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 ... multiple personality resources & controversies |
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British Psychological Society Criticizes DSM-5 (summary here)."The Society is concerned that clients and the general public are negatively affected by the continued and continuous medicalisation of their natural and normal responses to their experiences; responses which undoubtedly have distressing consequences which demand helping responses, but which do not reflect illnesses so much as normal individual variation."
Click here to read their obituary and sign their memorial guestbook.
Sybil ~ The Film, The Book, Controversial Subjects
Please do not judge all multiples by what you've seen on The United States of Tara. This show is a comedy, it is being played for laughs, it is distorted, inaccurate, and insulting to multiples.
Who Was Shirley Mason?Nancy Preston, Sybil's Friend Shirley Mason's friend and student, created this loving tribute to the woman& she knew.Shirley Mason: The Hidden Paintings Discovered after Shirley's death, these were paintings done by both Shirley and people in her inner family. Rob Martindale and W.A. Reitwiesner, Shirley Ardell Mason's Genealogy Kentucky art teacher was 'Sybil,' scholar confirms From the Detroit Free Press. Stranger In Our Midst How Shirley lived peacefully in Lexington, Kentucky with almost no one the wiser. Unmasking Sybil A few more facts about her life. Who was the real Sybil? From the New Yorker, January 4, 1999.
The Sybil TV movie starring Sally Field is not a documentary. It is a heavily fictionalized adaptation which was deliberately coded (using certain types of lighting and camera angles) to resemble a horror film.
Among the many untruths perpetuated by the Sybil movie remake starring Tammy Blanchard, one of the worst came at the end, with the statement that Shirley Ardell Mason ended her life as a "recluse". She was an artist who exhibited her paintings at local galleries. She taught art for years, designed toys, and owned her own business. She was a devout member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and was well known and liked there. Only a very few people knew Shirley was Sybil.
Shirley's friend Nancy L. Preston has written a book called Life After Sybil which will be offered for sale on this page as soon as it becomes available. Miss Preston was interviewed for the Sybil DVD and that interview is included in the extras. Miss Preston's website, Sybil's Friend, has lots of personal reminiscences about her art teacher, mentor and friend.
Sybil DVD ~
A 30th anniversary edition of the Sybil movie has been released on DVD. you can rent the Sybil DVD now through Netflix -- you can also watch a streaming version of Three Faces of Eve, if you're interested.
Watch Sybil Movie on TV - The Women's Entertainment Network occasionally shows the original Sybil movie, apparently uncut.
Oxygen also shows the Sybil movie uncut. Keep an eye on the schedule.
Sybil Movie Remake starring Tammy Blanchard ~ Internet Movie Database Discussion board about the remake.
(And if you think we're doing a bit of SEO there, you're absolutely right.)
Dr. Herbert Spiegel, Sybil: The Making of A Disorder from the New York Review. Was Shirley really multiple? Or did Cornelia Wilbur just talk her into it? Decide for yourself -- but beware: take what Spiegel says with a large grain of salt. He's got a certain view of women and he's using Shirley's story to 'prove that he is right'.
Dr. Robert Rieber, All About Sybil: Natural History of a Myth His interpretation of the Sybil tapes he heard, and his version of the MPD scandal of the 80s and 90s and how the misreporting of Sybil's case contributed to it. Again, a lot of what he says is complete nonsense. The mentality of these people can be judged by the way they write. Published by Psycke-Logo Press.
Bifurcation of Self A review of Dr. Rieber's book on Sybil, pointing out his obvious nonsense, misinformation and half truths. Originally appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis January 2008.
On Being The Proper Multiple By Sara Lambert. Even if you actually have the psychiatric MPD condition, it is completely unnecessary to behave like Sybil in order to be authentic or believed. Please don't use the Sybil book or film as a role model, and please do read this article if you have or think you have MPD.
Mistaken Identity There is some stuff about Shirley in this BBC Horizons report. Warning: A British friend tells us, "Horizon is a show about taking the subject of a scientific paper and making it into a 'story'. They use the expression 'sheer drama' which means that they can't tell you about the discovery of a new particle without giving you 50 minutes of the amazing chance discovery and people struggling to persuade their doubting collegues of its existence." Anyone who remembers Greer Garson sitting up in bed and gasping "Pierre! What if that stain is radium?!" should be familiar with this phenomenon.
A brief statement by Linda Massey, who was filmed in the Horizon documentary.
The Prodigy Transcripts: Cornelia Wilbur, Richard Kluft and Frank Putnam on MPD Interrogation methods developed and recommended by the foremost "experts" on this condition. One can see how a non-multiple client could become coerced into pretending to have MPD just to get the hell out of there.
Doctors Debate Multiplicity as Iatrogenic or PTSD Putnam sees multiplicity as damage, but at least he sees it. Originally appeared in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, July 1995 v34 n7 p957(3).
Is Billy Milligan a Natural Multiple? A very brief astute observation by an anonymous writer. We invite Mr. Milligan's response.
They were recognized and acknowledged mostly by Theosophy and later by the New Age. These beliefs considered otherkin to be elemental spirits incarnating in human bodies or persons on a "deva" evolution path. Non-theosophical ideas about otherkin evolved before the internet, and are mostly associated with belief systems such as the Faerie Faith. If you're interested, check out Elf Lore Family (this is NOT Wicca).
You may be interested in this:
Wikipedia's Article on Walk-Ins
The Kaycee Nicole thing May 28, 2001: I am posting information about the Kaycee Nicole thing because it is another case of "Violation and Virtuality", not because I think Kaycee/Debbie was multiple. It is relevant in terms of creating and maintaining online identities. Anthony Temple Kaycee Nicole on Wikipedia Who was she and how did this get started?
Here's a very similar case in which some of us were peripherally involved, from 1993.
Life & Death of Jesse James Another very similar story. Again, these people aren't multiple. This is about people who have an obsessive need to lie, not about groups of actual persons sharing a body. It has much more in common with the Megan Meier case than anything else. (In our opinion, there's quite a bit of lying and posturing on both sides of this one, and we don't believe the Harlan Ellison part at all until he comes out and says he was in it.) Metafilter discussion here.
If you think this phenomenon is only as old as the internet, click here.
Andy Temple's take on the Kaycee Nicole thing
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