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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
This chapter contains three parts. The first part is object of the study that states the physical descriptions of the novel. The second part is the approach used in
this thesis in analyzing the novel. The last part is method of the study. It deals with the research steps taken from reading up to the report writing. It also deals with what
the type of study undertaken, aspects of the topic, and how and where to gather data.
A. Object of the study
The object of the study is a novel entitled Sybil, the True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities by Flora Rheita Schreiber. Sybil was written in
1973 and first published in the same year and became bestseller. Sybil is the most controversial novel talking about Multiple Personalities, later called Dissociative
Identity Disorder. Because of its controversy, it was brought into a film in 1976 starring Sally Field as the actress and won an Emmy award. Thus, Sybil deeply
affected readers’ point of view in seeing the new term of being Multiple and of course its influence the mental health profession.
The novel analyzed was published by Penguin Book in 1975. The novel was written based on the true story of Dr. Cornelia C. Wilbur’s patient, Sybil who was
firstly considered as the patient with schizophrenia that had a history of blackout and emotional background, and then finally it was revealed that she possessed more than
one personality. The story is about the main character named Sybil Isabel Dorsett who is born
in a rural down in a very strict, conservative and orthodox family. Her father, Willard Dorsett, is a building contractor, and her mother, Hattie Dorsett is a housewife. She
grows in the hands of a psycho-mother, who often does some abuses. The worst thing is that her father does not care about what happens to her. Little Sybil then tries
to find a way to escape from her trouble by creating some imaginary personalities in her mind, so she can run away from that horror. This habit of escaping traps her into
a big problem that is the personality splitting that she does not know about that.
B. Approach
This study aims to reveal the Sybil’s dissociative identity disorder. The psychological approach is the approach to analyze the novel. The psychological
approach will enable the writer to analyze the characteristics of dissociative identity disorder of the main character and the conflicts lying inside and also find out how
she copes with all the conflicts in her spitting personalities. Psychological criticism employs three approaches. First, it investigates the creative process of the artist. The
second is psychological study of particular artist. Most modern literary uses the psychological approach to understand the subject’s motivation and behavior. The
third common area of psychological criticism is the analysis of fictional characters Kennedy and Gioia, 1947.
C. Method of the Study
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