Psychological Analysis of Sibil Movie

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When Dr. Wilbur finally confronts Sybil about her condition, Sybil agrees to undergo hypnosis to get to the root of the problem. While under hypnosis, Sybil sees flashbacks of her mother dragging her to the barn and locking her. After waking up, Sybil becomes reluctant to talk further with Dr. Wilbur and claims that she was pretending the entire time.

This could be the result of some kind of fear stemming from her past. Sybil and her alters don’t want Dr. Wilbur to uncover the past as they may be scared about the consequences after having seen how Sybil’s mother used to punish her.

Scene 4:

Finally, we see Dr. Wilbur visiting Sybil’s hometown to meet her childhood doctor, who agrees to have ignored the warning signs like bruises on Sybil’s body from her mother’s physical abuse. The childhood doctor reveals that Sybil’s mother was a psychopath with paranoid Schizophrenia. It is even revealed that she had sexually abused Sybil at a young age.

This shows how Sybil was a typical case of DID brought on by childhood trauma. Sybil’s childhood abuse at the hands of her mother, the neglect of her father and the death of her only support, her grandmother, caused her consciousness to split into multiple alters to cope with the pain.

Observations:

In this way, we see that Sybil showcased a lot of the symptoms of DID like auditory hallucinations, anxiety, amnesia and loss of time. She was aware that she was missing long periods of time but she had no idea what she did during those times. She also felt like she was detached from herself.

One of Sybil’s alters, Vicky, was 13 years old and pretended to have been brought up in France and had a French accent, but spoke French very poorly. This shows that Sybil seemed to have picked up the broken French that she spoke from her subconscious mind and as she didn’t know how to speak French fluently, Vicky wasn’t fluent in it either. My observation from this is that the alters often bring out learnings that the main personality has unconsciously or consciously learnt earlier, but doesn’t use in day to day life. However, the alter can only display the latent skill to the extent that the main personality has learnt or has experienced.

Another important observation I made, was the obvious apprehension toward psychological treatments in those times. Even though Sybil and her father were aware of her ‘Mood Swings’ (as she calls them in one scene), they never did anything about it due to the fear of the church and society. A prevalent problem that we face in Modern India as well.

Treatment:

Dr. Wilbur portrays an interesting way to treat DID; in the beginning she encourages Sybil’s mind to dissociate by invoking memories through questions about her past and through pictures and smells associated with her past. She tries to question and talk to Sybil and her alters. Finally, she employs the use of clinical hypnosis to aid Sybil in unlocking her past and her repressed anger and anxiety.

Conclusion:

According to me, even though Sybil was not ‘cured’ in the traditional sense, she was made to accept her anger so that she could come to terms with her past and live a wholesome life. Slowly, with constant therapy, she would stop trying to dissociate when confronted with her memories and face her fears without needing the coping mechanism of using her alters as her shield. In this way she would be treated.

Similarly, in my opinion, most psychological disorders are treated by constant therapy to make the patient aware of their problem and to learn the underlying cause. After which, accepting and trying to find a solution for the underlying cause helps to treat the psychological problems arising from it.