a study of sybil`s dissociative identity disorder in

Transcription

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
A STUDY OF SYBIL’S DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER IN FLORA
RHETA SCHREIBER’S SYBIL, THE TRUE STORY OF WOMAN POSSESSED
BY SIXTEEN PERSONALITIES
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By:
Dian Ndari Nastiti
041214099
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2010
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I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set
me in a large place
PSALM 118:5
This thesis is dedicated to:
My Savior Jesus Christ
My Loving Babe and Ibu
My Brother “Primol”
My Lovely Eyang Kakung and Eyang Putri
My Dear Felix
My Beloved Friends
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank my savior, Jesus Christ for His
blessing, especially for guiding me through my hardest time. I have to thank Him for
showering me with love and grace during my study in Sanata Dharma University. I
never walk alone because He is always by my side.
I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my major sponsor, Drs. L.
Bambang Hendarto Y. M.hum, for sparing me his valuable time to guide, correct
and discuss my thesis. I thank him for his criticism and suggestion, so that I can
finish this thesis. Another appreciation goes to all the lecturers of the English
Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University for sharing their
knowledge during my study, and also my thanks go to the secretariat and library
staff for good services, kindness and friendliness. I also thank my great friend,
Chrisogonus Sidha for his willingness to spend his time to be my language
consultant.
With abundant of love, I dedicate this thesis to my wonderful family, my
beloved parents, Bp. Markus Eddy. S and Ibu. Endang Agustina. W for their
supports, endless love, patience and prayers. I also would like to thank my
grandparents, Eyang Yahya Soewarno and Eyang Mudjilah, for always giving me
good advice, support and prayers. I would like to thank my brother, Prima Rekha
Panji who has also given me support and sharing both sadness and happiness. I
would like to thank Gracea for time we have shared together.
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My special thanks go to My Ndundul, Felix Tyas Warih Utomo for his
love, accompaniment, encouragement, and patience, for being ‘tukang ojek’, for
being ‘dust-bin’ and for all the sadness and happiness we have shared together. I am
very blessed to have him in my life.
My next best gratitude goes to all my friends in Blindsoul band (Mas
Anton, Kobis, Mas Galih, Eqi, Mas Bagus, Nonok, Mbak Desi, Ambon, Mbak
Ika and Dinda), East-Rasta Band (Bang Foster, Bang Ronald, Bang Hero, Bang
Diaz, ect), Chromatic Band ( Mas Jack, Mas Oggy, Lala, Mas Kiki), and all
Jogja TOP 40 bands (VLV, Recycle Band, Refresh Band, etc). I am nothing
without them all. I thank them for all chances given me to develop my talent, my
knowledge about music and for every wonderful experiences we have shared.
Foremost, my deepest gratitude goes to my friends in Rhu Band (Aviandra Nagara,
Joe, Kiki Maskur, Liza Barus, Wisnu ‘penyu’, Dalbo, Siska, Gildaz Heri and
Dimas Pakde) for the support, the friendliness, the understanding during my thesis
writing time.
I would also like to express my deepest appreciation to “Alumni Kos Bu
Djaman”, to Mbak Desi, Mbak Vika, Mbak Mey, Mbak Ayi, Mbak Nina, Oline,
Briggita, Ikka, Mbak Cita, Mbak Dewi, Lolin and Meta. My time with them has
been the sweetest one. I thank them for always giving me a place to release my
burden and time to laugh.
My gratitude goes to my PBI’s friends, to Maea, Rita, Tami, Bishop, Greg,
Erlian, Novi, Dede, Etza, Tuti, Silvi, Tika, Albert, Pius, and Bekti who have made
my life in PBI become alive. I thank them for sharing knowledge together.
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Last but not least, for those I cannot mention one by one, I thank them for
every moment with me and sharing moments together, for making me grow up, for
every pain, because there is always blessing in disguise. May God bless us all.
Amen.
Dian Ndari Nastiti
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITTLE PAGE....................................................................................................
i
APPROVAL PAGE ............................................................................................
ii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI
KARYA ILMIAH………………………………………………………………
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STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY.................................................
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PAGE OF DEDICATION ..................................................................................
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................
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TABLE OF CONTENTS....................................................................................
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ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................
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ABSTRAK.............................................................................................................
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CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................
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A. Background of the Study.................................................................................
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B. Problem Formulation ......................................................................................
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C. Objectives of the Study ...................................................................................
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D. Benefits of the Study.......................................................................................
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E. Definition of Terms.........................................................................................
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CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ..............................
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A. Theoretical Review .........................................................................................
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1. Characters and Characterization ...............................................................
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2. Dissociative Identity Disorder ..................................................................
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a. The Symptoms ....................................................................................
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b. Causes .................................................................................................
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c. Treatment ............................................................................................
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3. Personality.................................................................................................
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a. Definition ............................................................................................
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b. Sigmund Freud ‘s Personality Theory ................................................
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c. Three Basic Structure of Personality ..................................................
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4. Parental Influence on Children Psychological Development....................
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5. Mother-Daughter Relationship .................................................................
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6. Conflict......................................................................................................
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a. Interpersonal Conflict..........................................................................
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b. Intrapersonal Conflict..........................................................................
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B. Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................
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CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY ..................................................................
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A. Object of the Study .........................................................................................
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B. Approach .........................................................................................................
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C. Method of the Study........................................................................................
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CHAPTER IV. ANALYSIS ...............................................................................
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A. The Description of Sybil and Her Splitting Personalities ...............................
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1. The Characteristics of Sybil Isabel Dorsett as the Major Character .........
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a. Sybil Isabel Dorsett ..............................................................................
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2. The Characteristics of Sybil Isabel Dorsett’s Splitting Personalities as the
Minor Character ........................................................................................
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a. Victoria Antoinette Scharleau .............................................................
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b. Vanessa Gail and Marcia Lynn Dorsett ..............................................
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c. Mary Lucinda Saunders Dorsett .........................................................
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d. Sybil Ann ............................................................................................
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e. Peggy Lou Baldwin.............................................................................
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f. Peggy Ann...........................................................................................
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g. Mike and Sid Dorsett ..........................................................................
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h. Ruthie Dorsett .....................................................................................
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i. Helen Dorsett ......................................................................................
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j. Marjorie Dorsett ..................................................................................
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k. Clara Dorsett .......................................................................................
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l. Nancy Lou Ann Baldwin ....................................................................
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m. The Blonde Girl ....................................................................................
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B. The Description of Sybil’s Dissociative Identity Disorder .............................
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1. Sybil’s Characteristic as a Person with Dissociative Identity Disorder....
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2. The Symptoms ..........................................................................................
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3. The Causes ................................................................................................
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a. Parental Influences ..............................................................................
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1). Mother- Daughter Relationship .....................................................
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a) Hattie Dorsett’s Past Life ........................................................
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b) Hattie Dorsett’s Abuses...........................................................
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2). Father- Daughter Relationship.......................................................
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a) Willard Dorsett’s Past Life .....................................................
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b) Willard Dorsett’s Ignorance....................................................
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3). Puritan Environment ......................................................................
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a) Puritan’s Way of Life..............................................................
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b) The influence of Puritan Environment on Sybil’s Personality
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4. Applying Sigmund Freud’s Personality Theory in Sybil’s Case ..............
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C. Sybil’s Conflicts and the Way She Seals with Them......................................
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1. Sybil’s Interpersonal Conflicts..................................................................
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a. The Conflict between Sybil and Her Mother ......................................
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b. The Conflict between Sybil and Her Father........................................
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c. The Conflict between Sybil and Her Parents’ Hypocrisy ...................
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2. Sybil’s Intrapersonal Conflicts..................................................................
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a. The Conflicts between Sybil and Her Splitting Personalities ..................
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b. Ignoring Her Belief ..................................................................................
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c. Committing Suicide..................................................................................
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CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.................................
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A. Conclusions .....................................................................................................
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B. Suggestions .....................................................................................................
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1. Suggestion for Further Study on Sybil, the True Story of Woman Possessed by
Sixteen Personalities...................................................................................
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2. Suggestions for Teaching Intensive Reading II by Using Sybil, the True Story
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of Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities ...........................................
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BIBLIOGRAPHY ...............................................................................................
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APPENDICES .....................................................................................................
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Appendix 1
: Summary of Sybil, The True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen
Personalities..................................................................................
Appendix 2
: Cover of Sybil, The True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen
Personalities..................................................................................
Appendix 3
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: Shirley Ardell Mason (Sybil’s novel reference) and Sybil’s film and
Sally Field (Sybil’s cast in the film) .............................................
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Appendix 4
: The Author’s Biography .............................................................
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Appendix 5
: Picture of Dr. Cornelia B. Wilbur ..............................................
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Appendix 6
: Lesson Plan for Teaching Intensive Reading II ..........................
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Appendix 7
: The Implementation of Teaching Intensive Reading II ..............
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ABSTRACT
Nastiti, Dian Ndari. 2010. A Study of Sybil’s Dissociative Identity Disorder in Flora
Rheta Schreiber’s Sybil, The True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen
Personalities. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Department
of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training Education, Sanata
Dharma University.
This thesis analyzes a woman named Sybil, a main character of Flora Rheta
Schreiber’s novel, Sybil, The True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen
Personalities, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder in which she has 16 coexisting personalities as a result of terrible childhood trauma. There are three
problems related to the topic of this thesis. (1) How are Sybil and her splitting
personalities described in the novel? (2) How is Sybil’s dissociative identity disorder
described? (3) How does Sybil cope with all the conflicts in her splitting
personalities?
The primary source is from the novel itself, whereas the secondary sources
are from books, criticism, and articles related to the subject of the study. Some
relevant references such as: personality theory, dissociative identity disorder theory,
parental influences on children psychological development theory, and motherdaughter theory are the secondary sources. Those theories are used to analyses the
novel. The psychological approach is also used in this analysis to observe Sybil’s
dissociative identity disorder as formulated in the problems in this study.
There are three points that can be concluded from this analysis. Firstly, Sybil
is described as a woman who is unconfident, fragile, and fearful. Whereas, her
dissociative personalities are described as: Vicky, who is sophisticated and generous;
Marcia and Vanessa, who are close friends that always do things together; Mary, a
house woman who is very sensitive; Sybil Ann, the depressive woman; Peggy Lou,
an energetic, moody and bad tempered girl who takes Sybil’s unexpressed anger;
Peggy Ann, an individual who takes the fearfulness of Sybil; Mike and Sid Dorsett,
the boys who come up based on identification of Sybil’s grandpa and father; Ruthie,
the youngest; Helen, a personality who gets the biggest terror because of Hattie
Dorsett; Marjorie, a sanguine personality; Clara, a religious girl; Nancy, a girl who is
also fanatic; and the last one is the Blonde, who comes up during Sybil’s recovery
treatment and claims that she is the girl Sybil wants to be. Secondly, Sybil has
multiple personalities of which each personality has its own name, sex, intelligence,
and personal states. Sybil has the symptoms of having dissociative identity disorder,
which are headache, emptiness, lost time, and depersonalization. And, the causes of
her splitting personality are the result of her parental abuses. Her mother always does
sexual, psychical and emotional abuses, intensified by the role of her father, who
takes actions to be apathetic to help her, incompetent, irresponsible, and emotionally
withdrawn, and the puritan environment where Sybil lives gives contributions in
making Sybil’s dissociative grow fertile. Thirdly, she faces conflicts, both
interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts. Her interpersonal conflicts related with
both her parents and her parents’ hypocrisy. Whereas, the intrapersonal conflicts are
conflicts with her splitting personalities, namely ignoring her belief and her trial of
committing suicide.
This thesis provides suggestions for future researchers who are interested in
studying the novel from other aspects. This thesis also provides suggestions for
English teachers to teach English , especially Intensive Reading II at university level
by using Sybil, The True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities.
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ABSTRAK
Nastiti, Dian Ndari. 2010. A Study of Sybil’s Dissociative Identity Disorder in Flora
Rheta Schreiber’s Sybil, The True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen
Personalities. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan
Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata
Dharma.
