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[comehailbob]

“Sybil” mini review: Disproving Multiple Personality Disorder one irritating step at a time

**SPOILER ALERT. I WILL BE DESCRIBING PLOT POINTS IN THE BOOK, SO PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DON’T WANT ANY SPOILERS**

Lord, where to begin with this. 

For a third of the book I waited extremely patiently for there to be anything more than foreshadowing. While i understand anticipation enhances reader engagement, at some point I was feeling compelled to skip ahead just to find out what the hell the writer was hinting towards. It took a uselessly long amount of time to get into the actual phenomenon itself or the lead-up to it, then once it was described it was horribly rushed. Timeline planning aside, there are a few big issues I take with this book, I’ll outline them below. 

Sybil is unreasonable and uncooperative to the point of reader exhaustion. If you’ve read the book, many of you will agree. I found it incredibly annoying how often Sybil was giving the same slumpy ‘woe is me’ answers to the psychoanalyst despite having moved her entire life to New York in order to get well. With as much obvious concern as she expressed about fearing that she would never be well, she put up so much resistance that I’m surprised the book concluded at all. The word ‘resistance’ infuriating her, I suppose as another form of denial, but she went for answers and assistance and turned it down until the very end (which i’ll also get in to). 

The psychoanalyst was in it for her own personal gain and enjoyment. One of the two biggest issues I take with this book is the blatant disregard for Sybil’s well-being during the DECADE of work the doctor did with her. While maintaining a form of friendship with the ‘selves’ and insisting that she was looking for the best interest of the ‘waking Sybil’ as she refers to her, she seemed to let a lot of things slide until the last possible moment, once a crisis was reached. In the book it’s even described with Sybil’s ‘selves’ causing mayhem-- smashing glass, running off for expensive trips (when she apparently has no money to even afford necessities and has to receive checks from her father), wandering the streets, talking to herself in public, failing out of school, failing to hold a job-- the doctor did nothing until Vicky, the most dominant ‘self’ magically intervened at the last moment by hastily taking over during a suicide attempt and calling the doctor to come to the rescue. The doctor should have had much more concern with allowing Sybil, who was obviously in no state of mind to be living independently. The behavior of this doctor, if real in any way, was a miscarriage of psychiatric assistance. 

Everything thing about the ‘selves’, for lack of a better word, is horseshit.  Cut and dry groupings of different ‘personalities’ who can apparently manifest themselves by choice as they saunter into the doctor’s office, some of them even interacting with her at the same time, leads me to this conclusion all on it’s own. While this takes a fairly decent amount of suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader, this option is entirely voided at the end of the book when the ‘selves’ can apparently be summoned at-will. This was what took the cake for me, and I spent the rest of the book pissed off over it. 

Speaking of the end of the book-- Wouldn’t you believe it? The answer was so simple the entire time! Sybil’s illness could be almost completely cured by hypnosis! I almost gave up at this point. By far the most irritating portion of the entire book, the fact that suddenly, over the course of two years, Sybil was able to be so successfully hypnotized and the ‘selves’ so perfectly called upon and managed that the doctor may as well have said “well shit, should have done this years ago”. There’s almost nothing more to say about that, I can’t believe what a lazy crock of shit the conclusion of her treatment was. 

Sybil rejects closeness while simultaneously lamenting about closeness being rejected. Someone is willing to offer her everything she wants but she cowers away after having successfully dated someone for 8 weeks because, once again, that ‘woe is me!’ attitude came busting through, apparently entirely perpetrated by the ‘waking Sybil’. It’s even mentioned that the ‘selves’ were annoyed that Sybil turned him away, even though the context behind her integration was so that the ‘selves’ would help her in moving forward. So apparently instead of a takeover, or any help whatsoever, they become an inner monologue of doubt. Go figure. Then Sybil whines about not wanting to be rejected and wanting to get married an have a family. Bitch if you don’t---

