Flora Rheta Schreiber's novel Sybil told a fictionalized version of Mason's story. The book stated that Mason had multiple personalities as a result of severe child sexual abuse at the hands of her mother, whom her psychiatrist Cornelia Wilbur believed had been schizophrenic. The book was made into a TV-movie, starring Sally Field and Joanne Woodward, in 1976. The movie was remade in 2007 with Jessica Lange and Tammy Blanchard as Sybil.
Read more about this topic: Shirley Ardell Mason