Skripsi ini membahas tentang seorang wanita yang bernama Sybil, tokoh
utama dari novel karya Flora Rheta Schreiber, Sybil, The True Story of Woman
Possessed by Sixteen Personalities, yang menderita kepribadian majemuk dengan 16
kepribadian akibat trauma pada masa kanak-kanak. Ada tiga permasalahan yang
berhubungan dengan topik dari skripsi ini. (1) Bagaimana Sybil dan pribadinya yang
terpecah digambarkan dalam novel? (2) Bagaimanakah kepribadian majemuk dari
Sybil digambarkan? (3) Bagaimana Sybil menyelesaikan semua masalah dalam
perpecahan pribadinya?
Metode studi pustaka diterapkan dalam pencarian data. Sumber utama adalah
dari novel itu sendiri, sedangkan sumber pelengkap datang dari buku-buku, kupasan
suatu buku, dan artikel yang berhubungan dengan subyek studi. Beberapa reverensi
yang berkaitan, antara lain: teori kepribadian, teori kepribadian majemuk, teori
perngaruh orangtua dalam perkembangan psikologis anak, dan teori hubungan ibuanak perempuan, yang adalah contoh dari sumber pelengkap. Teori-teori tersebut
digunakan dalam menganalisa novel. Pendekatan psikologis digunakan dalam
menganalisa kepribadian majemuk dari Sybil terhadap permasalahan dalam studi ini.
Ada tiga hal yang dapat disimpulkan dari skripsi ini. Pertama, Sybil adalah
seorang wanita yang tidak percaya diri, rapuh dan penuh ketakutan. Sedangkan,
kepribadian majemuknya digambarkan sebagai: Vicky, seorang yang modern dan
murah hati; Marcia dan Vanessa, yang merupakan teman dekat yang selalu
melakukan segala sesuatu bersama-sama; Mary, seorang ibu rumah tangga yang
sangat perasa; Sybil Ann, wanita yang muram; Peggy Lou, seorang yang energik,
pemurung dan emosional yang menanggung amarah yang tidak dapat diekspresikan
Sybil; Peggy Ann, seorang yang menanggung rasa takut yang dirasakan Sybil; Mike
dan Sid Dorsett, anak laki-laki yang muncul berdasarkan identifikasi dari kakek dan
ayahnya; Ruthie, yang paling muda; Helen, seseorang yang mendapat ketakutan
paling besar yang dikarenakan Hattie Dorsett; Marjorie, si ceria; Clara, si saleh;
Nancy, seorang yang fanatik; dan yang terakhir, The Blonde, yang datang pada saat
proses penyembuhan Sybil berlangsung dan mengklaim sebagai seorang yang
diinginkan Sybil. Kedua, kepribadian majeluk Sybil berhubungan dengan tanda,
gejala, dan penyebab. Sybil mempunyai kepribadian majemuk, dimana setiap
kepribadian mempunyai nama sendiri, jenis kelamin, kecerdasan dan status pribadi.
Gejala kepribadian majemuknya meliputi pusing, kekosongan, hilang ingatan, dan
depresi. Dan penyebab dari penyakitnya muncul dari pengaruh orangtuanya. Ibunya
selalu melakukan penganiayaan seksual, fisik, dan emosional, diperkuat oleh peranan
ayahnya, yang bersikap apatis, kurang cakap, tidak bertanggungjawab, atau menarik
diri secara emosional, serta lingkungan yang amat memegang teguh aturan agama
dimana Sybil tinggal, memberi sumbangan dalam mempersubur kepribadian
majemuknya. Ketiga, menyingkapkan semua konflik yang dialami Sybil, baik
interpersonal maupun intrapersonal. Konflik interpersonalnya berhubungan dengan
kedua orangtua dan kemunafikannya. Sedangkan, konflik intrapersonal adalah
konflik dengan pribadinya yang majemuk, yaitu konflik untuk tidak memperdulikan
agamanya dan keinginannya untuk mencoba bunuh diri.
Skripsi ini memberikan saran bagi peneliti di masa datang yang tertarik
dalam mempelajari novel ini dari aspek lain. Skripsi ini juga memberikan saran bagi
guru bahasa inggris, terutama untuk pengajaran Intensive Reading II untuk mengajar
menggunakan Sybil, The True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities
pada level universitas.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of background of the study, problem formulation,
objectives the study, benefits of the study and definition of terms. The background of
the study states the topic and the reasons of choosing the topic. Then, the problem
formulation describes the guidelines to do the analysis, whereas the objectives of
study describe what to gain in the study. The advantages of the study are presented in
benefits of the study. The last is definition of terms. This part defines some terms
related to the study
A. Background of the Study
Family is the smallest structure in a society that consists of parents and
children. It is the first place for someone to learn everything. As stated in Psychology
of the Child, there are two major effects that the home has on the life of the child.
Firstly, it provides the conditions that facilitate some kinds of behavior and inhibit
other. Secondly, its effect consists of the way in which child‘s personality is shaped
(Watson and Lindgreen 297). Whenever the function of family member does not
work optimally and then creates some terrible home situation, it will have a deep
effect on the children.
One of the worst things that may happen in a family is child abuse. A
dreadful abuse experienced by children can cause some awful effects, such as
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depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and physical injury to the child. A
philosopher Daniel Dennett, as quoted in Dr. Paul McHugh says
...the evidence is now voluminous that there are not a handful or a hundred
but thousands of cases of MPD (DID) diagnosed today, and it almost
invariably owes its existence to prolonged early childhood abuse, usually
sexual, and of sickening severity…..(reference the Wikipedia, Multiple
Personality Disorder (Dissociative Identity Disorder resource))
Relating to this case, Dissociative Identity Disorder is one product of terrible
childhood trauma.
In Psychology in Action, it is described that Dissociative Identity Disorder
(DID), previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), is a disorder, in
which at least two or more distinct personalities stay alive within the same person.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is one of the five dissociative disorders identified in
the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-IV) by the American Psychiatric Association (1994). These include
Dissociative Amnesia, Dissociative Fugue, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and
Somatoform Disorders. In DID, each personality has unique memories, behavior, and
social relationship. When a person suffering from this disorder cannot overcome
certain problem, then the alternate personality comes to cope with. Shortly, it is said
that the change of personality may be associated with psychological stress (Huffman,
Vernoy and Vernoy 531). A person with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) tends
to have some depressions, amnesia, blackouts or time loss, sleep disorder, headache,
panic attack, flashback or intrusive memory, phobia, mood-swing and suicidal
tendencies.
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A work of literature may portray such issues as described above. People may
think that through literary works they only gain some pleasure. However, Woody
says that through literature readers can get not only pleasure, but also knowledge.
And all of us who read literary work will find our knowledge broadened and
deepened, whether in the individual, the social, the racial or the internal
sphere; we shall understand how we come to live at particular time and place,
with all its pleasure and vexations and problems, we shall understand the
ways own wards which are open to us, and we shall perhaps be able to make
right rather than wrong choice (Woody 2-3).
From the quotation above, we can see that literary work can give us new perspective
of life. The contents in the literary works are the reflections of our daily life.
Therefore, it will enable us to know life better and enable to decide the right things in
life.
A novel by Flora Rheita Schreiber entitled Sybil, the True Story of a Woman
Possessed by Sixteen Separate Personalities is one real example of a story of a
woman with a Dissociative Identity Disorder. The story is about a child named Sybil.
As a child, Sybil has a tendency to escape from all severe physical and emotional
abuses at the hand of her cruel mother, and the worst thing is that her father does
nothing to protect her. This condition leaves her to have some trauma and this also
influences her personalities. Then, Sybil develops some personalities within her, in
which two of them are boys. When a personality controls her body, Sybil is in the
condition of losing the memory and the time (blackout). Each of the characters has
his/her own behavior and way of thinking and they know each other, except Sybil.
Whenever Sybil cannot overcome her problems, one of them comes up and takes
control of Sybil’s body. Then, finally Sybil realizes that there is something wrong
with her, so she decides to be examined by Dr. Cornelia Wilbur. The doctor is the
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one trying hard to unite Sybil’s characters. The novel is interesting because we will
find that the biggest enemy is within human themselves.
This study is, therefore, meant to analyze the Dissociative Identity Disorder
in Sybil’s case. Nowadays, we see that there are many cases of broken-home children
who tend to have more problems than those from the harmonious home. They grow
up to be troublemaker children, unconfident, weirdo, etc, because of lack of affection
from their parents. Shortly, as stated by Watson and Lindgren in Psychology of the
Child, it is no doubt that parents play a key role in the upbringing the children. They
can influence the child’s development especially on the development of the
intellectual ability, emotions, the relationships to peers, etc (310). Relating with
Dissociative Identity Disorder, many scientists say that the terrible childhood trauma
pays biggest contribution in making a personality divided and home is a fertile field
to plant the seed of child future personality, whether they will be a good person or
not.
The novel is intersting to discuss because, beside the story is based on a true
story, it also gives us a vivid picture of how difficult it is for someone who has
sixteen different and independent personalities within herself. Those characters come
up unconsciously in the main’s character life. This is a kind of fascinating things to
study about human personality and to find the reason why such kind of dissociative
identity disorder appears. It is true in our society that people sometimes ignore the
importance of parental role on childhood period in shaping their personality. That
phenomenon is reflected clearly in this novel. Thus, the writer believes that this
thesis can contribute a new thing among many criticisms, essays and debates about
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this story, not only for the students who directly have the relation to the literature and
psychology, but also to all readers in general.
B. Problem Formulation
In this thesis, there are three problems to solve which are formulated into
these questions:
1. How are Sybil and her splitting personalities in Sybil, the True Story of a Woman
Possessed by Sixteen Separate Personalities described?
2. How is Sybil‘s Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) described in the novel?
3. How does Sybil cope with all of the conflicts in her splitting personalities?
C. Objectives of the Study
This study is aimed to answer the questions formulated in the problem
formulation. In the first part, the writer will explain the description of Sybil’s
personality as the main character, because it plays important rule in the way the story
goes along. This part will also explain all the splitting personalities, since; they are
the keys to find the answer why Sybil suffers that disorder.
The second part digs on what is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), the
symptoms and the reasons why someone can posses such a personality disorder from
a psychological view in relation with the parental influences, and the result of the
splitting characters.
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Finally, the last part of this study is the discussion on conflict which is
experienced by Sybil and the way she deals with them, both intrapersonal and
interpersonal conflict. And, based on the story, the other characters will be used to
reveal the conflicts and show that the splitting happens because of the childhoodod
abusive experiences.
D. Benefits of the Study
First of all, for the writer, the study can give me a chance to broaden the
knowledge, for the term Dissociative Identity Disorder is new in our society.
Sometimes, our society often judges that a person with the symptoms of DID is often
considered as a person with schizophrenia. Actually, that both Schizophrenia and
DID are two extreme distinct things. As described in e-medicine health, that the term
schizophrenia is meant "split mind." This is not an accurate medical term. In Western
culture, some people have come to believe that schizophrenia refers to a splitpersonality disorder. These are two very different disorders, and people with
schizophrenia do not have separate personalities. Schizophrenia and other mental
health disorders have fairly strict criteria for diagnosis. Unfortunately, the society
usually gives some “wrong treatment” to a person with the DID symptoms. This is
how the study may be implemented.
Whereas for the researchers and the students, this study, hopefully, will give
them additional information, especially from the psychological point of view. It also
presents a deep understanding of how to cope with all the problems face and to learn
to have empathy for others. It gives an understanding that family is the place where
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everything whether good or bad starts. Family also means the environment where the
child grows. This is important, especially for the students at their teenage phase to
know such that phenomena, because they are searching an identity and it may give
them a reference.
Finally, for the readers in general, after they read the novel, they will gain
meaningful lessons and values from the psychological aspect, family influences, so
that they will be wiser. Especially for the parents, it may teach them that childhood is
the essential period to shape a personality of someone.
E. Definition of Terms
In order to obtain better understanding and to avoid misinterpretation, the
writer defines some important terms that are used in the study.
1. Dissociative Identity Disorder
Karen Huffman, Mark Vernoy, and Judith Vernoy in their book Psychology
in Action explain that the person with dissociative identity disorder has two or more
distinct personality system that becomes dominant at different times. Each
personality has unique memories, behaviors, and social relationship. The transition
from one personality to another occurs suddenly and often associated with
psychological stress. Often the alternate personalities are very different from the
original personality, and may be the other sex or a different race (506).
2. Parental influences
Parents are regarded as the most influential figures in the personality
development of a child. This is because the child’s first social environment is the
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home in which she/he lives. The home and the family will determine his first
attitudes towards people and social activities. Based on Psychology of the Child,
basically there are two major effects on the life of the child, namely the condition
that facilitates some kinds of behaviors and inhibit others and the way the personality
of the child is shaped (297).
