Book thoughts: Sybil Exposed

“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

I just finished reading Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case by Debbie Nathan, which tells the story of Sybil, the pseudonym of one of the first people diagnosed with multiple personality disorder (MPD). The book thrust MPD into the national consciousness. Nathan’s investigation reveals that much of the book was false, and she explains how it happened.

According to Nathan, the real Sybil, Shirley Mason was a young woman with real distress, some of which was attributable to undiagnosed pernicious anemia. As a young woman in the 1950’s and 1960’s, she explored her identities. She was vulnerable, suggestable, and looking for something to help.

Mason encountered Dr. Conny Wilbur, an eager psychiatrist, who thought she had the answers for her patient. Conny ignored the scientific knowledge-base and method, used untried treatments, and violated appropriate boundaries. She conceived Mason’s problem as one of identity. Over time, with hypnosis, barbiturates, and a lot of psychotherapy, Mason came to internalize this conceptualization of her identity disturbance. However, at another point, she wrote Wilbur a letter disavowing the whole multiple-personality conceptualization which Wilbur disregarded. Wilbur’s treatment carried a heavy toll for Mason, with short-term disfunction and long-term consequences. Meanwhile, Wilbur gained notoriety from her heroic efforts.

Mason’s story might have gone unnoticed, but Wilbur connected with Flora Rheta Schreiber, a writer and journalist. Schreiber may have been interested in the story on its own but also wished to profit from telling the tale. In service of that narrative, she altered, fabricated, or overlooked facts. Eventually, all three women lied to support the story.

Nathan explains that others who were impressionable read the book, and the rate of diagnosis ballooned. Over time, the shortcomings in diagnosis and harms of treatment could not be ignored, and many retracted their claims.

I can’t help but see the parallels between Sybil Exposed and transgender ideology today. The movement starts with impressionable people in real distress with questions about their identities. These people engage with professionals who believe they are helping but may be using unproven methods outside of normal practice. The recently leaked WPATH files demonstrate this.

https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/wpath-files

Just as the charismatic Conny Wilbur promoted MPD, Dr. Harry Benjamin trumpeted the diagnosis and treatment of what is now called gender dysphoria. After the MPD craze ebbed, some came forward to retract their diagnoses, and now, some “detransitioners” are doing the same. In both cases, often, the true believers disregard their stories.

In Sybil’s day, Schreiber profited from spreading the narrative. Today, media platforms do the same. Try asking Google’s AI about the social contagion hypothesis (a hypothesis, mind you, which by definition is any idea which can be tested), and you will see that the tech giants are not neutral parties.

It is worth considering that fifty years ago, the idiom of distress was multiple personality disorder. Today, for some, it may be gender dysphoria. In the intervening years, MPD became a niche diagnosis and radical treatment for it nearly vanished. What could this tell us about the rise in gender dysphoria and the future of its treatment? Before other interpretations, should we see gender dysphoria as a sign of distress? Are we using our best skills and an open mind to look for explanations, explore causes, and carefully diagnose it? Can we systematically study what helps? Just like any hypothesis, I could be wrong, but the best way to determine that would be with open debate, properly designed medical trials, and scientific inquiry.