Sybil really wants to be. She says that she enjoys college. She will join sororities, will have many dates, and will become a cheerleader at sport events, a campus leader
in everything. She loves life and living Schreiber 394.
B. The Description of Sybil’s Dissociative Identity Disorder
The Parents, Hattie and Willard play a big part in making Sybil’s dissociative. Because of Hattie’s Schizophrenia and Willard’s ignorance about her
daughter and the hypocritical environment in the family and in Willow Corners that makes Sybil’s splitting personalities grow fertile.
1. Sybil’s Characteristics as a Person with Dissociative Identity Disorder
Some experts explain that an individual with dissociative identity disorder appears to have two or more distinct personalities or personality states. These
personalities take turns in controlling the actions, because an individual with this disorder is not capable to remember personal information Wilson, Nathan, O’Leary,
Clark 181. It is described in the novel that her sixteen personalities are: Vicky, Peggy Lou, Peggy Ann, Marcia, Vanessa, Marry, Clara, Helen, Marjorie, Ruthie,
Mike, Sid, Nancy, Sybil Ann and The blonde and the original Sybil herself. These sixteen altogether live within the same body.
The term dissociative identity disorder also means that each personality has its own age, name, sex, intelligence and personal states Huffman, Vernoy and
Vernoy 531. Each personality within Sybil also has its own characteristics above. For the example in the novel, when Sybil is born, her parents give her a name Sybil
Isabel Dorsett. However, because of some traumas that has happened, her personality splits into sixteen personalities. Peggy Lou is one of the sixteen personalities. She
has black hair, easy to get furry, a bad tempered girl Schreiber 75-76. The other personalities are Mike and Sid. They are male, a builder and carpenter, and they still
kids Schreiber 252. They usually appear together. This case proves that even different sexes can live within the same body.
2. The Symptoms
Individuals diagnosed with Dissosiative Identity Disorder DID show a variety of symptoms. The symptoms can include: multiple mannerisms, attitudes and
beliefs that are dissimilar to each other, headaches and other body pains, distortion or loss of subjective time, depersonalization, amnesia, depression Wikipedia, free
encyclopedia http:skepdic.commpd.html. In this case, Sybil experiences all of the sequences.
a. Multiple mannerisms The proof that Sybil has multiple mannerisms is that she has sixteen alternate
personalities within her. They are: Peggy Lou who arrives in 1926; Peggy Ann, into whom the original Peggy has developed; Vicky, who appears in 1927; Mary on 1933,
Vanessa on 1935; Sid and Mike who arrives in the early1928, Nancy, Ruthie, Helen, Marjorie, Claire, and the Blonde who arrives during Sybil recovery treatment
Schreiber 309-310. b. Multiple Attitudes
Sybil has also multiple attitudes. Sometimes when Peggy Lou emerges within her, then she becomes a very confident person, moody and easy to be furious
Schreiber 66-68. When Vicky emerges, then a sophisticated, helpful and brave woman takes control of Sybil’s body. It will be different when Mary appears, then
Sybil who is fragile, unconfident and fearful Schreiber 56, 103-105,318 becomes person who is sensitive, fanatic and loves doing housework Schreiber 162-165. The
different attitudes will also emerge whenever the other alternates take control of Sybil’s body.
c. Headache and other body pains When Sybil is in college, she experiences extreme nervousness and something
called hysterics. And because of this, the college refuses to take her back unless a psychiatrist says she is fit to rejoin. During the late spring of 1935, Sybil is diagnosed
to have hysteria, the illness resulting from emotional conflict, which is characterized by immaturity, dependency and suddenly a half of Sybil’s face and her arms will
become numb. She grows weak on one side, not always the same side. She, and some of selves, for instance Mary, develops a nervous tic. Sybil and one of the
personalities will twitch, jerk and carry on with unrestrained body movements. The symptoms are intensified by headache Schreiber 155-156.
d. Distortion or loss of subjective time and amnesia These are what Sybil must face. The time loss or what Sybil calls is “bad
day” or “the emptiness” appears when she cannot face some problems. At that time the other personalities take control of her body. The example is when Sybil does not
know why she is suddenly already at Philadelphia because all that she can remember PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
is she is in the way home from the lab Schreiber 19-23. This proves that the other personality who takes control is Peggy Lou. She is the one who takes a journey to
Philadelphia. Another proof is when she is in the fifth grade, because as long as she knows, she is at the third grade Schreiber 133-135.
e. Depersonalization Depersonalization is a symptom when the sufferer has a feeling of lack of
involvement or drifting apart from one’s self; the sufferer may feel like the robot or as if they live in a dream or a movie. They also become paranoid of the common
thing .e.g.: the voice of the low volume radio becomes as if too loud voice, etc. Depersonalization is a reality testing that remains intact, which means the person
knows something terribly wrong and trying to figure it out. Sometimes, the person becomes hyper vigilant to the things around them and their existence. There are some
causes of depersonalization, they are: early childhood trauma, temporal epilepsy, stress resulting from life threatening situations, migraine, drugs abuse, including the
use of marijuana and ecstasy Depersonalization info. Here, Sybil faces a depersonalization as one symptom of dissociative identity
disorder, because a person with depersonalization is become paranoid of the common things and the person becomes too alert of all the things. In this case, because of her
childhood trauma, Sybil becomes paranoid of music, shoes and a buttonhook. Sybil often feels that her life seems to be floating by in an unreal kind of way, filled with
strange presentiments. She seems that her life is like a dream. She often feels that she is walking beside her and watching her Schreiber 155-156.
f. Depression PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Depression is the actions of taking over her body by the alternates create a hard pressure to Sybil. She feels alone, useless and futile, but convinces that she will
never get better. She faces a self-recriminations and complaints. And, she does not want to live like the way she has. And the climax of her depression is the desire to
end her life Schreiber 320.
3. The Causes
