Sybil Isabel Dorsett Research Paper

Sybil Isabel Dorsett was a woman who had a very damaging childhood. To deal with all the trauma she had experienced, she developed multiple personalities, sixteen in total, throughout different parts of her life. Since she was little, Sybil knew there was something about her that wasn’t right. She noticed that she would often lose track of time, where she had no memory of what had previously occurred.
Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder, is a condition that causes people to have more than one personality. Each personality can have a completely different name, characteristics and a different background. These personalities are brought up by extreme abuse during childhood including physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse, usually as a way to avoid and escape the reality of what is being experienced. Dissociating places the pain and damage on another identity by allowing it to take over. People with DID often cannot remember traumatizing events of their lives and will have periods of time in which they do not

recall being aware of or experiencing.
Sybil went through multiple traumatic experiences ever since she was born. Her mother, Hattie, would punish and torture her daughter in ways no person should ever be. Hattie raped her daughter with a buttonhook, stuffed a washcloth down her throat, shoved a bead up her nose, beat her, dislocated her shoulder and harmed her in various ways. When Sybil’s father would ask what had happened, Hattie would say Sybil was just a clumsy child. No one helped Sybil even though something was clearly not right. She felt trapped.
Sybil’s first experience with dissociating into an alternating self was at the age of three and a half when she went to St. Mary’s Hospital. Vicky, the first personality who came to be, explained to Dr.Wilbur, the psychoanalyst, how she loved going to the hospital because the doctor treated her the way no one else ever had. She recalls being called ‘honey’ and feeling cared about. When the doctor gave them the news that they were able to go home, Sybil, along with Vicky, asked if he wanted a little girl, but the doctor just turned and left. They felt rejected and as if no one would ever help them. Sybil couldn’t handle this pain, which is why Vicky became her own instead of being a part of Sybil.
When Sybil was born, her mother went into a severe depression.

She did not take care of Sybil, only being around her to breast feed. For most of Sybil’s infancy, her grandmother would care for her. When Sybil was only 5 years old, her grandmother was diagnosed with cervical cancer, which brought up fear and worry in Sybil. At the age of nine, Sybil’s grandmother passed away. Hattie gave Sybil a lollipop and made her go to her bedroom, promising that they would go get her when the service was about to start. She waited and waited, and then her father came for her saying the service was over and that she could come to the cemetery. Her parents had forgotten her and didn’t give her the opportunity to say goodbye. She couldn’t cry. She had lost her grandmother, whom she called love. Sybil was so hurt and alone. She wanted to be with her grandmother. She tried to jump into the grave, but they pulled her

away.
That was the last memory she had from the cemetery. For the next two years, she was not aware of herself or anything around her. Another one of her personalities had taken over, and she had no memories from when it occurred.