Sybil Exposed: The Extradordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case

          Sybil Exposed was written by Debbie Nathan in 2010. Nathan is an award-winning journalist, editor, and translator that specializes in writing about immigration, the U.S.-Mexican border, and sexual politics and sex panics (especially those prevalent in the 1980s). In this work she cites dozens of sources and hardly ever makes a claim without backing it up with something she's garnered from her extensive research of the "Sybil case". I believe her to be a credible source because of the way she chronologically details (in the book's introduction) how she came to know so much on the subject matter and because of the notes/bibliography she includes at the end. This topic is clearly something she is both devoted to and an expert in. The portion of Sybil Exposed that I have read introduces the fact and fiction of the fanatisized psychological pandemic of the '80s. In summary, a prominent psychiatrist named Dr. Cornelia Wilbur partnered with a journalist named Flora Rheta Schreiber and her patient Shirley Mason to write a book about Shirley's young life and psychoanalysis. Shirley's pseudonym for the book was "Sybil" and she was the first-ever patient to be officially diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder, or MPD. Supposedly, her symptoms came from severe childhood trauma brought on by her abusive mother. However, the stories are so horrendous and exaggerated it was thought that some may be fabricated when the case was restudied in the '90s. By detailing Shirley's real upbringing, much of which is dictated by her Seventh Day Adventist backgroud, Nathan serves to show that some of Wilbur's "facts" presented in the original Sybil novel are likely actually fiction. This book is written to any audience interested in the Sybil case or, more generally, the nature of early psychology and psychoanalysts of the 1980's. Nathan relies heavily on logos and often presents facts in chronological sequence, explains their reasoning, then presents her personal opinion/arguments based upon what she's just told the reader. She also has very strong word choice, and even if she is presenting facts in a certian segments, her use of adjectives often give away her personal opinion on a subject. For example, she uses the word "barbaric" to describe the mother's treatment of Shirley during childhood. Nathan also describes how she was as a young girl. This helps the reader to understand why she first became interested in the Sybil case while also making her more relatable to a younger audience. Although I haven't finished the book, Nathan's arguments have started out extremely strong and I predict she will accomplish her purpose of uncovering the truth about Sybil/Shirley by the end of the book. Likely she will pursue the argument that although Shirley exhibited signs of MPD, many of Dr. Wilbur's accounts were exaggerated because the psychologist craved credibility, fame, and fortune.