I loved the movie Sybil when it first aired. But did you know that it was inspired by the true story of a young lady that was mentally ill, I did. Here is the woman behind the movie. Mason was born and raised in Dodge Center, Minnesota, the only child of Walter Mason (a carpenter and architect) and Martha Alice Mattie Hageman. In regard to Masons mother: ...many people in Dodge Center say Mattie — Hattie in the book — was bizarre, according to Bettie Borst Christensen, who grew up across the street. She had a witch-like laugh....She didnt laugh much, but when she did, it was like a screech. Christensen remembers Masons mother walking around after dark, looking in the neighbors windows. At one point, Masons mother was reportedly diagnosed with schizophrenia.[1] In the early 1950s, Mason was a substitute teacher and a student at Columbia University. She had long suffered from blackouts and emotional breakdowns, and finally entered psychotherapy with Cornelia B. Wilbur, a Freudian psychiatrist. Their sessions together are the basis of the book. From 1968-1973, she taught art at Rio Grande College, in Rio Grand, Ohio (now the University of Rio Grande). Some people in Masons home town, reading the book, recognized Mason as Sybil. By that time, Mason had severed nearly all ties with her past and was living in West Virginia. She later moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where she lived near Dr. Wilbur. She taught art classes at a community college and ran an art gallery out of her home for many years.[1][2] Wilbur diagnosed Mason with breast cancer in 1990, and she declined treatment; it later went into remission. The following year Wilbur developed Parkinsons disease and Mason moved into Wilburs house to take care of her until Wilburs death in 1992. Mason died of breast cancer on February 26, 1998.[1] Masons diagnosis has been challenged. Psychiatrist Herbert Spiegel saw Mason for several sessions while Wilbur was on vacation, and felt that Wilbur was manipulating Mason into behaving as though she had multiple personalities when she did not. Spiegel suspected Wilbur of having publicized Masons case for financial gain. According to Spiegel, Wilburs client was a hysteric, but did not show signs of multiple personalities; in fact, he later stated that Mason denied to him that she was multiple, but claimed that Wilbur wanted her to be people. Spiegel confronted Wilbur, who responded that the publisher would not publish the book unless it was what she said it was.[4] Spiegel revealed that he possessed audio tapes in which Wilbur tells Mason about some of the other personalities she has already seen in prior sessions. Spiegel believes these tapes are the smoking gun proving that Wilbur induced her client to believe she was multiple. Spiegel did not make these claims until after Schreiber, Wilbur and Mason were all dead. In August 1998, psychologist Robert Rieber of John Jay College of Criminal Justice challenged Masons diagnosis, citing the tapes and claiming she was instead an extremely suggestible hysteric. He claimed Wilbur had manipulated Mason in order to secure a book deal.[5][6] In a review of Riebers book Bifurcation of the Self, Mark Lawrence asserts that Rieber repeatedly distorted the evidence and left out a number of important facts about Masons case, in order to advance his case against the validity of the diagnosis.[7] Debbie Nathans Sybil Exposed[8] draws upon an archive of Schreibers papers stored at John Jay College of Criminal Justice[9] and other first-hand sources. Nathan describes the purported manipulation of Wilbur by Mason and vice versa, going into personal detail about the lives of Mason, Wilbur and Schreiber. Nathan ascribes Masons physical and sensory issues to a lifelong case of pernicious anemia but mistaken at the time for psychogenic symptoms caused by stress. Nathan claims that Wilbur and Mason knowingly perpetrated a fraud. She cites a well-known 1958 letter by Mason (which is reprinted in Sybil) in which she claimed to pose as a multiple for attention and excitement. Wilbur believed this letter was an attempt by Mason to temporarily put off painful therapy. Nathan claims Schreiber wrote Sybil based on stories coaxed from Mason during therapy, and that this case created an industry of repressed memory.[10] The case remains controversial. Although Wilburs papers were destroyed, copies and excerpts within the Flora Rheta Schreiber Papers at the Lloyd Sealy Library of John Jay College were unsealed in 1998.[9] Nathans writing and her research methods have been publicly criticized by Masons family and by Dr. Patrick Suraci, who was personally acquainted with Shirley Mason. In addition, Suraci claims that Spiegel behaved unethically in withholding tapes which supposedly proved Wilbur had induced Mason to believe she had multiple personalities. Spiegel also claimed to have made films of himself hypnotizing Mason, supposedly proving that Wilbur had implanted false memories in her mind, but when Suraci asked to see the films Spiegel said he had lost them.[11][12] In 2013, artist-journalist Nancy Preston published After Sybil, a personal memoir which includes facsimile reproductions of Masons personal letters to her, along with color plates of her paintings. According to Preston, Mason taught art at Ohios Rio Grande College, where Preston was a student. The two became close friends and corresponded until a few days before Masons death. In the letters, Mason confirmed that she had had multiple personalities
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 04:11:17 +0000
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