sybil’s personality disorder was caused by her mother’s abuse to her when she was a kid. Her mother physically and sexually abused Sybil, and to deal with the pain and fear of dealing with everything in life now, she developed multiple personalities to escape from the pain.

2) Some of the symptoms that led to the diagnosis of an identity disorder were that she was having black outs all the time. She would be in one place and suddenly “wake up” in another place not remembering how she got there and how long it has been. Another symptom that led to the diagnosis of an identity disorder was that she was doing tasks that she normally does not know how to do. For example, Vicky speaks French and Sybil normally does not know how to, and Vanessa plays the piano, while Sybil knows nothing of playing the piano.

3) Some of Sybil’s defense mechanisms were that she denied her multiple personalities. She said that it was all just a charade, but it was just a way to stop getting close to Doctor Wilbur. Another defense mechanism is repression. In order to forget all the horrible things her mother did to her when she was a kid, she unconsciously pushed them into her unconscious mind. The last defense mechanism Sybil used was regression. One of the personalities she has is Peggy, which is a child, and Ruthie, the baby. She goes back in time, and thinks she is a child and baby.

4) The psychoanalysis technique that are used to treat Sybil are hypnosis. This technique is useful because Doctor Wilbur makes her relive all the events while she is beside her telling her that none of it is real, and that her mother cannot do anything to hurt her anymore. Reliving her most painful moments would make her move beyond it, so she does not have to repress them any longer.

5) Repression has to do with Sybil’s psychological disorder because her mother abused her so badly, both physically and sexually, that any memory of any of her childhood memories would make her switch into another personality because it was too much for her to handle herself. Sybil was very afraid of many things that seemed normal to a regular person because of the relationship between the things and the abuse her mother gave her.

6) The significance of Sybil’s dreams are reflections of her real waking life. All the little things that are in her dreams are symbols of her real life.
a) Kittens in the basket: This represents all of Sybil’s personalities. Sybil is trying to save all her personalities by putting them all into a ‘box’.
b) The Box: This represents Sybil’s body. The box is holding all the little kittens that Sybil finds, and Sybil’s body holds all of her many different personalities.
c) Headless cat: This represents her mother. No matter how much or far she ran, she still could not seem to escape the headless cat. This is the way she feels about her mother. It seems like she will never be able to escape the torture her mother gave her.
d) People waving in the background as she is running in the field: This represents the people in her life that were important to her. Though she wanted to stop and play with them, she could not because the headless cat / her mother was always after her.

7) a) Reference to the “hands” and being afraid of the hands: Sybil is afraid of the “hands” because of when she was getting her tonsils removed, all these hands from the doctors were trying to hold her down, and keep her still so they could remove her tonsils. All she saw were hands coming at her and holding her down, so now when she sees hands, they remind her of the doctors trying to hold her down.
b) Color purple: When Sybil was locked in the box in the warehouse, she had held onto a purple crayon from her room. After she was left alone, she started drawing on the side of the box, as a cry of help, and also to let people know that she was there.
c) Her kittens bothering her: Sybil’s kittens bother her because they remind her of the dream that she was having about the kittens in the box and the headless cat chasing her everywhere she went.
d) Tears: Sybil said that she has not cried a human tear since her grandmother died. This was because her mother always told her not to cry when she was abused or anything else she did to Sybil. In the end when Doctor Wilbur told Sybil that she loved her, Sybil finally broke down and cried her first real tears since the death of her grandmother.
e) The story of the ants: When Doctor Wilbur told Sybil of the story of the ants, Sybil was touched by the story be cause even though ants are so small, they still help each other out when they need it, and they still love each other.
f) Marsha’s suicide attempt: Marsha felt like everything else was not worth it anymore, and she felt that if she killed ‘herself’ and Sybil, then she would put Sybil out of the misery and suffering that she is going through. Marsha thought that death itself was better than the way Sybil was living her life; consumed in fear.
g) Cane shapes/ sharp objects: Sybil has a big fear of cane shapes or sharp objects because of the sexual abuse she experienced from her mother. Her mother kept a tool roll In the kitchen, and it contained many small knives and a button hooker. Because Sybil saw the tools before she was abused, she became afraid of them, thinking they would once again hurt her.
h) It hurts to be touched: Sybil did not receive any love from her mother, and since her father was always out or working, all she experienced touch-wise was abuse. Therefore, when she grew up and whenever she got touched, she felt like she was going to get abused or hit.

8) It was important for Sybil to meet her other personalities because when she met them, she finally accepted herself. She accepted the fact that she had multiple personalities because her mother abused her so much that she could not face the pain herself. When she met them, she became one with them.

9) The importance of Sybil confronting her mother was to finally remember everything her mother did to her. Because she remembered, she could finally let herself release all the anger and hatred towards her mother that she had locked up inside her. It was unhealthy for Sybil to hold that much anger in her, and that was the reason why she developed the multiple personalities. It finally allowed her to move on with her life after confronting her mother.

10) Sybil denied the existence of multiple personalities and tells Doctor Wilbur that it was all a hoax because she was afraid of getting well. She thought that Doctor Wilbur was her only way of getting better, and if something happened to the doctor then she would have no way of getting better. By denying her multiple personalities, she could start slowly pulling away from Doctor Wilbur in case something happened to her, and Sybil would have no way to get better.

11) The kinds of issues/problems I think Sybil faced after her recovery is she still might be afraid of a couple things that she has been afraid of all her life. It could take a couple more sessions with Doctor Wilbur to realize that the objects and colors cannot really hurt her, and that it is only her imagination. Another issue that I think Sybil will face is that she will have a hard time getting close to people and being touched. Although she confronted her mother, I think that she cannot just get over it that quickly. It will be a while before Sybil realizes that being touched is a good thing, and that it will not hurt her anymore.

12) My overall reaction to the movie was that I could not believe that a grown woman could do such horrible things to a child. I thought it was a really good movie overall. I think psychoanalysis is that most appropriate way to treat someone because if you can change the way their mind works or thinks about something, then you can easily get to what you are trying to accomplish in the person. I do think that identity disorders exist because there are just some things in the world that are too overwhelming for one person alone to handle, and by developing multiple personalities, this takes some of the stress off the main person because the stress is split between the other personalities. The main person can switch in and out when something is hurting them or making them uncomfortable.