8. Sybil - Flora Rheta Schreiber
Sybil was the pseudonym for Shirley Ardell Mason, a young woman undergoing psychoanalysis by Dr Cornelia B Wilbur for the treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder (Nowadays known as Dissociative Identity Disorder). Sybil has a multitude of alter egos - well over sixteen. It is Dr Wilbur's job to unravel the different personalities to find out who the real Sybil is and also to help her integrate the alter egos into her psyche as one coherent person. The ending is optimistic but through the integration of the selves we learn of the horrific ordeal Sybil has been through at the hands of her monstrous mother. Dissociative Identity Disorder has always been an incendiary topic within psychiatry and Sybil copped a lot of flak from the medical establishment when it was published with critics charging Sybil and Dr Wilbur of making the whole thing up together, after all, if it was a real case, why didn't it appear in a peer reviewed journal? In 2011, journalist Debbie Nathan laid further allegations against Sybil's veracity, claiming it had all been conspired to start a Sybil Industry - with stickers, games etc. (though quite how this would appeal to anyone is beyond me!). Apparently Wilbur had assembled a book on stories coaxed out of her during therapy. We will probably never know the full truth as to Sybil's authenticity as a real life book, but I must say it is a very absorbing read about a mysterious phenomenon which shrinks still continue to bicker over. The book was an immediate best seller upon release and a made for TV movie starring Sally Field as Sybil was also a smash hit and remains one of the best known TV movies of all time. The book is dramatic and distressing - designed to provoke strong reaction in the reader. Real or not, it remains a classic mental health book.