Sybil (book) - Response

Response

The book had an initial print run of 400,000. The book is believed by Mark Pendergrast and Joan Acocella to have established the template for the later upsurge in the diagnoses of dissociative identity disorders.

Audiotapes that recorded conversations between Schreiber and Wilbur were examined by Dr. Herbert Spiegel and later by John Jay College of Criminal Justice academic Robert W. Rieber. Both these professionals concluded that Dr. Wilbur suggested multiple personalities to her client, whom they saw as a simple "hysteric". They also claimed that Wilbur and Schreiber fabricated most of the book, which is not a psychiatric case history but a novel with many details of the real case changed or removed.

A review of Rieber's book Bifurcation of the Self by Mark Lawrence states that Rieber repeatedly distorted the evidence and left out a number of important facts about Mason's case, in order to advance his case against the validity of the diagnosis.

The case remains controversial, as Wilbur's psychiatric files are sealed, and both she and Mason are deceased.

The book Sybil Exposed by Debbie Nathan published in 2011 claims that Wilbur, Mason and Schreiber perpetrated a fraud, documenting a 1958 letter by Mason confessing to making up the multiples for attention and excitement. Nathan claims Schreiber became aware of Mason and her alleged past, writing Sybil based on stories coaxed from her during therapy, and that this case created an "industry" of repressed memory.