'Sybil' is one big psych-out (multiple personalities was multiple lies)

New York Post ^ | October 16, 2011 | KYLE SMITH

[mouser]

Of course this multiple personalities stuff is BS.

You sound like someone who has never lived with a woman during a pregnancy.

If you had you to would believe.

[count-your-change]

Actually I’ve never had a relative borrow money. They’ve accepted donations and gifts but never borrowed with the need to repay. I guess it’s all the definition.

[cvq3842]

More evidence for the authors of the story of the decline and fall of Western civilization . . .

[Terry Mross]

I strongly believe in multiple personalities.

I strongly believe in multiple personalities. Who said that?

Seriously, there’s a professional in Houston who believes some people with multiple personality disorder are demon possessed.

[I still care]

I have no idea what went on in the “Sybil” case. I do remember that Wilbur was highly suspected by her collegues which always put up red flags for me.

In the book she addresses the letter as a time when Sybil simply didn’t want to do therapy anymore - it was getting too painful, so Sybil wrote her a letter saying she had really all made it up, thank you, so she didn’t need anymore help and therapy. It did seem a little too pat, and she did continue after that with therapy.

I’ve always wondered. However, the book does document a lot of injuries to the young Sybil supposedly caused by her mother. And it does state the mother was catatonic for a year, and diagnosed with a mental disorder. That would seem to me as some kind of proof for truth.

[bgill]

I cannot recall any benefit to the guy at all. In fact, one personality was trying to stop the other from buying a car they could not afford.

There's the benefit. It's the same in all of us but he's playing it up. It's your internal conflict or the little angel whispering in one ear and the devil whispering in the other. The "devil" or the "whaaa, I want" side is all for getting the new over budget car while on the other hand the angel or your practical side knows you can't afford it.

[bgill]

That’s not the way I remember it. It’s YOU who owes ME money.

[Poison Pill]

I beileve in repressed memories only in the vein that you “don’t seem to remember the event”, but if someone who was there suddenly comes along and asks you about it, you will remember clearly.

That's how I try to deal with the Carter administration.

[lonestar]

LOL!

[momtothree]

“... there’s a professional in Houston who believes some people with multiple personality disorder are demon possessed”.

Well, that I can believe. When I was in college, I worked Security at a local hospital. There was a closed/lock psych ward on the top floor. Long story short, Security was called to help assist putting a patient in four point restraints. Now.. picture this. A black woman, about five feet two inches and maybe 100 pounds. She started to say in a very female voice, “He’s coming”. Then she “changed”. I don’t know how else to describe it. Her voice became that of a mans. She started swearing and six Security officers had the hardest time of their life getting her into the restraints.

I was the only female officer and the other five male officers were really BIG men. Her throat and face changed appearance. After the longest 15 minutes of our lives, we were able to secure the patient and left the room. It was then that I said, “Is she possessed?!” to one of the nurses. I will tell you this... it was the strangest thing I had ever seen. So... whether multiple personalities exist or not... the thought of demon possession entered my mind and several others that day. The nurse did tell us she had multiple personalities. Who knows?

[Twotone]

My husband’s previous wife was diagnosed with multiple personalities. She would even spell her name differently depending on the personality that was ‘out’. From the stories he’s told me, it does seem that it was real. Very strange...

[count-your-change]

That’s just your “Reverse Personality” coming out to overwhelm your “I have the money right here” personality. Fight it by opening your wallet.
Don’t you feel better now?

[lonestar]

Are you really a Buddhist?

[Puppage]

Either you remember something or you don’t.

Didn't you say that before? :-)

[Fawn]

[freedomlover]

That’s what I keep asking myself.

---

Which “self”? ;)

[Responsibility2nd]

Awesome post. And I learned a new word too.

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=iatrogenic+&pbx=1&oq=iatrogenic+&aq=f&aqi=g4&aql=1&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3484l3484l0l5781l1l1l0l0l0l0l125l125l0.1l1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=68e70c9e138cc725&biw=1024&bih=601

[decimon]

This is from some decades past so please make allowance.

A story from, IIRC, a psychiatrist. He said he was taught and had believed that a person should display but one personality. Then one day he sat down to write several overdue letters to people he knew. When he finished it struck him that the letters were all different. Each was written according to the relationship he had with the addressee. That experience changed his view on personality.

That was sketchy but I guess you’ll get the drift.

[decimon]

That’s what I keep asking myself.

Which “self”? ;)

We don't recall.

[calex59]

Despite what some people think memories can be and are suppressed under certain conditions. Severe Car accidents for instance are frequently forgotten, sometimes the few seconds leading up to the accident, the accident itself and sometimes a short period of time after the accident. This is quite common and probably the brains way of keeping people from freaking out and reliving the accident over and over in their minds. I imagine that some forms of child abuse would cause the same black outs of certain memories, altho I don't think sexual abuse would necessarily qualify unless it was accompanied by a lot of pain, which I would imagine is frequently the case.

As for multiple personalities I don't actually believe in them unless the person is actually schitzo and then that is slightly different.