3. Child Abuse
Child abuse is a physical, psychological, or emotional maltreatment of
children. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
define child abuse as any act or series of acts or commission or omission by a parent
or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child.
Mostly, child abuse happen in child’s home, schools or communities the child
interacts with. There are four major categories of child abuse: neglected child,
physical
abuse,
psychological/emotional
abuse,
and
sexual
abuse.
(http://www.ammericanhumane.org/about-us/newsroom/fact-sheets/child-sexualabuses.html).
4. Motherhood
According to Helena Deutsch in her book Psychology of Woman, motherhood
is the relationship of the mother to her child as a sociolinguistic, physiologic and
emotional whole. This relationship begins with the conception of the child and
extends throughout the further physiologic process of pregnancy, birth, feeding and
care (18).
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter consists of theoretical review and theoretical framework. The
first section covers theories of character and characterization, theory of personality,
theory of multiple personality disorder, theory of parental influence on psychology of
the child, theory of motherhood, theory of conflicts (both interpersonal and
intrapersonal conflicts). The second section describes theoretical framework, which
describes the application of the theories reviewed in the analysis.
A. Theoretical Review
In answering the problems stated in the problem formulation, some related
theories are viewed to support the understanding of the topic. Some theories correlate
with the topic will be discussed. They are theories of character and characterization,
theory of personality, theory of multiple personality disorder, theory of parental
influence on psychology of the child, theory of motherhood, theory of conflicts (both
interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts).
1. Characters and Characterization
Character is one of the elements of a literary work. It is all about a person in a
literary work. The character also controls the way in which the story goes along.
General readers usually identify some characters from the text. According to Robert
9
10
Stanton in his book, An Introduction to Fiction, the term “character” is commonly
used in two ways: it designates the individual who appears in the story and the
mixture of interest, desires, emotions, and moral principle that makes up each of
these individuals (Stanton 17-18).
Abrams divides character into two types. First is the main or major character.
A major character is usually the center of the story and the most important character
in the story. Usually, the story focuses on this character from the beginning until the
end. Secondly is minor character. Minor character only appears in a certain setting,
just necessary to become the background for the major character. Their roles are less
important than major one because they are not fully developed, and their roles in a
story just support the development of the major characters (Abrams 20).
According to Murphy (161-173) in his book, Understanding Unseens there
are nine ways employed by the author to make the character understandable and
come alive for the readers. First is the personal description. Here, the author gives a
description of character by the appearance and clothes. The author also tells the
details of certain personal characterization, i.e. the face, the eyes, and the skin.
Second is character as seen by another. The author gives some descriptions by the
comments and the eyes of another character, instead of describing the character
directly. Third is speech. Usually, we can understand the character by the speech of
the character or by its speech. Forth is through past life. Here, readers are led to
know character’s past life in order to give some hints to certain actions. This can be
done by the author’s direct comments, through the character’s thoughts, through the
conversation and by another character’s thought. Fifth is by conversation of others.
11
Readers are able to recognize certain characters through the conversation of other
character and the things people say about certain characters. Sixth is from the
reactions, the author can give some clues about the character by the reaction of the
character in various situations and events. Seventh is through direct comment. The
author gives direct comment or description on a character. Eighth is a thought. By
knowing what character thinking about, the author can give us direct knowledge
about a character. In this case, the author explains us that different character has
different thought. And the last is from the mannerism. The author may describe a
character’s mannerism, habits, or unconventional behavior that can tell us something
about the character.
A well-developed character is the one that has been thoroughly characterized,
with many qualities shown in the narrative. The better the audience knows the
character,
the
better
the
character
development
(http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/LTCharacter.html).
According to Baldick, character is a person in a narrative or dramatic work. It
is different from characterization. Characterization is the way in which a character is
represented. Therefore, a character is the result, while characterization is the process.
Baldick also defines that there are three methods of characterization in fiction. The
first method is explicit presentation. It means the author tells the readers through the
direct exposition or analysis, which informs the character. The second is the
presentation of the character in action. In this representation, the author only uses a
little or no explicit comment, so the readers are able to conclude the attribute of the
actor from action. The last method is the representation from within a character
12
without comments by the author. In this method, the author suggests the reader will
come to a clear understanding of attribute of the character clearly through the impact
of actions and emotions on the character’s inner self (Baldick 81).
Character development is very important in character-driven literature, where
stories focus not on events, but on individual personalities. Whereas, based on
information of Wikipedia, characterization is the process of conveying information
about
characters
in
fiction
or
conversation
(http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/LTCharacter.html).
2. Dissociative Identity Disorder
G. Terence Wilson, Pete E. Nathan, K. Daniel O’Leary, and Lee Anna Clark
in their book Abnormal Psychology explain the Dissociative Identity Disorder. They
say that an individual with this disorder appears to have two or more distinct
personalities or personality states. These personalities take turns in controlling the
actions, because an individual with this disorder is not capable to remember personal
information (Wilson, Nathan, O’Leary, Clark 181).
The Dissociative Identity Disorder, previously known as Multiple Personality
Disorder, is a condition of possessing a mental disorder in which at least two separate
and distinct personalities exist within the same person. Each personality has unique
memories, behaviors, and social relationship. The change from one personality to
other occurs suddenly and is often relates with psychological stress. Usually the
original personality does not know about the existence of the alternate personalities,
but all of them may be aware of lose period time. Frequently, the alternate
13
personalities are very different from the original one and may be of the other sex or a
different race or age (Huffman, Vernoy and Vernoy 531).
a. The Symptoms
Individuals diagnosed with Dissosiative Identity Disorder (DID) show variety
of symptoms. Symptoms can include: multiple mannerisms, attitudes and beliefs that
are dissimilar to each other, headaches and other body pains, distortion or loss of
subjective time, depersonalization, amnesia, and depression. People with this
symptom may face a wide collection of other symptoms that look like epilepsy,
schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, post traumatic stress disorder,
personality disorders, and eating disorders (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). A
patient with Dissosiative Identity Disorder (DID) was reported that she ever faced
frequent headaches, feeling of weakness and period of amnesia- all symptoms
associated with dissociation (Wilson, Nathan, O’Leary, Clark 183).
b. Causes
The causes of dissociative identity disorder have not been identified clearly,
but are connected with overwhelming stress, traumatic past history, insufficient
childhood development, and a natural ability to dissociate memories or experiences
from consciousness (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). It is said that the major
problem underlying all dissociative disorder is the need to escape. A history extreme
trauma, usually sexual abuse is found in all researches in this case. Moreover, it is
also believed that severe childhood trauma is considered as a primary cause of
dissociative disorder (Huffman, Vernoy and Vernoy 531).
c. Treatment
14
According to James C. Coleman in his book, Abnormal Psychology and
Modern Life, the treatment of person with DID by hypnosis and narcosis interview.
Also the key of importance in treatment is helping the patient to learn more effective
method of survive, which make the anxious behavior unnecessary (Coleman 248).
Treatment of Dissosiative Identity Disorder (DID) is the effort to reconnect
the identities of disparate alters into a single functioning identity. The treatment may
focus on symptoms, to ease the distressing aspects of the condition and ensure the
safety of the individual. Treatment methods include psychotherapy and medications.
Some behavior therapists firstly use behavioral treatments such as responding to a
single identity and using traditional therapy (http://skepdic.com/mpd.html)
3. Personality
Everyone has his own personality and every personality is different from
another. None has same personality, even, identical twin. One may be phlegmatic,
the others may be shy and another may be cheerful and easygoing. This topic of
difference is the fundamental topic to the study of personality.
a. Definition
Personality is not easily defined. Basically, ‘personality’ refers to our effort to
capture an individual’s ‘essence’. Personality is person-ality that means the science
of describing and understanding persons. The word ‘personality’ derives from the
Latin word ‘persona’ meaning ‘mask’. So, the study of personality can be understood
as the study of ‘masks’ people wear (Wilderdom).
15
Hjelle and Ziegler in their book Personalities Theories say that the basic
study of personality is to contribute extensively to our understanding of human being
from within the structure of the science psychology. Actually, there is no one best
way to understand human behavior in psychology. In fact, individual in this field
struggle to develop different systems of consistent gathering of concept, and it called
the theory of personality (Hjelle and Ziegler 1-2).
b. Sigmund Freud’s Personality Theory
Relating to the topic above, Sigmund Freud personality’s theory is reviewed
in this section. It is based on consideration that the topic has the closest relation to
Freud’s theory (Hjelle and Ziegler 32). Freud proposes a topographical model of
personality organization. According to this model, psychic life can be represented by
three level of consciousness. They are:
1. The conscious level
It includes all the feelings of our senses we can feel and experiences that we
are conscious. Freud states that only a small part of mental life (thought, perceptions,
feeling, and memories) contains in the area of consciousness. Conscious represents
only a small and limited aspect of personality.
2. The preconscious domain
The preconscious domain is often called “available memory.” It includes all
memory that we are not conscious, but it can be transmitted to the conscious area
both spontaneously and with a minimum effort. This memory might include all that
somebody had done last week, and our past memory
16
3. The unconscious
It is the deepest and main level of the human mind. Freud believes that the
important parts of human behavior are shaped and directed by desire and controled
totally by the outside area of consciousness (Hjelle and Ziegler 32-33).
c. Three Basic Structures of Personality
Based on the information of changing mind resources, the concept of the
unconscious mind becomes a central in Freud’s study of personality, then he revised
his conceptual model of mental life and introduced three basic structures in the
anatomy of personality (changing mind resources):
They are:
1. Id
The Id has no real perception of reality and it always struggles to find
satisfaction needed through what Freud called the primary processes. The process is
like something that controls the life of baby, including hunger and self-protection.
The id stands in direct opposition to the super-ego. The energy for the Id's actions
comes from libido. The id has 2 major instincts:
a. Eros:
It is the instinct that influences people on finding pleasures (e.g., sexual
desires).
b. Thanatos:
Thanatos is the unconscious instinct of human life, and sometimes it is called
death instinct that stimulates people to use aggressiveness.
17
2. Ego
Different with the Id, the Ego is aware of reality and controls by the reality
principle. The Ego knows and be aware of what is real and knows that every
behavior done has its consequences, including the feeling of belonging into the social
rules. Usually it uses secondary processes (perception, recognition, judgment and
memory) that developed during childhood.
The problem faced by the Ego is to balance the demands of the Id and Super
ego with reality. The Ego controls higher mental processes such as reasoning and
problem-solving, that uses to solve the Id and Super ego demands, finding ways to
satisfy the Id's needs safely in the controls of the Super ego.
3. Super ego
The super ego contains values and social morals come from the rules of right
and wrong learned in childhood from parents and contain in the ethics. The Super
ego gives the sample for ego to compare and encourage ego to move. The Super ego
plays as a balance to the Id, and often reduces the Id's pleasure-seeking demands,
especially for sex and aggressiveness (reference the changing minds resource).
Conscious
-------------------------------------------------------------------------Preconscious
Ego
-------------------------------------------------------------------------Unconscious
Superego
-------------------------------------------------------------------------Id
18
The Relation of the structural model of personality to levels of awareness (Hjelle
and Ziegler 33)
4. Parental influence on Children Psychological Development
Parents play an important role in shaping their child’s personality. Children
need to grow out of his vulnerability; in this case, parents have to provide both
material and emotional needs while they bring the children toward self-sufficiency. If
parents fail to provide them their need, the growth toward independence will
seriously obstruct. It is also usual to find that child from broken homes tend to have
more adjustment problem than those from integral homes. (Watson and Lindgren
310). For the example, the absence of father in home will give the effects that child
will have less confident, dependent, had poorer relationships with peers (Watson and
Lindgren 309).
There are basically two major effects that the home has on the life of a child.
First, home provides the conditions that facilitate some kinds of behavior and inhibit
others. Second, is a place where child’s personality is shaped. This is also proving
that love, parental warmth and permissiveness are about all that are needed for
healthy personality development (Watson and Lindgren 299).
Child’s development, known as a golden age, is a phase when as a child he
absorbs the entire environment, especially family and parents given consciously or
unconsciously. Joseph and Lois Bird explain in his book, Power to the Parents that
even in early childhood, the child encounters frustration. At first, all he can do is lash
19
out in fury: cry, scream, and kick. He needs parents’ example and teaching if he is to
learn to cope with the countless frustration, large and small, he will run up against
during his lifetime. He needs to be taught alternative actions (Bird and Bird 31).
