Sybil is an American mystery drama film which has talked about a girl named Sybil who is having a psychological disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). This movie is interesting as there are many surprises when more and more personality came out from the main character. I did not expect Sybil suffers from DID but other psychological disorder because the beginning of the film did not seem Sybil is having DID until the moment when Dr Wilbur found out Vickie, who called her at late night, which she is actually one of Sybil’s personality. Meanwhile, the ending of this film is awesome because Sybil finally recovered from DID with the help of Dr Wilbur.
The story began with Sybil as a school teacher, who seemed very lovely and warm individual but started to act weirdly when she saw a white hair old lady at the park. When she saw white hair, she automatically think of her mama, who constantly abused her when she was young. When this scene was shown without telling the reason why Sybil scares of white hair, I thought Sybil was kidnaped during her childhood, hence, she revived her bad and fearful childhood memory, but surprisingly, her mother was the one who abused her by kicking, hitting, and locked her in a wheat bin in the barn. After that incident, she is given a neurological test by Dr Wilbur, a psychiatrist. Sybil admits having blackouts and fears and these conditions are getting worse. Dr Wilbur theorizes that the incidents are a kind of hysteria, all related to a deeper problem. She asks Sybil to return at a later date as she wanted to know more about Sybil. Throughout the whole treatment process, Dr Wilbur is a good and responsible psychiatrist who does really care her client genuinely.
According to DSM 5 (APA, 2013), there are criteria for DID. The first criterion of DID is the disruption of identity characterized by two or more distinct personality. Sybil has several personalities with her, such as, Vickie who knows everything about Sybil; Peggy, the little girl; Vanessa, who plays the piano; Marcia, who is suicidal and wants to kill Sybil; and Ruthie, the pre-verbal baby role. The moment when Vickie called Dr Wilbur at late night, I truly believed that she is Sybil’s friend, I did not expect Vickie is actually one of the personality came out from Sybil until Vickie goes to meet Dr Wilbur and tell her everything about Sybil. The interesting past in this film is every personality of Sybil will introduce themselves to Dr. Wilbur.
The second criterion is the recurrent gaps in the recall of everyday events or traumatic events that are inconsistent with ordinary forgetting. Sybil could not remember what is happening during her blackout period, she forgot what she has done when her other personality came out. Nonetheless, there are many incidents have proved that Sybil could not remember anything about what other of her personality did. Sybil did not know that she can play the piano well; she was so surprised when Dr. Wilbur played the recording tape (when Vanessa is playing piano), she cannot believe that she can play Mozart pieces. When Marcia wanted to jump from the top of a high building, fortunately, she has been saved by her neighbour. She could not remember this has happened after her turning back to Sybil. Basically, she could not remember anything that her other personality did. The following criterion is the symptoms caused clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. It can be clearly seen that Sybil does not have a job and she has no friend accept the boyfriend in a neighbour.
I personally sympathized with Sybil because she did not grow up in a healthy family. Sybil's father denied his wife abuses Sybil even thoughhe knew his wife is diagnosed with paranoid Schizophrenia. My definition of healthy family is defined as children could have to be raised up in lovely, warm, peaceful, and harmony family. There should not exist of child abuse, and parents should always space out their time for accompanying their children. I sympathised Sybil experiences since she is young. It is not easy for an individual to suffer DID alone without the support of family.
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