Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of background of the study, problem formulation, objectives the study, benefits of the study and definition of terms. The background of the study states the topic and the reasons of choosing the topic. Then, the problem formulation describes the guidelines to do the analysis, whereas the objectives of study describe what to gain in the study. The advantages of the study are presented in benefits of the study. The last is definition of terms. This part defines some terms related to the study

A. Background of the Study

Family is the smallest structure in a society that consists of parents and children. It is the first place for someone to learn everything. As stated in Psychology of the Child, there are two major effects that the home has on the life of the child. Firstly, it provides the conditions that facilitate some kinds of behavior and inhibit other. Secondly, its effect consists of the way in which child‘s personality is shaped Watson and Lindgreen 297. Whenever the function of family member does not work optimally and then creates some terrible home situation, it will have a deep effect on the children. One of the worst things that may happen in a family is child abuse. A dreadful abuse experienced by children can cause some awful effects, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and physical injury to the child. A philosopher Daniel Dennett, as quoted in Dr. Paul McHugh says ...the evidence is now voluminous that there are not a handful or a hundred but thousands of cases of MPD DID diagnosed today, and it almost invariably owes its existence to prolonged early childhood abuse, usually sexual, and of sickening severity…..reference the Wikipedia, Multiple Personality Disorder Dissociative Identity Disorder resource Relating to this case, Dissociative Identity Disorder is one product of terrible childhood trauma. In Psychology in Action, it is described that Dissociative Identity Disorder DID, previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder MPD, is a disorder, in which at least two or more distinct personalities stay alive within the same person. Dissociative Identity Disorder is one of the five dissociative disorders identified in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV by the American Psychiatric Association 1994. These include Dissociative Amnesia, Dissociative Fugue, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and Somatoform Disorders. In DID, each personality has unique memories, behavior, and social relationship. When a person suffering from this disorder cannot overcome certain problem, then the alternate personality comes to cope with. Shortly, it is said that the change of personality may be associated with psychological stress Huffman, Vernoy and Vernoy 531. A person with Dissociative Identity Disorder DID tends to have some depressions, amnesia, blackouts or time loss, sleep disorder, headache, panic attack, flashback or intrusive memory, phobia, mood-swing and suicidal tendencies. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI A work of literature may portray such issues as described above. People may think that through literary works they only gain some pleasure. However, Woody says that through literature readers can get not only pleasure, but also knowledge. And all of us who read literary work will find our knowledge broadened and deepened, whether in the individual, the social, the racial or the internal sphere; we shall understand how we come to live at particular time and place, with all its pleasure and vexations and problems, we shall understand the ways own wards which are open to us, and we shall perhaps be able to make right rather than wrong choice Woody 2-3. From the quotation above, we can see that literary work can give us new perspective of life. The contents in the literary works are the reflections of our daily life. Therefore, it will enable us to know life better and enable to decide the right things in life. A novel by Flora Rheita Schreiber entitled Sybil, the True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Separate Personalities is one real example of a story of a woman with a Dissociative Identity Disorder. The story is about a child named Sybil. As a child, Sybil has a tendency to escape from all severe physical and emotional abuses at the hand of her cruel mother, and the worst thing is that her father does nothing to protect her. This condition leaves her to have some trauma and this also influences her personalities. Then, Sybil develops some personalities within her, in which two of them are boys. When a personality controls her body, Sybil is in the condition of losing the memory and the time blackout. Each of the characters has hisher own behavior and way of thinking and they know each other, except Sybil. Whenever Sybil cannot overcome her problems, one of them comes up and takes control of Sybil’s body. Then, finally Sybil realizes that there is something wrong with her, so she decides to be examined by Dr. Cornelia Wilbur. The doctor is the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI one trying hard to unite Sybil’s characters. The novel is interesting because we will find that the biggest enemy is within human themselves. This study is, therefore, meant to analyze the Dissociative Identity Disorder in Sybil’s case. Nowadays, we see that there are many cases of broken-home children who tend to have more problems than those from the harmonious home. They grow up to be troublemaker children, unconfident, weirdo, etc, because of lack of affection from their parents. Shortly, as stated by Watson and Lindgren in Psychology of the Child, it is no doubt that parents play a key role in the upbringing the children. They can influence the child’s development especially on the development of the intellectual ability, emotions, the relationships to peers, etc 310. Relating with Dissociative Identity Disorder, many scientists say that the terrible childhood trauma pays biggest contribution in making a personality divided and home is a fertile field to plant the seed of child future personality, whether they will be a good person or not. The novel is intersting to discuss because, beside the story is based on a true story, it also gives us a vivid picture of how difficult it is for someone who has sixteen different and independent personalities within herself. Those characters come up unconsciously in the main’s character life. This is a kind of fascinating things to study about human personality and to find the reason why such kind of dissociative identity disorder appears. It is true in our society that people sometimes ignore the importance of parental role on childhood period in shaping their personality. That phenomenon is reflected clearly in this novel. Thus, the writer believes that this thesis can contribute a new thing among many criticisms, essays and debates about PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI this story, not only for the students who directly have the relation to the literature and psychology, but also to all readers in general.

B. Problem Formulation