Although most parents are loving and nurturing, some cannot or will not take
a proper care of their children, and some deliberately hurt, even kill them.
Maltreatment, by parents or others, is deliberate or unavoidable endangerment of a
child that take in many forms.
In general, abuse can refer to action that inflicts harm, physical abuse
involves injury to the body through punching, beating, kicking or burning. Neglect is
failure to meet a child’s basic physical, emotional, or education needs. Sexual abuse
is sexual activity involving a child and another person. Emotional maltreatment
includes acts of abuse or neglect that may cause behavioral, cognitive, emotional and
mental disorder. It may include rejection, terrorization, isolation, exploitation,
degradation, ridicule, or failure to provide emotional support, love, and affection
(Papalia, Olds, Feldman, and Gross 294).
Abuse may begin when parents who are already anxious, depresses or hostile
try to control a child physically but loses self-control and ends up with doing some
violations. Neglected parents tend to be apathetic, incompetence, irresponsible, or
emotionally withdrawn. They sometime built a distance from the child, critical and
uncommunicative. Many abusive and neglectful families cut themselves off from
other, socially isolated, with no one to see what is happening (Papalia, Olds,
Feldman, and Gross 295).
Neglected children tend to grow poorly and often have medical problems,
20
lack of enthusiasm, self-esteem and dependent. Therefore, maltreatment children
often have disorganized-disoriented attachments and negative, distorted self concept.
They will not develop social skills because they act aggressively and are often
rejected by peers. Physically abused child tend to be fearful and uncooperative.
Emotional abusive will produce children to be lying, stealing, low self-esteem,
emotional maladjustment, dependency, depression, aggression, homicide and suicide
(Papalia, Olds, Feldman, and Gross 296-297).
5. Mother- Daughter Relationship
The relationship between mother-child is possibly the most intimate of all
forms of association for two people, for its closeness can not be compared even with
the greatest love between man and women. It also implied that the unique nature of
mother-child relationship is reflected in the term “mother- love” is commonly known
than “father-love” which sounds unusual and strange (Allers 245).
Motherhood is the relationship of the mother to her child as a sociolinguistic,
physiologic and emotional whole. This relationship begins with the conception of the
child and extends throughout the further physiologic process of pregnancy, birth,
feeding and care (Deutsch 18). Furthermore, Deutsch explains that a daughter’s
identification with her mother is important for her moral and emotional development.
Mother will play as role of source of identification of her daughter, who will next
develop her moral and behavior according her perception toward her mother
(Deutsch 322).
A child usually has a special relation toward his/her mother, remembering she
21
is the only person who pregnant and gives birth; moreover, she takes care of the
baby’s needs until he/she grows independently. Consequently, besides parents have a
contribution in shaping a child’s personality; a mother is the one who first puts the
basic shape of what a child’s personality.
Based on (Deutsch 312) sometimes, mother seeks and expects from her child
something she misses in herself. While she naturally realizes that her child builds her
personality on models, and since she herself does not want to give up to be her
model, she makes a great effort to pretend before her to be what she is not. If the
mother fails in this responsibility, her love for the child is transformed into hostility
and become danger for the child.
6. Conflict
Conflict always happens in our society. A clash of interests, values, actions or
directions often sparks a conflict. Conflicts refer to the existence of that clash.
Psychologically, a conflict exists when the reduction of one motivating stimulus
involves an increase in another, so that a new adjustment is demanded. Conflict is
actual
or
perceived
opposition
of
needs,
values
and
interests
(http://www.indiana.edu/~uhrs/training/ca/personality.html). Conflict can be divided
into two. They are:
a. Interpersonal Conflict
This is a person-to-person conflict. Interpersonal conflict also means “an
expressed struggle between at least two independent parties who perceive
incompatible goals, scare resources, and interference from the other party in
22
achieving goals.” The essential thing in this concept comes from the words
“expressed struggle” which has a deep meaning from both side to overcome the
conflict and it needs compromise.
There are five basic ways of addressing conflict are identified by Thomas and
Kilman in 1976 in Wikipedia’s article. There are: First is accommodation, it
surrenders on one's own needs and wishes to accommodate the other party. Secondly
is avoidance. In this method, people usually avoid or postpone conflict by ignoring it,
changing the subject, etc. Avoidance can be useful as a temporary measure to
enhance time or as a method of dealing with very negligible, non-recurring conflicts.
In more cases, conflict avoidance can involve severing a relationship or leaving a
group. Thirdly is collaboration. In this method, people are work together to find a
mutually beneficial solution. While the Thomas Kilman grid views collaboration as
the only win-win solution to conflict, collaboration can also be time-intensive and
inappropriate when there is not enough trust, respect or communication among
participants for collaboration to occur. Fourthly is compromise. People are to find a
middle ground in which each party is partially satisfied. Fifth is competition. It
emphasized on one’s viewpoint at the possible solutions of another. It can be useful
when achieving one's objectives balances one's concern for the relationship
(http://www.indiana.edu/~uhrs/training/ca/personality.html)
b. Intrapersonal Conflict
It goes on within one’s self. It deals with the struggle a person or character
has within himself/herself. Richard G. Warga in his book “A Psychology of
Adjustment” gives a point of view that its description includes into the intrapersonal
23
conflict. He says that a conflict is a special sort of frustration because it requires
choosing among alternatives (Warga 112).
Warga also states in his book about types of conflict within a self. There are:
first is approach-approach because it involves making choice between two equally
attractive alternatives. The opposite of this is avoidance-avoidance conflict, in which
the alternatives are equally unattractive. It means we are damned if choose one and
doomed if we do not. And the last is double-approach-avoidance; that the conflict
involves such choices of good and evil on both sides (Warga 112).
B. Theoretical Framework
In analyzing the novel, the writer uses six theories; theories of character and
characterization, theory of personality, theory of conflicts, theory of dissociative
identity disorder, theory of parental influence on children psychological
development, theory of motherhood. Theories of character and characterization will
help the writer to describe the main character and all her characteristics of this story.
It also means that the writer will describe all characters and their characteristics
inside the main character. By using theory of personality, the writer will analyze
deeper on the main character’s personality and her alternate. It helps to understand
what personality is before study deeper on the next parts. The theory of dissociative
identity disorder is used to give clear descriptions about dissociative identity
disorder, being multiple, and the symptoms. Actually, this is the main theory in
searching what kind of person Sybil is. Parental influence on children psychological
development will describe and answer about the role of family, especially parents, as
24
why Sybil personality splits. Because the writer believes that somebody’s personality
is splitting because severe childhood trauma, and in this case parents give the biggest
contribution.
Similar with theory on parental influence on psychology of the child, by
using the theory of motherhood, it will specify emphasize about mother’s role in
taking care of her child. This is important, because in this story, Sybil’s mother plays
the biggest part in contributing of being multiple. It also her responsiblility of
causing Sybil’s multiple pesonalities. The theory of conflict is very useful to give
specific details of the conflict in the story. It will also help the writer to show how
main character deals with all conflicts.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter contains three parts. The first part is object of the study that
states the physical descriptions of the novel. The second part is the approach used in
this thesis in analyzing the novel. The last part is method of the study. It deals with
the research steps taken from reading up to the report writing. It also deals with what
the type of study undertaken, aspects of the topic, and how and where to gather data.
A. Object of the study
The object of the study is a novel entitled Sybil, the True Story of Woman
Possessed by Sixteen Personalities by Flora Rheita Schreiber. Sybil was written in
1973 and first published in the same year and became bestseller. Sybil is the most
controversial novel talking about Multiple Personalities, later called Dissociative
Identity Disorder. Because of its controversy, it was brought into a film in 1976
starring Sally Field as the actress and won an Emmy award. Thus, Sybil deeply
affected readers’ point of view in seeing the new term of being Multiple and of
course its influence the mental health profession.
The novel analyzed was published by Penguin Book in 1975. The novel was
written based on the true story of Dr. Cornelia C. Wilbur’s patient, Sybil who was
firstly considered as the patient with schizophrenia that had a history of blackout and
emotional background, and then finally it was revealed that she possessed more than
25
26
one personality.
The story is about the main character named Sybil Isabel Dorsett who is born
in a rural down in a very strict, conservative and orthodox family. Her father, Willard
Dorsett, is a building contractor, and her mother, Hattie Dorsett is a housewife. She
grows in the hands of a psycho-mother, who often does some abuses. The worst
thing is that her father does not care about what happens to her. Little Sybil then tries
to find a way to escape from her trouble by creating some imaginary personalities in
her mind, so she can run away from that horror. This habit of escaping traps her into
a big problem that is the personality splitting that she does not know about that.
B. Approach
This study aims to reveal the Sybil’s dissociative identity disorder. The
psychological approach is the approach to analyze the novel. The psychological
approach will enable the writer to analyze the characteristics of dissociative identity
disorder of the main character and the conflicts lying inside and also find out how
she copes with all the conflicts in her spitting personalities. Psychological criticism
employs three approaches. First, it investigates the creative process of the artist. The
second is psychological study of particular artist. Most modern literary uses the
psychological approach to understand the subject’s motivation and behavior. The
third common area of psychological criticism is the analysis of fictional characters
(Kennedy and Gioia, 1947).
C. Method of the Study
27
Library research was the method used by the writer in gathering the data from
this study. It means the data were collected by reading books, and taking notes and
doing some researches.
The main source was from the deep analysis of Flora Rheita Schreiber’s
Sybil. The others sources were collected by reading the articles, essays and criticism
either from books or from websites.
There were some steps done by the writer in analyzing the novel in order to
answer the problem formulation states in the chapter 1. Firstly, the writer read the
novel untilled: Sybil, the True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities for
several times both the English and Indonesian version to get clear and better
understanding. Secondly, the writer decided the problem to analyze in this study; it is
about a study on Sybil’s dissociative identity disorder, then the problems was
formulated. Thirdly, to answer the problem formulation, the writer needed to collect
data to support. The data can be found by reading some books related to the topic.
The writer also uses the electronic sources in finding some data. Fourth, the writer
re-read the primary data and underlines some important things relate to the answer of
the problems. Next, the writer applied some theories and the approach to analyze.
Finally, the writer drew some conclusions to answer the problems formulated.
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter discusses the analysis of the novel Sybil, the True Story of
Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities. It is divided into three sections. The first
one is the analysis of how Sybil and her splitting personalities are described, while
second one is to reveal why Sybil has the dissociative identity disorder. The last one
is to answer how Sybil copes with all conflicts in her splitting personalities.
A. The description of Sybil and her Splitting Personalities in Sybil, the True
Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities
In a novel, we can see that there are several characters with their own
characteristics. In the previous chapter, Abrams divides characters into two types.
The first is the main or major character. A major character is the center of the story
and the most important character in the story. Usually, the story focuses on this
character from the beginning until the end. The core of the story is highlighted
through this character experiences. Secondly are minor characters. Minor characters
only appear in a certain setting, just becomes the background for the major character.
Their roles are less important than the major one because they are not fully
developed, and their roles in a story are just to support the development of the major
character. However, the discussion of the major and minor characters is just limited
to the discussion of the character of Sybil and her splitting personalities by applying
Murphy’s theory of characterzation.
28
29
1. The Characteristics of Sybil Isabel Dorsett as the Major Character
a. Sybil Isabel Dorsett
This story presents Sybil Isabel Dorsett who is born on January 20, 1923 in
Willow Corners; a place where Sybil’s depressed life begins. She is the major
character in this story because she is the center of the story and most important
character. She is the main focus in the story from the beginning until the end of the
story. And she is described as:
1. Battered
Sybil is described as a battered person. She always gets some abuses from her
mother during her childhood.
A favorite ritual however, was to separate Sybil’s leg with a long wooden
spoon, tie her feet to the spoon with dish towels, and then string her to the
end of a light bulb cord, suspended from the ceiling. The child was left to
swing in space while the mother proceeded the water faucet to wait the water
to get cold. As the child swung in the space, the mother would insert the
enema tip into the child’s urethra and filled the bladder with cold
water…After placing Sybil on kitchen table, Hattie would force into the
child’s vagina an array of objects that caught the mother’s fancy-a flashlight,
a small empty bottle, a little silver box, the handle of a regular dinner knife, a
little silver knife, a buttonhook (Schreiber, 198-199).
