The year is 1957, a young lady in her early 20s looks out at the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has no clue how she arrived there. The faces around her are strangers, the clothes she is wearing are not hers, the landmarks of the buildings and streets are unfamiliar, and Shirley Ardell Mason is utterly lost and confused. How did she get here, why is she here, what should she do? Slowly pieces of information begin to connect, a pay phone – she needs to call someone to get her home to New York. Once home, she confides in a psychology professor and clinician that she experiences ‘blackouts’ and fears that she is going crazy. The psychology professor who sends Shirley to another psychologist does so because he believes that this young
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Sybil Isabel Dorsett, of Willows Corner, Wisconsin is a soft spoken, gentle young lady.
2. Victoria Antoinette Scharleau (Vicky), a very self-confident and sophisticated young French girl. She acts as the communicator and helps control the other personalities.
3. Peggy Lou Baldwin, an assertive through enthusiastic, and often very angry young girl. She is very good in mathematic and manages Sybil’s finances.
4. Peggy Ann Baldwin is the counterpart of Peggy Lou with more fear exhibited than anger and is very shy.
5. Marcia Dorsett is an extremely emotional writer and painter.
6. Marjorie Dorsett is a serene, vivacious, and quick to laugh girl.
7. Mike Dorsett is a builder and a carpenter. He is also one of the two male personalities Sybil …show more content…
Sybil displayed odd behaviors on a fairly regular basis as some personalities would take control during times of anger or fear. As an art student in New York, the simplest thing of accidently knocking off a glass with water caused a flashback to her childhood. Unable to cope with the flashback, fear, and anger that Sybil felt, Peggy Lou unconsciously took over. Sybil is unaware of what occurs when another personality takes control; she called it a ‘blackout’. Despite reassurance from the professor that it was okay, Sybil broke out into a panic and rushed out of the room after trying to clean up the glass. Before she reached the elevator for the building, she had experienced a ‘blackout’ and would experience a period of amnesia for an unknown length of time. In that particular instance, her blackout lasted for approximately one week. When it ended, she was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with no clue how she got there, what she was wearing, or why she was there. During the ‘blackouts’ she would go on trips, rearrange her home, buy a new wardrobe, and develop relationships that she would later not recall. The people around Sybil also witnessed extreme changes in mood, style, talents, maturity and even accents. The professor she opened up to about her blackouts claimed she had hysteria, or a wandering uterus as the ancient Greeks believed was
Sybil Isabel Dorsett, of Willows Corner, Wisconsin is a soft spoken, gentle young lady.
2. Victoria Antoinette Scharleau (Vicky), a very self-confident and sophisticated young French girl. She acts as the communicator and helps control the other personalities.
3. Peggy Lou Baldwin, an assertive through enthusiastic, and often very angry young girl. She is very good in mathematic and manages Sybil’s finances.
4. Peggy Ann Baldwin is the counterpart of Peggy Lou with more fear exhibited than anger and is very shy.
5. Marcia Dorsett is an extremely emotional writer and painter.
6. Marjorie Dorsett is a serene, vivacious, and quick to laugh girl.
7. Mike Dorsett is a builder and a carpenter. He is also one of the two male personalities Sybil …show more content…
Sybil displayed odd behaviors on a fairly regular basis as some personalities would take control during times of anger or fear. As an art student in New York, the simplest thing of accidently knocking off a glass with water caused a flashback to her childhood. Unable to cope with the flashback, fear, and anger that Sybil felt, Peggy Lou unconsciously took over. Sybil is unaware of what occurs when another personality takes control; she called it a ‘blackout’. Despite reassurance from the professor that it was okay, Sybil broke out into a panic and rushed out of the room after trying to clean up the glass. Before she reached the elevator for the building, she had experienced a ‘blackout’ and would experience a period of amnesia for an unknown length of time. In that particular instance, her blackout lasted for approximately one week. When it ended, she was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with no clue how she got there, what she was wearing, or why she was there. During the ‘blackouts’ she would go on trips, rearrange her home, buy a new wardrobe, and develop relationships that she would later not recall. The people around Sybil also witnessed extreme changes in mood, style, talents, maturity and even accents. The professor she opened up to about her blackouts claimed she had hysteria, or a wandering uterus as the ancient Greeks believed was