Sybil was clearly suffering from PTSD, schizophrenia, and DID. I get it, multiple personality disorder was the big hit in those days, and DID is the transition of that illness to make it less of a ‘there are multiple people living in me’ to ‘my personality dissociates and manifests in specific ways’. PTSD also wasn’t recognized until 1980 so I’ll give it a pass. However, Sybil should have been treated for schizophrenia, particularly considering that not only her mother, but a paternal relative (aunt i think) had been diagnosed. Hysteria came up briefly, I suppose this was the old-timey precursor to PTSD, but i digress. I feel that this was obvious from the moment Sodium Pentothol was introduced as medicinal therapy to Sybil, and why hypnosis had worked. I understand that the SEVERE trauma caused rifts and breaks in personality for her, but the issue I have is that this doctor humored this behavior by insisting that each dissociation was an entirely different person, whom she had individual relationships with. I’m sure some of this was fabricated, I can’t possibly begin to believe that it was all genuine (that wouldn’t sell books, boooooring). In the 21st century, with the enormous strides we’ve made in mental health, we have the gift of knowledge and hindsight that still was not recognized at the time of Sybil’s case, but it just really irks me that schizophrenia wasn’t even considered. 

Bonus: two things about her father that remained completely uncleared.  It was obvious that her father was abusive by proxy, purposefully neglectful for his own sake despite seeing his daughter constantly horribly injured and knowing his wife was a violent and unrelenting schizophrenic. That’s beside seeing the way Sybil reacted towards harmless objects, those are some pretty huge red flags. However, the most blatant example of this piece of shit father was him willingly participating in sexual intercourse in front of Sybil for nine years. His spiel to them about “i tried to be a good father” should have been met with, frankly, a fucking drop-kick, but he just went on his merry way, completely avoiding the realization that he’s a piece of shit who let his daughter suffer absolutely horrifying abuse at the hands of her own mother. The other, more minor, thing that was never cleared is that the doctor referenced 3 or 4 times to Sybil’s Oedipus complex towards her father, but it was never actually explained why she felt that way. I didn’t catch it, so if someone else did, please respond. 

In conclusion, 2/10 would not recommend unless you want to be angry.

[comehailbob]

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy tapes mini review

As someone who considers themself a HUGE true crime fan, I was hopeful but skeptical about this docuseries. I refuse to watch serial killer movies due to rampant dramatization and the attempt to make the characters relatable (which is the worst offense to me, you can’t make these monsters relatable, because they’re hollow people). I was hoping it would be straight forward, and to my delight I feel that it was perfectly straight forward, using no dramatization and using a good group of people from different walks of the case. 

I know a lot of people took some issue with the fact that they didn’t outline his crimes in any way, which I understand as someone who has a morbid fascination with the more explicit details of his murders. Albeit, I appreciate that they focused almost soleley on the behavior of Bundy himself as well as the events of the investigation and the ensuing manhunt. 

The footage they were able to gather of Bundy appearing in interviews or in court, as well as photographs supplied to them showing Bundy appearing as a normal person truly gave a sense of the nothingness behind his eyes. It’s incredibly clear to see the thin veneer of his fabricated personality fall away as soon as the need to use it is gone. The unraveling of him in court, the justifications and egocentric nature of him, indicating his intense delusional narcissism, i think these were exemplified very well through the footage that was included. I do wish they would have used more of the recorded conversations, however. 

My final take on Bundy, when the climax of him appearing in court and the chaos he created truly shows what a sick and clearly disturbed person he was. The issue with the seemingly normal, all-American boy (in his own description of himself) and being someone who is-- despite all things-- articulate is that i find it was highly mistaken for someone who was competent to stand trial, which I believe he clearly was not. The mask kept slipping further and further off, and he clearly had no understanding of the severity and gravitas of the situation he found himself in. I personally find it a miscarriage of justice to have allowed him to not only stand trial, but to represent himself and be given executive privileges among his defense. Truly, I believe the only reason he was allowed these privileges and given the opportunity (which i believe is the way he saw it) to stand trial is because the nature of the killings, the gross body count, and the frustration among law enforcement related to his escapes and the complicated methods of gathering evidence, caused the prosecution and detaining officers to, by all means necessary, ensure that Bundy would face execution-- reason being why the plea bargain was essentially the only option to avoid it, and still included at minimum 75 years in prison. 

The thoroughness and the task of presenting the highly detailed “boring” aspects of the Bundy case was done incredibly well. I appreciate them taking this route, despite my disappointment, mostly because I know that the morbid details of his murders can be found easily and numerously. I highly recommend this docuseries to anyone interested in true crime, psychology, or the evolution of modern day criminal justice programs and implementations.