The quotation above shows the examples of abuses that Hattie does to Sybil.
Everyday for almost nine years during her childhood, Sybil has to face these kinds of
abuses.
Another proof is when Sybil is eight years old, she often sits alone, leaning
her head on her knees, and wondering why she feels lack of something. But, why she
should feel that way, she has the best house in Willow Corners and has better clothes
and more toys then some other child in town. The more she tries to define the lack,
the more obscure it becomes. She feels so sad, down and blue. To assuage her
30
feelings of guilt she prays for forgiveness three counts: for not being more grateful
for all she has; for not being happy, as her mother teaches she should be; and for
what her mother named ‘not being like other youngsters’ (Schreiber, 126).
That is why from the Sybil past life and by the reaction of Sybil in certain
situations we can conclude that Sybil is a battered person.
2. Fragile
After living for almost eighteen years in Willow Corners, Sybil has moved
several times to study and work. Finally, she lives in New York to heal the syndrome
by the help of Dr. Cornelia B. Wilbur.
Dr. Wilbur has her own perception toward Sybil’s appearance. She thinks that
Sybil is lean, fragile, and looks younger than her age. She has a heart shape, a tilted
nose, a small rosebud mouth; the characteristics of an English woman.
At the same time Dr. Wilbur was thinking: She’s as slender, as fragile, as
ever. Looks no older. I’d know that face anywhere: the heart shape, the tilted
nose, the small rosebud mouth. It’s a face you don’t see on the street of New
York. It’s an English face, and despite the slight pitting of the skin, it has the
fresh, unadorned look of an Englishwoman (Schreiber, 56).
The other evidence that shows the Sybil’s fragile is when she is trying to
commit suicide. This is based on consideration that she will never be healed.
She felt alone, useless, futile. Convinced that she never going to get
better…certain that her life had stopped while retraced a path that uncovered
only anguish, Sybil felt that she had indeed come to the end of the line…She
envisioned herself in the water, sinking (Schreiber, 320).
Another proof showing the Sybil’s fragile is when she tries to jump into the
grave in her grandmother’s burial. Her grandmother is the one who really loves and
cares for little Sybil. She is the only one who brings happiness toward Sybil. Her
grandmother’s burial means burying the happiness, so she tries to chase the
31
happiness by jumping into the grave, to the place of the one who really loves her
(Schreiber, 132). Thus, from the personal description, reactions of the certain
situations, thought, etc, she is described as a fragile person.
3. Unconfident
Sybil is also described as a person who does not have enough self-confidence.
It can be seen from the conversation between Sybil and Henry. She thinks that people
do not like her and she does not deserve to have a close relationship.
“Don’t you like me just a little bit?” he asked.
“Of course, I like you, “she replied slowly.
“Well?” he asked.
“But I don’t want to date anybody,” she replied firmly.
“You’re too nice for that,” he protested. “Lots of people like you, and you
shouldn’t be like that. You’re a good company (Schreiber, 318).
We can also see the idea of Sybil’s lack of self-confidence is from Vicky’s
opinion. Vicky is one of the characters of Sybil. She says that Sybil is always afraid
of not being polite enough. She is terrified to interact with some high society women
(Schreiber 91). This opinion is based on consideration that the society will never
accept Sybil’s condition. When she meets Marian Ludlow, a high class woman from
the society, Sybil becomes afraid and thinks that she does not deserve to have a
relationship with a woman from a high society. Thus, from her speech, conversation
of other, Sybil is described as a woman with lack of confidence.
4. Fearful
In all her entire life, Sybil is always scared. Peggy, one of Sybil’s
personalities, gives the opinion about Sybil. Sybil is always under the shadow of fear
(Schreiber 67). This is the product of her abusive mother. From the harsh condition,
she will never be permitted to tell anybody, including her father. She is forbidden to
32
be angry or just showing her feeling. Because of facing the dreadful situation from
her mother, she then becomes a person who cannot stand up for herself. She is
always afraid to depend for her right or at least to ask for help. All she can do is only
image that she becomes someone else who has a completely different situation, and
of course a happy life. The way she escapes from all her problems by imaging brings
her personality dissociated (Schreiber 103-105).
Another proof is when Peggy appears and introduces herself; she makes some
comparison between Sybil and herself. She says that Sybil is scared. She is just
scared all the time (Schreiber 67). From the conversation of other, character seen by
another, we can conclude that Sybil is a fearful person.
5. Clever
Above all those negative characteristics within Sybil, actually Sybil is a smart
girl. Dr. Hall, her mother’s doctor, gives her a special attention and has treated her
like an intelligent adult.
…and she realized that what she liked most about him was that he treated her
like an intelligent adult…
Being twenty two entitled her to adult status. Having an IQ of 170, according
to a standard intelligence test, should have earned her the right to be treated
as if she were intelligent (Schreiber 33).
In fact, she is never treated like being an intelligent person by her mother and
her father. Based on Dr. Wilbur’s opinion, Willard Dorsett, Sybil’s father has let his
daughter down by not permitting her to skip grade (even though her IQ was170 and
she is held back by slower children), for fear she would get what he calls a ‘swelled
head’ (Schreiber 248). That quotation shows us that Sybil’s father does not allow her
talented child to skip grade because he is afraid that her child will be an arrogant
33
person. On the other hand, what he has done makes Sybil’s mental down.
Another proof is from her father who realizes that Sybil is talented child.
When Frieda, Sybil’s step mother gives her opinion about Sybil, saying that Sybil
does not try good enough to be a good daughter, Willard denies her wife opinion
with a conviction that Sybil is a genius, brilliant, gifted girl, no matter what else she
is. Therefore, based on comment of others, conversation between Willard and Frieda
and by the author direct comment, Sybil is described as a cleaver person.
2. The Characteristics of Sybil Isabel Dorsett’s Splitting Personaties as the
Minor Character
Sybil has multiple independent and different personalities, and each of the
personalties knows each other well. The ironic thing is that Sybil does know nothing
about them, and even does not know they exist. She finally agrees to be examined by
Dr. Wilbur, a Psyatrician. She says that the first dissociation happens in St. Mary
hospital when Sybil is in age of three and a half years old and that it has been
spawned not by one trauma but by succesion of traumas induced by Hattie Dorseet,
Sybil’s mother, the taproot, aided and and abetted by the powerful associated roots of
Willard Dorsett’s failure to provide rescue and it has been also reinforced by Sybil’s
entrapment by religion, particularly as projected by a religiously hysterical
grandfather (Schreiber 310).
The chart below shows Sybil’s dissociative personalities, a genealogy of
psycologycal functioning, emotional inheritance. In the year of 1935, she is only
34
known as Sybil, then when she is twelve years old. Sybil personalities consist of
Vicky’s line, Peggy’s line and Sybil’s line. Dr. Wilbur describes that Vicky’s line
consists of Marcia, who appeares in 1927, Mary (1933), Vanessa (1935) and Sybil
Ann. Whereas, Peggy’s line consists of Peggy Ann, into whom the original Peggy
has developed; Peggy Lou who arrives in 1926; Sid and Mike, who arrive early in
1928. Ruthie, Helen, Marjorie and Clare are descented from neither Peggy nor
Vicky, but directly from the original Sybil. It is stated that although Sybil has lost
everything with which Vicky and the original Peggy endowes, Vicky and Peggy has
lost nothing from their descendents inheritage. Vicky and Peggy retaines their own
the emotions, characteristics, aquisitions, and modes of behaviour that have infused
the lives of their progeny. (Schreiber 309-310). Whereas Nancy is not states in the
novel when she appers and the Blonde appears during Sybil recovery treatment.
SYBIL ISSABEL DORSETT
Vicky
Peggy
Ruthie Helen
Marcia
Peggy Lou
Vanessa
Peggy Ann
Mary
Sid
Sybil Ann
Mike
Marjorie Clara
Nancy
The Blonde
a. Victoria Antoinette Scharleau
Victoria Antoinette Scharleau or Vicky is one of Sybil’s imaginary
35
personalities. She is a character borrowed from Sybil’s imagination, which is in the
fantasy of the pretending world of childhood who is bright, and unafraid. She
describes herself as a woman with blonde ringlets (Schreiber 89). She comes from
abroad and her family is in Paris. She assures that her existence is to help. And after
awhile, her parents will come to her to pick her up (Schreiber 87). Vicky comes up
when Sybil is still a little girl.
Vicky is sophisticated woman. As a sophisticated woman, Vicky has a good
taste of fashion. She can fit all her clothes beautifully. She always can mix and match
some clothes and fit it with a circumstance in which she will attend (Schreiber 86).
Vicky’s sophisticated character can also be seen not only by her choice to
dress, but also from her movements, voice and her diction and grammar when she
held a conversation (Schreiber 94). Dr. Wilbur also has the same opinion about
Vicky. She thinks that Vicky is sophisticated, friendly, and very concern about Sybil.
From Vicky’s mannerism, direct comment from the author and other’s character’s
description, Vicky can be concluded as a sophisticated woman.
Vicky is described as a helpful person. She says that she is glad she can help
(Schreiber 91). Vicky really wants to help Dr. Wilbur to find the basis problem of
Sybil. From the entire story, we can see that Vicky is the key person who helps Dr.
Wilbur in the process of integrating all Sybil’s personalities. She is also the most
important personality who gives the most information about all personalities
(Schreiber 86). Therefore, from her speech about herself and other’s thought, Vicky
can be described as a helpful person.
36
Vicky is a brave person. Vicky is not afraid to ask something or argue Sybil’s
mother. When she is not allowed to sit in the cold, when they still live in Willow
Corners, she says that she is used to their Midwestern winters (Schreiber 147). Vicky
shows herself that she is not afraid arguing with Hattie, although she knows the
consequences she takes whenever Hattie becomes angry. This is the characteristic
that Sybil does not have. Sybil prefers to obey her mother; otherwise she will be
punished instead. From the conversation of by Vicky and Hattie, we can see that
Vicky is a brave person who is not afraid of arguing with Hattie.
b. Vanessa Gail Dorsett and Marcia Lynn Dorsett
Vanessa Gail Dorsett and Marcia Lynn are two of sixteen Sybil’s
personalities. Vanessa and Marcia are described as persons who are interested in
doing new things together.
‘What do you girls like to do?’
‘Travel,’ said Marcia.
‘Go places’ said Vanessa. We’re always interested in new and different
places to see and things to do. Life is for living.’
Marcia and Vanessa then talked about how they both enjoyed aeroplanes, big
cities, the theater, concerts, places of historical interest, and buying choice
book. ‘We have our own like,’ but Vanessa and I enjoys things most and we
do them together (Schreiber 168).
Marcia and Vanessa are also described as close friend within Sybil’s personality.
Vanessa and Marcia come up firstly when Sybil is twelve years old and lived in
Willow Corners (Schreiber 168).
Vanessa’s physical characteristic can be seen from what Vicky has explained
to Dr. Wilbur in the certain consultation. It is said that Vanessa is red-haired girl. She
loves to play the piano and she is a kind of a cheerful person (full of joie de vivre)
37
(Schreiber 167).
Although Vanessa and Marcia speak the same English accents in a similar
diction and speech pattern, however, Vanessa talks soprano and her voice has a
lilting (Schreiber 168).
Vanessa likes to exaggerate everything. She likes to emphasize hyperbolic
with certain mimic and gestures (Schreiber 169). Dr. Wilbur also has a special
opinion about Vanessa. She thinks that Vanessa is energetic and uses an extravagant
gesture, and overstates everything (Schreiber 170). Thus, Vanessa can be described
as a dramatic woman.
Vanessa is also described as a gorgeous woman. From Mary’s opinion, she
says that she is not as attractive as Vicky or as glamorous as Vanessa. Vanessa is a
kind of enchanting women, which means that she is a good-looking person
(Schreiber 163-164). Thus, Vanessa is an attractive person.
On the other hand, Marcia is described as a writer (Schreiber 170) of softhearted. From what Vicky explains to Dr. Wilbur, it is described that Marcia feels
what Sybil feels more intensely (Schreiber 167). Another proof shows how easy
Marcia cries. She has a sensitive feeling.
