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Sybil: Dissociative Identity Disorder

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Sybil
In the movie Sybil, a woman who is diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder (now referred to as Dissociative Identity Disorder) undergoes treatment from a psychologist to deal with her symptoms that have begun negatively impacting her life.
In this movie, Sybil’s symptoms consist of blackouts and amnesia, both of which create gaps in time, that she can’t recall or remember anything. She also describes herself as jumping from one place to another. She then undergoes treatment by a Dr. Wilbur. During the movie skeptical colleagues in her department confront Wilbur with concern of whether or not this is a true mental illness that Sybil is suffering from. Wilbur ignores these claims and chooses to believe they are only saying these things …show more content…

Most of these Sybil suffers from in the movie.
As portrayed in the movie, it is not a disease that is extremely common. “The 12-month prevalence of dissociative identity disorder among adults in a small U.S. community study was 1.5% (Johnson et al. 2006). The prevalence across genders in that study was 1.6% for males and 1.4% for females” (American Psychiatric Association, …show more content…

Wilbur conducted was right in lines with what Jo L. Ringrose says in his article, “Meeting the needs of clients with dissociative identity disorder: considerations for psychotherapy.” “Psychotherapy for clients with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is different to therapy with most clients because these clients are multiple, comprising one or more host, and one or more alter personalities. The necessary components to be addressed in order that clients can live successfully either as a multiple or as an integrated person are outlined, discussed and critiqued. These include increasing awareness and understanding between the host(s) and the alter(s) and encoura- ging communication and collaboration between the identities through psycho- education. As trauma material has not been fully realised, a key component of therapy is working through trauma events…” (Ringrose 293). This is exactly what Wilbur did, she encouraged each personality to nderstand one another and Sybil in order to introduce them. Wilbur also worked with Sybil to deal with her past trauma as

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