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Dissociative Identity Disorder: An Overview of A Person Suffering From

The document summarizes the movie Sybil, which depicts a woman suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) brought on by severe childhood trauma. Specifically: 1) The main character Sybil develops over 15 distinct personalities as a result of sexual abuse and extreme neglect by her schizophrenic mother. 2) Sybil relies on her personalities to help her cope with stress in adulthood. 3) The movie implies Sybil's DID was caused by her traumatic upbringing and troubled relationship with her abusive mother.

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438 views

Dissociative Identity Disorder: An Overview of A Person Suffering From

The document summarizes the movie Sybil, which depicts a woman suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) brought on by severe childhood trauma. Specifically: 1) The main character Sybil develops over 15 distinct personalities as a result of sexual abuse and extreme neglect by her schizophrenic mother. 2) Sybil relies on her personalities to help her cope with stress in adulthood. 3) The movie implies Sybil's DID was caused by her traumatic upbringing and troubled relationship with her abusive mother.

Uploaded by

altusarjen
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Our Lady of Fatima University

Valenzuela City Campus

An Overview of a person suffering from


Dissociative Identity Disorder

Presented by:
Hong, Christian Andrew
Manansala, Kathrine Joyce
Gabatan, Mary Grace
Dedote, Jumry
Cayago, Kisel

BSN 4Y3-35
Sybil is a severely disturbed college student living in New York City.
After a “blackout” suffered in a park one day, after which she finds herself
standing knee deep in a lake, she decides to seek help from Dr. Cornelia
Wilbur, a psychiatrist.

Ms Wilbur initially doesn’t notice anything seriously amiss but as her


patient’s behavior grows more bizarre, it gradually dawns on her that Sybil
suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder brought on by childhood abuse.
This abuse was apparently so horrific that none of Sybil’s personalities will
divulge what it was. It takes hypnosis to penetrate Sybil’s defences, revealing
a schizophrenic mother who devised sadistic games for her daughter, ranging
from tripping young Sybil as she ascended the stairs to shutting her in a box
for days on end. But a final horror remains one so ugly Sybil still refuses to
divulge it.

The revelation of this final trauma, the doctor believes, will allow Sybil
to at least confront her various selves and enfold them into a single
personality. It takes a trip to a secluded park to finally break down Sybil’s
defences. Here she at last confronts the most grievous of her many childhood
tortures. This revelation frees her and at last Sybil is able to meet each of her
personalities and combine them into one.

Dissociative Identity Disorder


It is a fairly common effect of severe trauma during early childhood, usually extreme,
repetitive physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse. It is thought to be a coping
mechanism -- the person literally dissociates himself from a situation or experience
that's too violent, traumatic, or painful to assimilate with his conscious self.

SYBIL’S PRESENTED PERSONALITIES


1. Sybil, the main personality
2. Vanessa, plays the piano
3. Vickie, self assured and sophisticated
4. Peggy, assertive and often angry
5. Marsha, extremely emotional painter
6. Mary, thoughtful ad maternal homebody
7. Nancy, who kept waiting for the end of the world
8. Clara, intensely religious and highly critical
9. Hellen, intensely afraid
10. Marjorie, serene and quick to laugh
11. Ruthie, the baby and less developed self
12. Danny, dances and sings like Fred Astaire
13. Mike, builder and carpenter
14. Nehemiah
15. Sid, the general handyman
16. The Blonde, nameless perpetual and optimistic teenager

Panic Disorder
It is different from the normal fear and anxiety reactions to stressful events in our lives. It
is a serious condition that strikes without reason or warning. Its symptoms include
sudden attacks of fear and nervousness, as well as physical symptoms such as
sweating and a racing heart. During a panic attack, the fear response is out of
proportion for the situation, which often is not threatening. Over time, a person with
panic disorder develops a constant fear of having another panic attack, which can affect
daily functioning and general quality of life.

Dissociative Fugue
It is formerly called psychogenic fugue, one of a group of conditions called dissociative
disorders. People with dissociative fugue temporarily lose their sense of personal
identity and impulsively wander or travel away from their homes or places of work. They
often become confused about who they are and might even create new identities.
Outwardly, people with this disorder show no signs of illness, such as a strange
appearance or odd behavior.

Borderline Personality Disorder


It is a mental illness that causes intense mood swings, impulsive behaviors, and severe
problems with relationships and self-worth. People with this disorder often have other
problems such as depression and substance abuse. Most of the time, signs of the
disorder first appear in childhood. But problems often don't start until early adulthood.

Gender Identity Disorder


Gender -- being male or female -- is a basic element that helps make up an individual's
personality and sense of self. Gender identity disorder is a condition in which a male or
female feels a strong identification with the opposite sex. A person with this disorder
often experiences great discomfort regarding his or her actual anatomic gender. People
with gender identity disorder may act and present themselves as members of the
opposite sex and may express a desire to alter their bodies. The disorder affects an
individual's self-image, and can impact the person's mannerisms, behavior, and dress.
Individuals who are committed to altering their physical appearance through cosmetics,
hormones and, in some cases, surgery are known as transsexuals.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder


It is characterized by re-experiencing of an extremely traumatic event that is outside
the range of usual human experience. Traumatic event is usually re experienced as
flashbacks, nightmares. Findings associated with it are Feeling of isolation and
detachment difficulty in sleeping, depression and violent Outburst of anger
The movie Sybil analyzes the life of a person living with Dissociative
Identity Disorder. The said disorder was a mental condition in which a person
suffering from it experiences two or more different identities or personalities. In
each of these personalities, the person usually has different patterns of perceiving
information as well as interacting with the surrounding environment.
The main character’s childhood upbringing was so traumatizing, to a point
that she developed more than fifteen different personalities. Her psychiatrist
eventually sees these several personalities as protectors. In adulthood, Sybil
depends on them to jump in and assist her in moments of stress. The movie implied
that Sybil suffered from the Dissociative identity disorder as a result of several
incidences of sexual abuses from her mother whom unfortunately is speculated to
have been suffering from schizophrenia. In her case this disease was brought on by
her extremely sad and troubled childhood. Sybil’s mother was extremely mean
towards Sybil she would push her and even go as far as breaking her larynx.

After watching the movie, we were extremely intrigued by it. We found it to


be very fascinating and amazing. For a person to have 16 different personalities is
just jaw dropping. Many people have theorized that severe sexual, physical or
physiological trauma in a childhood is a trait from this kind of disorder. We
thought that what happened with Sybil was definitely caused by this, even in the
movie Dr.Wilbur says that all of Sybil’s personalities were because of the
traumatic relationship she had with her mother when she was a child and growing
up, and because her father did not support or try to help her. We have heard of
people with multiple personalities but to be honest, seeing such story like Sybil
makes us wonder if it was all real. What we mean here is how someone can have
such unfortunate situation.

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