When Sybil and the others watched something sad on television, Marcia was
the one who cried. Whenever a child or dog returned to its home or taken
back to its parents or found its mother again, Marcia would weep copiously
(Schreiber 170-171)
Marcia is also the one who will cry because of missing her mother, (Schreiber
171) therefore, Marcia is a sensitive person.
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c. Mary Lucinda Saunders Dorsett
Mary Lucinda Saunders Dorsett is another personality that comes up when
Sybil is ten years old of the sixth grade, during the first years of Peggy Lou’s twoyear term. She emerges when Sybil has her first menstruation (Schreiber 153).
Mary’s accent is Midwestern accent, soft, low and somber (Schreiber 161). Mary
sees herself as a plump, maternal, little-old-lady type, and not very stylish. She is just
interested in Kinder, Küche, Kirche (children, kitchen, and church) (Schreiber 164).
Mary gets her name from Sybil’s grandma’s name and she says that she looks like
Sybil’s grandma.
Mary also has a sensitive feeling. She is the one who took the deepest sadness
of losing Grandma, a feeling that Sybil cannot express. She tells her feeling to the
doctor during 15 June 1955 sessions (Schreiber 164).
Because Mary has a pensive thought, she likes to express it by writing poetry
to ease her pain, her pain of being lonely (Schreiber 163). The other proof of Mary’s
favorite writing poetry can be seen in the quotation below,
‘You try,’ Mary answer firmly, almost self-righteously. “In the world’s broad
field of battle, you try,”
The doctor nodded.
‘In the bivouac of life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife! (Schreiber 165).
Thus, Marry is described as a sensitive person.
Mary is also a person who loves doing housework. She feels that all the
housework is her responsibility (Schreiber 162). And by her description about herself
from the conversation with Dr. Wilbur in certain analysis, we can see that she is a
39
home-loving woman.
Besides, Mary is described as a fanatic person. Mary thinks that having
psychoanalysis with Dr. Wilbur can be considered as a sin. This consideration comes
up because the influence from Willard Dorsett and a priest of her town. According to
them having analysis with the doctor from different religion may decrease her faith
(Schreiber, 163). Doctor also thinks that her attitude toward her religion makes some
traumas to her (Schreiber 167).
d. Sybil Ann
Sybil Ann is portrayed as a pale, stringy girl with ash-blonde hair, grey eyes,
an oval face, and a straight nose. When Sybil Ann controls the body, it seems that the
body endures a change. The body seems grow smaller. The dress wore seems to
stretch. She seems to be hiding.
Sybil Ann is an extremely in a deep depression and thinks that she does not
deserve to live. When she has a consultation and she makes an excuse for being life.
Sybil Ann shrank into the consulting-room. She didn’t speak to the doctor but
whispered. After the introduction was over, Sybil Ann sat silently, starting
into vacancy. It was as if she were erasing herself from the scene, almost as
if, by implication, she were saying, ‘I’m not fit to occupy space. Excuse me
for living’ (Schreiber 272).
This idea is strengthened by the fact that she seldom eats, sleeps little, and
generally evinced only slight interest in her surroundings (Schreiber 273). Therefore,
Sybil Ann is a depressive person.
e. Peggy Lou Baldwin
Dr. Wilbur says that Sybil often faces a fugue state, an empty phase when she
40
is not conscious about herself, and in this phase the other personalities take control.
Peggy is one of Sybil personalities who come up whenever Sybil faces a fugue state.
The quotation below shows the existence of Peggy inside Sybil.
The doctor had the distinct impression that she was dealing with someone
younger then Sybil. But the denunciation of men? The doctor couldn’t be
sure. Then the thought she had reined back broke forth:
‘Who are you?’
‘Can’t you tell the difference?’ was the reply, accompanied by a resolutely
independent tossing of the head. ‘I’m Peggy.’
The doctor didn’t answer, and Peggy continued: ‘We don’t look alike. You
can see that. You can.’ (Schreiber 63)
Peggy is always convinced that she and Sybil are completely different
persons with distinct physical characteristics. Peggy has a square body that gives her
a chunky appearance that she is not too crazy about. She has Dutch haircut that she
likes very much, and also she likes her straight black hair, her bangs, her round face,
her pig nose, her bright blue eyes and, her mischievous smile. She looks like “a pixie,
Sybil, with her thin, lean body, her light brown hair worn loosely, her heart-shaped
face, her grey eyes, and her serious expression, was altogether different” (Schreiber
75-76).
The existence of Peggy inside Sybil is strengthened by Peggy’s own interest
that is told when the analysis held. Peggy says she likes to paint, in black and white.
She does charcoal and pencil sketches. Peggy thinks that her painting is not as well
as Sybil does (Schreiber 63).
Peggy is really an independent personality that lies within Sybil’s body and
takes control whenever Sybil faces a fugue states. As an independent personality, she
has her own characters. We can see Peggy’s characters as presented below
41
Peggy is described as a woman with good self-confidence. She always does
whatever she wants. She really takes full control of Sybil’s body as if it is hers. It
also means that no one can force her to do the things she doe snot wants to do.
And Peggy, obviously pleased that the doctor had been able to tell her apart
from Sybil, entered with quick, confident steps…..‘I told you a little the other
day,’ she said, ‘I was angry then, I had right to be, ‘….. (Schreiber 66)
Peggy added. ‘I supposed they’d smile if you ticked them with a feather. Not
me though. I don’t smile or talk if I don’t want to. And anybody can make
me.’ (Schreiber 67-68)
Suddenly thinking about Peggy out on the street alone, Dr. Wilbur was
concerned. Peggy, an assertive personality, should be able to take care of
herself. (Schreiber 68)
Peggy is a woman with a big eager. She always wants to know something
new, go to somewhere or to do something different. She, sometimes, decides to walk
for a while, look, see, experience. There are so many things she wants to know about.
That is why she always listens, tries to hear everything with her ears straining to
capture all she can. She often goes to different places just to find out what is going
on (Schreiber 69).
Peggy is illustrated as a person who is easy to be furious: an angry pixie. This
is because Peggy carried some terrible burden that Sybil refuses to face. This is
proved by incident in Elizabeth, about her reaction to bangs the metal frame against a
slightly open car’s window with her handbag, when she thinks a car parking nearby
is her father’s (Schreiber 71). Thus, Peggy is a bad-tempered person.
f. Peggy Ann
Besides Peggy Lou, there is one of other Peggy too. Her name is Peggy Ann.
In the story, it is described that Peggy Ann is a counterpart of Peggy Lou with similar
42
physical characteristics.
This is Peggy Lou. Her hair is black…
The doctor nodded and asked, ‘What about Peggy Ann?’
‘I won’t bother drawing her,’ Vicky replied. ‘The sketch of Peggy Lou could
pass for Peggy Ann. They’re very much alike.’ (Schreiber 89)
The thing that makes the two Peggys different is that Peggy Ann takes the
fearfulness of Sybil. Then Peggy Lou takes the anger of Sybil (Schreiber 88).
g. Mike and Sid Dorsett
After three years of analysis, there come up other personalities within Sybil
Isabel Dorsett. And it is such a surprising thing for Dr. Wilbur, since the personalities
are two boys in the body of woman, who call themselves Mike and Sid (Schreiber
252).
Sid emerges from the identification of Sybil’s father. He calls himself as a
builder. Whereas, Mike emerges from grandpa’s identification
I look like my Dad, ‘Sid had volunteered. ‘He’s a builder. I’m a builder. As
good as he is anytime.’
Mike had remarked, ‘Grandpa was strong, and I’m strong. He could pound
nails, and I can pound nails just as hard as he can. He was big, and I can be as
big. I’m not crippled.’(Schreiber 254)
Mike is a portrayed as a boy who has olive skin, dark hair, and brown eyes.
While, Sid is described as a boy who has light skin, dark hair, and blue eyes
(Schreiber, 252). Mike gets his name from both Sybil’s father and grandpa. The
name ‘Mike’ exists because Willard is accustomed to call his daughter ‘Mike’ and is
reinforced by a favorite expression of grandfather Dorsett: ‘For the love of Mike,’
whereas, Sid gets his name from Sybil’s initial – Sybil Isabel Dorsett (Schreiber
43
253).
A personality strutted jauntily toward the couch, sat down, and confessed,
‘I did it’
‘Did what?’ the doctor asked.
‘Built the partition, of course. I let Mike drive in nails, but I did all the heavy
work myself…’ (Schreiber 252)
Sid, who was the partition’s carpenter, was also Sybil’s repairman. ‘I fix
what’s broken, mend what needs mending,’ Sid told Dr. Wilbur. (Schreiber
253)
Mike and Sid say that they share same hobbies and experiences. They say
they like to do boys-things, such as: building and fixing and repairing things
h. Ruthie Dorsett
Ruthie is the youngest personalities among others. She is only three and a
half years old. She emerges by the primal scene of Sybil’s parents’ revealing analysis
(Schreiber 176).
Although she is a child, Ruthie can be considered as a smart girl. This can be
seen by the way she interrupts her parent’s sexual activity by climbing her parents’
bed and takes place in the middle. What Ruthie has done is an effective way to cut
Hattie and Willard’s activity.
But when parents got into bed and her father moved to her mother’s side,
Ruthie would make her presence known. ‘Go to sleep, mama,’ she would
call. ‘Go to sleep, daddy,’…..Ruthie climb out of the crib and walked very
quietly toward her parent’s bed…Climbing onto the bed, she attempted to get
between her parents and reclaim her rightful place in the middle (Schreiber
176-177)
What she has done is also a way to show to her parents that she hates her
parents doing that activity. And by her reaction toward the primal of her parents, she
is concluded as a smart girl.
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Ruthie is a brave girl because she is not afraid to take the consequences doing
sexual interruption. Hattie can do more and more terrible abuses toward her because
of interrupting their sexual activity. However, she brave to do and take the risks.
And, by her reaction of stopping the primal scenes, she can be concluded as a brave
girl (Schreiber 176-177).
i. Helen Dorsett
Helen is described as a person with light-brown hair, hazel-eyes, a straight
nose and thin lips. Helen is a fearful person. Helen is afraid of the character of
‘mother,’ and when Dr. Wilbur says about Hattie in the treatment room, then she
suddenly jumps and tries to hide. It clearly shows us that Hattie become a big terror
for her (Schreiber 272).
Helen is also an ambitious character. Helen, who seems unassertive in
manner, is nevertheless ambitious, determined ‘to be somebody, to do things in her
own way, and makes Dr. Wilbur, proud of her (Schreiber 272).
j. Marjorie Dorsett
Marjorie is another personality within Sybil’s. She is a person who has a
small figure, willowy brunette hair with fair skin and a pug nose. Marjorie is also a
humorous person. When Dr. Wilbur asks her whether she knows Sybil or not she
raises her eyebrow and says that she will not tell her (Schreiber 171). From her
gesture in the conversation held, we can see that Marjorie is a humorous person.
Marjorie is such a cheerful girl. This characteristic is special that none of the
45
other personalities posses this. She enjoys her life so much. She likes parties, theater,
fairs and traveling, all the things that Sybil withdraws (Schreiber 271). That is why,
she is a cheerful character.
k. Clara Dorsett
Clara says that she is 23 years old. She likes studying and music very much
(Schreiber 274). Clara is also religious. She says that she knows religion more than
the other selves do. For her, religion is important. She really believes in the Bible as
the revelation of His truth (Schreiber 274).
What Sybil has done seems is not okay for Clara. She also fights against
Sybil. A self is against a self in a woman. She also says that she does not like Sybil.
‘Sybil’s such a deplorable character. Honest, it’s disgusting. The thing about
it is that she gets the idea that she’s going to try. She can’t do anything!’
‘You sound as if you don’t like Sybil,’ the doctor said.
‘I don’t,’ Clara replied bluntly (Schreiber 274)
From the quotation above shows that Clara does not like Sybil because she
thinks that Sybil can not do anything. This is Sybil’s weakness according to other
personalities. Thus, Clara is always trying to criticize Sybil.
l. Nancy Lou Ann Baldwin
Nancy Lou Ann Baldwin introduces herself to Dr. Wilbur. She gets the name
Baldwin by using the name of Sybil’s teacher. She lives in the outer of terror. It
means she does not experience the abuses directly, and then she just becomes a
person who sees and listens to the abuses. Therefore, she becomes a person who does
not like noisy voices. She thinks that everything seems to blow up (Schreiber 277).
46
Nancy believes in prophecy very much. From the quotation below, we can
see the proof.
