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Sybil (1976)
Rate:
2
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2/25
2/25:
The more I watch Sally Field in Sybil, the more I'm convinced that she's the master of bullshit acting.
She's never believable for one second. Of course, they had to have Joanne Woodward for this because she won the
Oscar for The Three Faces of Eve by playing the same type of
character. Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft would've done a far better job than them by digging deep, but it's
impossible to overcome the lousy script. It just drones on endlessly for over three hours with a laughable ending.
No matter what, there's no such thing as multiple personality disorder (MPD), and to escape the notorious history,
it's been renamed dissociative identity disorder (DID). Why? It's always something else, whatever it is, that's
caused by comorbidities. The biggest mistake the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
ever made is allowing the inclusion of MPD. It's nothing but income generator, and insurance companies
have stopped covering treatment for it.
There's no way Chris Sizemore, the subject that The Three Faces of Eve
was based on, had MPD; she most likely suffered from a different type of disorder. But the real Sybil (Shirley
Mason) is a certified fraud, having admitted to making up everything years later. Really, she, her doctor, and the
writer of the book formed a partnership (Sybil, Inc.) to exploit the disorder for financial gain. Well, it worked,
selling million copies of the book, and everybody bought into it: hook, line, and sinker. In fact, the film makes
this obvious because, after all, how can a busy doctor have so much time for one patient who's broke and without
insurance?
While watching the film, I thought what Sybil had was simply hysterics. But as soon as child abuse entered
the picture, her issues were rather serious, so it had to be dissociative amnesia. It doesn't matter anyway because
in Shirley's words: "I do not have any multiple personalities...I do not
even have a 'double'...I am all of them. I have been essentially lying." By the way, Brad Davis stars as
Richard who wisely decided to get the hell out of Dodge after finding out for the first time, and
he'll be famous in two years' time, thanks to Midnight Express.
Not many people know this, but a serial killer named Kenneth Bianchi of the Hillside Stranglers, who had a strong
interest in psychology, watched Sybil one night and decided to adopt a new strategy by showing symptoms of
MPD, so he could get away with the murders by blaming everything on "Steve." This caught the detectives off guard,
and psychiatrists were hired to evaluate his claim and one of them determined he didn't have MPD by failing a
simple test. As a result, Bianchi took a plea deal by confessing to everything, implicating his partner Angelo
Buono, in exchange for a life sentence. Currently, he's behind bars in Walla Walla, Washington.
As for the real story, Shirley was initially treated by Dr. Cornelia Wilbur in Omaha, Nebraska, during WWII. After
men starting coming back to their old profession from Europe, Dr. Wilbur lost her job and had to stop working
with Shirley. Afterwards, she was actually doing well on her own for nine years and didn't need therapy,
thanks to her surgery for endometriosis.
Once Shirley reunited with Dr. Wilbur in New York City by random chance, she slowly fell apart after a new
round of treatments with her "alters" beginning to appear despite nothing the last time. That's because, in
1953, a couple of doctors from Georgia presented a paper and a video of Eve at the APA convention that became a
sensation. Eventually, the material formed the basis of a movie called
The Three Faces of Eve, causing Dr. Wilbur to want one of her own,
so she could be famous as well.
Shirley had no childhood trauma and was essentially an attention whore. Her problems grew worse during therapy
sessions, and she had been prescribed powerful, addictive narcotics and barbiturates. That's when she began to
tell Dr. Wilbur stories that happened to her when she was a child which was usually either something she had
read in the newspaper or related to her tonsillectomy. Dr. Wilbur eventually visited Shirley's hometown in
Minnesota to check anything out but came away empty-handed. Ditto for the writer of the book named Flora
Schreiber who built her career on making up stories to pass as nonfiction for crap magazines such as
Cosmopolitan, Newsweek, and Time.
Dr. Wilbur and Flora made a deal years in advance that Shirley would be "cured" of MPD in 1965 and that a book
would be written about it. In exchange for Shirley's cooperation, Dr. Wilbur gave her free therapy sessions,
clothes, and rent money and encouraged her to become a psychologist (she would flunk out).
She also worked for Dr. Wilbur by doing secretarial duties, walking her dog, and caring for her relative. They
even traveled together to places! It's probable that they were lovers.
While writing the book, Flora was puzzled by how Shirley's story didn't make sense or lagged in interest,
so she made up stuff to keep the narrative flowing smoothly. Prior to publication, she discovered Shirley's
confession letter which meant she knew everything was a lie. Shirley and Dr. Wilbur kept convincing her
that what Shirley had was real, and they went so far to provide a fake diary. Speaking of "alters," Shirley was
instructed by Flora and Dr. Wilbur to make up personality traits for each in order to provide a complete profile.
The recording tapes, which ran for hundreds of hours, were judged by Flora to be incoherent, monotonous, and
tedious. Despite everything, she soldiered on only because of the irresistible $12,000 advance.
What Shirley Mason really had was pernicious amnesia which meant that it's hard for her to function normally
due to vitamin B12 deficiency. If she had regular shots to remedy the issue, she would've been mostly fine without
the need for therapy and psychotropic drugs. Instead, Shirley became addicted to the likes of Daprisal, Demerol,
Dexamyl, Edrisal, Equanil, Pentothal, Ritalin, Seconal, Serpatilin, and Thorazine, often two to four times
the dosage amount, which were prescribed and monitored by Dr. Wilbur on top of electroshock therapy.
All in all, Sybil is 100% bullshit and, worse, extremely boring.