Before the end, prophecy also tells us, the Catholics will come into power and
control the government and men’s mind. We’re seeing both things happening.
Everywhere we read about rivers that have been polluted. Pollution is the
blood of which prophecy speaks. And since you can’t live very long without
water, we shall all die as prophecy predict (Schreiber 278).
Nancy always thinks that what happens has a connection with the end of the world as
the biblical prophecy; before the end, the Catholics will lead governments and
people’s mind. She really believes that the Armageddon is going to happen soon.
That is why; she can be concluded as a person who believes in the fulfillment of
biblical prophecy.
m. The Blonde Girl
The last character of Sybil’s Dissociative Identity Disorder is The Blonde.
She appears during Sybil’s recovery treatment. She says she has been around for
nineteen years. She is the girl Sybil would like to be, who is born in tranquility
(Schreiber 397). She does not say her name. She only says that she is the girl Sybil
wants to be, a blonde and is always happy
Rising to her feet, Sybil seemed taller than her normal size. A voice younger
then Sybil’s, light, lilting, and cheerful exclaimed ‘I’m the girl Sybil would
like to be. My hair is blonde and my heart is light.’ (Schreiber 396)
She is only the one among other selves who has had no childhood traumas.
She never knows both Hattie and Willard, never lives in Willow Corners, and never
attends the Willow Corner church. She comes in Omaha and she does everything
47
Sybil really wants to be. She says that she enjoys college. She will join sororities,
will have many dates, and will become a cheerleader at sport events, a campus leader
in everything. She loves life and living (Schreiber 394).
B. The Description of Sybil’s Dissociative Identity Disorder
The Parents, Hattie and Willard play a big part in making Sybil’s
dissociative. Because of Hattie’s Schizophrenia and Willard’s ignorance about her
daughter and the hypocritical environment in the family and in Willow Corners that
makes Sybil’s splitting personalities grow fertile.
1. Sybil’s Characteristics as a Person with Dissociative Identity Disorder
Some experts explain that an individual with dissociative identity disorder
appears to have two or more distinct personalities or personality states. These
personalities take turns in controlling the actions, because an individual with this
disorder is not capable to remember personal information (Wilson, Nathan, O’Leary,
Clark 181). It is described in the novel that her sixteen personalities are: Vicky,
Peggy Lou, Peggy Ann, Marcia, Vanessa, Marry, Clara, Helen, Marjorie, Ruthie,
Mike, Sid, Nancy, Sybil Ann and The blonde and the original Sybil herself. These
sixteen altogether live within the same body.
The term dissociative identity disorder also means that each personality has
its own age, name, sex, intelligence and personal states (Huffman, Vernoy and
Vernoy 531). Each personality within Sybil also has its own characteristics above.
For the example in the novel, when Sybil is born, her parents give her a name Sybil
48
Isabel Dorsett. However, because of some traumas that has happened, her personality
splits into sixteen personalities. Peggy Lou is one of the sixteen personalities. She
has black hair, easy to get furry, a bad tempered girl (Schreiber 75-76). The other
personalities are Mike and Sid. They are male, a builder and carpenter, and they still
kids (Schreiber 252). They usually appear together. This case proves that even
different sexes can live within the same body.
2. The Symptoms
Individuals diagnosed with Dissosiative Identity Disorder (DID) show a
variety of symptoms. The symptoms can include: multiple mannerisms, attitudes and
beliefs that are dissimilar to each other, headaches and other body pains, distortion or
loss of subjective time, depersonalization, amnesia, depression (Wikipedia, free
encyclopedia (http://skepdic.com/mpd.html). In this case, Sybil experiences all of the
sequences.
a. Multiple mannerisms
The proof that Sybil has multiple mannerisms is that she has sixteen alternate
personalities within her. They are: Peggy Lou who arrives in 1926; Peggy Ann, into
whom the original Peggy has developed; Vicky, who appears in 1927; Mary on 1933,
Vanessa on 1935; Sid and Mike who arrives in the early1928, Nancy, Ruthie, Helen,
Marjorie, Claire, and the Blonde who arrives during Sybil recovery treatment
(Schreiber 309-310).
b. Multiple Attitudes
49
Sybil has also multiple attitudes. Sometimes when Peggy Lou emerges within
her, then she becomes a very confident person, moody and easy to be furious
(Schreiber 66-68). When Vicky emerges, then a sophisticated, helpful and brave
woman takes control of Sybil’s body. It will be different when Mary appears, then
Sybil who is fragile, unconfident and fearful (Schreiber 56, 103-105,318) becomes
person who is sensitive, fanatic and loves doing housework (Schreiber 162-165). The
different attitudes will also emerge whenever the other alternates take control of
Sybil’s body.
c. Headache and other body pains
When Sybil is in college, she experiences extreme nervousness and something
called hysterics. And because of this, the college refuses to take her back unless a
psychiatrist says she is fit to rejoin. During the late spring of 1935, Sybil is diagnosed
to have hysteria, the illness resulting from emotional conflict, which is characterized
by immaturity, dependency and suddenly a half of Sybil’s face and her arms will
become numb. She grows weak on one side, not always the same side. She, and some
of selves, for instance Mary, develops a nervous tic. Sybil and one of the
personalities will twitch, jerk and carry on with unrestrained body movements. The
symptoms are intensified by headache (Schreiber 155-156).
d. Distortion or loss of subjective time and amnesia
These are what Sybil must face. The time loss or what Sybil calls is “bad
day” or “the emptiness” appears when she cannot face some problems. At that time
the other personalities take control of her body. The example is when Sybil does not
know why she is suddenly already at Philadelphia because all that she can remember
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is she is in the way home from the lab (Schreiber 19-23). This proves that the other
personality who takes control is Peggy Lou. She is the one who takes a journey to
Philadelphia. Another proof is when she is in the fifth grade, because as long as she
knows, she is at the third grade (Schreiber 133-135).
e. Depersonalization
Depersonalization is a symptom when the sufferer has a feeling of lack of
involvement or drifting apart from one’s self; the sufferer may feel like the robot or
as if they live in a dream or a movie. They also become paranoid of the common
thing .e.g.: the voice of the low volume radio becomes as if too loud voice, etc.
Depersonalization is a reality testing that remains intact, which means the person
knows something terribly wrong and trying to figure it out. Sometimes, the person
becomes hyper vigilant to the things around them and their existence. There are some
causes of depersonalization, they are: early childhood trauma, temporal epilepsy,
stress resulting from life threatening situations, migraine, drugs abuse, including the
use of marijuana and ecstasy (Depersonalization info).
Here, Sybil faces a depersonalization as one symptom of dissociative identity
disorder, because a person with depersonalization is become paranoid of the common
things and the person becomes too alert of all the things. In this case, because of her
childhood trauma, Sybil becomes paranoid of music, shoes and a buttonhook. Sybil
often feels that her life seems to be floating by in an unreal kind of way, filled with
strange presentiments. She seems that her life is like a dream. She often feels that she
is walking beside her and watching her (Schreiber 155-156).
f. Depression
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Depression is the actions of taking over her body by the alternates create a
hard pressure to Sybil. She feels alone, useless and futile, but convinces that she will
never get better. She faces a self-recriminations and complaints. And, she does not
want to live like the way she has. And the climax of her depression is the desire to
end her life (Schreiber 320).
3. The Causes
Dissociative personality disorder is often caused by extreme negative events
during childhood. In Sybil's case, she is tortured and sexually abused by her mother
when she is a young girl. This causes her personality to break up; the following are
the causes literally, because she can not bear the extreme abuse she is subjected to.
a. Parental Influences
Researchers have proved that love, parental warmth and permissiveness are
about all that a child needs for healthy personality development (Watson and
Lindgren 299). So, there is no doubt that parents are playing an important role in
upbringing children. Moreover, home provides the conditions that facilitate some
kinds of behavior. However, inevitably some parents also do some tortures: physical,
neglect, sexual, emotional abuse that makes horrific effect toward children.
Sybil, the daughter of Hattie and Willard Dorsett also faces some
maltreatment that makes her escape from all horror by creating some personalities
that she thinks can save her and that is the taproot of her psychological disorder.
Hattie and Willard do not play their part as good parents. Hattie, a schizophrenic
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does some abuses to Sybil. Meanwhile, Willard as a father builds a wall of distance
from his daughter. Therefore he even does not know what Hattie has done to Sybil.
1. Mother-Daughter Relationship
The relationship between a mother and a child, especially between a mother
and a daughter involves emotional, sociolinguistic, and physiologic aspects. This is
because they have certain connection that happen process of pregnancy, birth,
feeding and care (Deutsch 18). But, this kind of relationship does not always happen
as it does. It describes in the novel that during the first thirteen years of the Dorsett's
marriage, Hattie has four miscarriages. They think that they will never have a child.
And there is another reason why this happens. It is because the psychological
components that seems likely to be mother’s ambivalence about having a baby
(Schreiber 124).
Hattie’s ambivalence of being a mother reasserts itself. That is why the first
time she sees her daughter and thinks that Sybil is so fragile, and Hattie is afraid that
she will break. A severe depression follows Hattie after she gives birth and lasts for
about the first four months of Sybil’s life. At this time, the only contact happening is
when she breast-feeds her baby, and the rest of nurturing falls to the nurse, to Willard
and Grandma Dorsett. The depression follows after a child’s birth intensified the
anxiety and the ambivalence of a mother that has been the characteristic of Hattie
Dorsett (Schreiber 125).
Little Sybil often sits alone in the stairs and feels that she is lack of
something. Although she has all children in Willow Corners wants, and she has
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better clothes and more toys than the other child in town. The more she tries to find
out the lack, the more indescribable it becomes (Schreiber 126). And the lack itself is
the lack of love and care from Hattie.
Mother is a role model for her daughter. A child will identify herself as her
mother; she will automatically develop her moral and behavior according her
perceptions towards her mother (Deutsch 322). But, in some cases there is a mother
who wants to be a role model for their children by forcing them to be what she has
missed in her past life and if this is does not happen, the love of the mother turns into
something dangerous for the children (Deutsch 312). In this novel, Sybil, the
daughter of Hattie faces something very terrible that makes her personality split. Dr.
Wilbur, a psychiatry who analyzes Sybil concludes that her psychological disorder is
caused by childhood trauma, especially abuses done by her mother. It is true that
Sybil is a victim of her mother's failed ambition in her youth and a target of her anger
toward her father for stumbling off her dreams.
a) Hattie Dorsett’s Past Life
Hattie Anderson is Sybil’s mother; she is one of thirteen children in
Anderson’s big family. She is a daughter of Winston and Aileen. Her father is the
one who gets well respected from the town and an autocrat at home. Her mother only
has little time for nurturing her many children. It is clear that her children are lack of
attention from both of their parents (Schreiber 213).
Hattie is a tall girl with a slender body, auburn hair and blue grey eyes, whose
the elementary school report cards reveal a solid phalanx of As. She likes to write
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poetry and her music teachers praise for her ability and support her dream of going to
music conservatory to becoming a concert pianist. She finds that her ambition
collapses when she is twelve years old. Winston, her father has yanked her from
school when she is in seventh grade and places her in a store to replace her elder
sister’s position who has left to get married. There is no economic reason for making
Hattie give up her studies. Hattie’s dream has crumbled, and she become ill with
chorea, a physical illness that makes her jerk and twitch (Schreiber 215).
Striking back for losing her dream, Hattie does little acts of mischief and
practical jokes, not by open rebellion or outright confrontation. Then she becomes a
family’s trouble maker. Shortly, Hattie’s anger is last during his father’s lifetime and
after his death. She buries her hatred against him, transmitting it into idealization,
idolatry, and pathological attachment, which is evident when she is fondling his
father jacket. The unloved Hattie is incapable of loving. Unnurtured herself, she
becomes a nonnorturing person. A lonely isolated in her big family, then she isolates
her only child emotionally. Her anger is the result of her broken dream of pursuing a
music career. Sybil, her daughter is the recipient of Hattie’s repressed furry against
Winston. Sybil is also the victim of Hattie’s father idolatry and of repressed conflict
resulted from Hattie’s idealizing and blaming her father (Schreiber 216).
b) Hattie Dorsett’s Abuses
Hattie is not able to love because she has never been loved (Schreiber 216).
Then Hattie never treats her daughter properly. She does abuses and abuses.
A favorite ritual however, was to separate Sybil’s leg with a long wooden
spoon, tie her feet to the spoon with dish towels, and then string her to the
55
end of a light bulb cord, suspended from the ceiling. The child was left to
swing in space while the mother proceeded the water faucet to wait the water
to get cold. As the child swung in the space, the mother would insert the
enema tip into the child’s urethra and filled the bladder with cold water…
(Schreiber 198-199)
From the quotation above, it can clearly be seen that Sybil really faces some tortures
everyday. That ritual is not complete until Hattie warns Sybil not to tell anybody
about that. If she does, then Hattie threats that God’s wrath will do to her. And the
torture continues, such as: a hot flat iron is pressed in the hands of Sybil that causes
serious burn. A rolling pin descends on Sybil’s fingers. A drawer closes on Sybil’s
hand. A purple scarf is tied around Sybil’s neck until she gasps for breath (Schreiber
200).
Hattie will not hesitate to do such pains that almost kill her daughter. Starting
with the incident of the bead, Hattie has shoved one of the beads up her nose.
Another incident is the horrible affliction in the wheat crib. When Sybil is four and a
half, Hattie puts Sybil in the wheat and leaves her. Encircled by the wheat, Sybil
feels herself smothering and thinks that she is going to die (Schreiber 206-207).
Beside physical tortures, Sybil also suffers from sexual abuses done by her
mother. These sexual abuses done every morning and becomes a ritual. Hattie often
forces into Sybil’s vagina an array of objects catches by Hattie’s fancy. There are
kinds of flashlight, a small empty bottle, a little silver box, the handle of a regular
dinner knife, a silver knife, a buttonhook, and sometimes, the object is Hattie’s
finger. She explains that Sybil will be accustomed to it, because that is exactly what
men will do to her, to put things in hers and hurts her. Hattie makes a justification of
the sin she does by saying that she is preparing Sybil to face the thing that men will
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do. Because of all these abuses, Sybil’s hymen is severed in infection and her vagina
is permanently scarred. The worst effect of that sexual abuses ritual is that Sybil will
never bear a child, because the internal injury (Schreiber 199).
2) Father-Daughter Relationship
Although Allers (245) says that the term “father-love” is unusual and strange,
father is needed in contributing a synergy with a mother to raise the children at
home. The absence of father at home will give the effects that child will be less
confidence, dependent, has poorer relationships with peers (Watson and Lindgren
309).
Willard Dorsett, Sybil’s father is believed as a person who also gives
contribution to Sybil’s dissociative identity disorder. Willard does abuses in the form
of negligence toward Sybil. He does not know what Hattie does, or he does not want
to know about her daughter.
a) Willard Dorsett’s Past Life
All the things happen in past will give effect to what we do now. It can be our
ways of thinking, attitudes, etc. Similar with Willard, his behaviour and his puritan
thought are the result of reaction toward his past life.
Willard is actually an impressive person with five feet eleven height; his face
is carved well with bones; his hair is not seen to be the ravages of ageing; he has a
confident face and a very health body figure; his voice is soft and low; and he has a
tilted nose similar with Sybil’s (Schreiber 226). Young Willard studies elocution and
57
singing. He sings tenor in the church choir and the town glee club has organized an
excellent male quartet. He plays the guitar in the Spanish style, and he also has
interested in classical music. He is also interested in economics, has a real sense of
community responsibility, and is greatly respected in every town he has lived.
Willard is also a kind of perfectionist. He wants perfection of every work he does. It
is not only for the sake of himself, but also for the sake of God glory. This makes
Willard very focused on the details, and often makes him blocked in communication.
He has more than average intelligence, and it makes him more than average
restriction and naiveté. Then he rigidly adheres to the doctrines of his religion is so
literal in his reading Scriptures (Schreiber 225-227).
Willard is a son of Aubrey Dorsett and Mary. Aubrey is a confrontational and
boorish six-footer with large features and goatee who, a wrestler in his youth. As a
father, Aubrey demands unquestioning obedience and requires it from his three
children, Theresa III, the eldest; Willard, the middle child; and Roger, the youngest
(Schreiber 228).
Being ashamed of his father’s belligerence, Willard resorts to passivity.
Embarrassed by his father’s haranguing hallelujahs, aggression and gruffness,
Willard cannot see himself in the image of his father. Willard makes identification
instead with his gentle, artistic, but passive mother. Willard’s identification with his
mother, not only help mould is personality, but it also affects his choice of mate.
Like his father, Hattie Dorsett is overly aggressive, constantly conspicuous, and
downright cruel. Willard has married his father in the female form (Schreiber 228).
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b) Willard’s Ignorance
Neglected parents tend to be apathetic, incompetence, irresponsible, or
emotionally withdrawn. They sometimes, built a distance from the child, critical and
uncommunicative (Papalia, Olds, Feldman, and Gross 295). Willard Dorsett’s
apathetic shows by his consideration that at her daughter’s thirty-four, Sybil is too
old to support financially. Willard, as seen by Dr. Wilbur helps his daughter
grudgingly, erratically. A father minds to support her daughter who is struggling to
becomes whole makes Sybil think that her father gives her things out of a sense of
duty, not because care about her. At her stage, Sybil has neither bank account, nor
permanent job. And for this excuse of what he has done, he always says that he is a
busy man, too busy to take care of his one and only child (Schreiber 221-222).
During Sybil’s childhood, Willard does not pay much attention on Sybil’s
unusual injury, dislocated shoulder and fractured larynx and the burns on his
daughter’s hands. He knows and is aware about it, but he never wants to pay
attention. He keeps on reserving his own selflessness by making an opinion that he
never sees them happen, and saves himself from the guilt by the consideration that he
is busy (Schreiber 240). Willard never blames Hattie for the carelessness in taking
care of Sybil in connection with the incident of the bead on Sybil’s nose and the
incident in the wheat crib. He just believes in Hattie’s reasons behind the incidents
(Schreiber 205-206).
Willard has embellished and smothered her daughter’s problem with the
concern of his own, instead of getting the core of the problem. For instance, he seeks
an instant solution, like a guitar lesson to cure Sybil’s emotional illness (Schreiber
59
246).
As a father, Willard never shows affection toward his daughter. He makes an
emotional gap instead. He says that Sybil is too big to do such a small kind of
devotion from a daughter to father, such as putting a sweet smelling salve on his feet,
helping him wearing jacket and with his buckled overshoes. It is only after Willard
gets crippled hands, and then she is allowed to do these things for him again
(Schreiber 181).
The sign of Willard’s withdrawn concern, the lifelong retreat into his shell,
has enlarged the chance of a mother to do some violence. And this has made Sybil to
find a psychoneurotic escape toward an intolerable fact in her childhood. The mother
is the taproot of Sybil’s disorder, but the father through the guilt not of commission
but of omission, is an important associated root. The mother has trapped her, and the
father has made Sybil feel that there’s no exit from that entrapment (Schreiber 243).
3) Puritan Environment
The experts believe that the place where children live has effect on shaping
child’s personality. They automatically absorb all that happen in the environment
(Watson and Lindgren 299). Based on Dr. Wilbur analysis, it can be said that the
environment where Sybil has spent her childhood may take a part in strengthening
her multiple personalities. She lives in a puritan environment where the people live
in are also hypocrite.
a) Puritan’s Ways of Life
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Sybil is born on 20 January 1923 in Willow Corners, Wisconsin. Willows
Corner is located in the flat terrain of southwestern Wisconsin. The surrounding
countryside is flat. The town is dotted with tall maple and elm trees, but there is no
willow there. The house has been mostly built by the men work for Willard Dorsett.
The local accent of people there is barbed with a nasal twang. There are no
remarkable things about this small town with monotonous news of its one thousand
persons living in area of two square miles, which is recorded in the Corners Couriers,
the weekly news. Before Sybil’s birth and until she is six years old, the town
wealthiest man is her father, but it does not last long. All the wealth is lost in the
1929’s depression (Schreiber 199-120).
Willow Corners has many churches of many faiths. They are: the
fundamentalist group of Seventh-Day Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists, the Church
of Saint John Baptist De La Salle, and the Church of Assembly of God. The
Methodist, the Congregationalist and the Lutherans all look suspiciously at one
another and at the Roman Catholic which is regarded as the manifestation of evil.
Prejudice is widespread in that town. Eventhough seemingly self-righteous in
appearance can be seen in the people, but cruel is done in its behavior. There are
mocks for the mentally retarded ice man and snickers for the telephone operator who
has nervous tic. Prejudice against Jews, who are only few live there, and Negroes are
intense (Schreiber 120-121).
People do not really take care much their surrounding that Dorsett’s next door
is an ascetic person, the woman across the street is a dwarf, and the man down the
street ever rapes his thirteen year old daughter, and they still live in the same house,
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as though nothing ever happens. It all looks as if it runs so average, so normal, and so
puritanical (Schreiber 122).
b) The Influence of Puritan Environment on Sybil’s Personality
Willow Corner is not a good place to live. It is stated that people living there
live in a hypocritical way.
This way of life will automatically affect Sybil’s
personality; moreover she has spent her eighteen years of her life there.
Willow Corner is a place where a carcass is hiding behind the holiness of the
Sculptures. People in Willow Corner do not really care about what has happened to
the Dorsett’s family, about some abuses toward Sybil, and the strangeness of Hattie.
It gives the prospect of Sybil’s sickness grow more fertile. It attests by the ignorance
of people in Willow Corner of the sexual abuses done by Hattie behind the Willow
Corner’s church (Schreiber 193). Sybil knows it, and it rips Sybil’s emotion. It gives
a great contribution of her abundant chance of dissociative identity disorder, because
all the ignorance of the evil thing.
4. Sybil’s Dissosiative Identity Disorder Analyzed by Applying Sigmund Freud’s
Personality Theory
According to the Freud, every individual has the three levels of
consciousness. They are: conscious, preconscious and the unconscious levels. Then
Freud revised his theory and introduced three basic structures in the anatomy of
personality: id, ego and superego (Hjelle and Ziegler 32-33).
Sybil faces some horrible tortures in her childhood and these have hit her
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conscious level (ego) of her memory so bad. She does not even remember that hurt
anymore. The first time she has some analysis with Dr. Wilbur, she often hides what
she gets in the past and she only tells everything on the surface (Schreiber 52). Then,
to save herself from this horror, she creates some personalities behind her
unconscious level. And at this level, her personality starts to split. Sybil’s personality
does not work as it is supposed to do and it is imbalanced. The Id, as a basic human
instinct in finding satisfaction becomes dominated whenever Peggy Lou controls her,
because of Peggy Lou’s tendency of using her raw animalistic instinct, as
aggressiveness, uncontrolled emotions and changeable mood. Here, it does not mean
that the other ego and superego ‘sleep’, but they cannot work optimally. The other
example is when Marry appears and controls Sybil’s body. She is a kind of a fanatic
of her religion. Then she connects everything with her religion. When Sybil has a
consultation with Doctor Wilbur, Mary thinks that going to a physician who has
different religion is a sin. Here, Mary’s super ego dominates others, although the Id
really wants to have a consultation because it is the only way to be normal. Being
normal is a part of the Id. Furthermore, the Ego’s function is to balance what the Id
and the Super-ego wants and to adjust with reality. Vicky, one of Sybil’s splitting
personalities, is dominant in the Ego. She is playing a role as a balancer among all
the personalities.
Therefore, from the explanation and some proofs above, we can see that
Sybil show the characteristics of dissociative identity disorder. It means that Sybil
suffers from disociative identity disorder.
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C. Sybil’s Conflicts and the Ways She Deals with Them
Experts say that there are some types of conflicts. There are interpersonal
conflict and intrapersonal Conflict. Interpersonal Conflict is person-to-person
conflict. Interpersonal conflict also means “an expressed struggle between at least
two independent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scare resources, and
interference from the other party in achieving goals (Warga 112).” There are five
basic ways of addressing conflict. There are: first is accommodation. It surrenders on
one's own needs and wishes to accommodate the other party. Secondly is avoidance.
In this method, people usually avoid or postpone conflict by ignoring it, changing the
subject, etc. Avoidance can be useful as a temporary measure to enhance time or as a
method of dealing with very negligible, non-recurring conflicts. In more cases,
conflict avoidance can involve severing a relationship or leaving a group. Third is
collaboration. In this method, people work together to find a mutually beneficial
solution, win-win solution to conflict; collaboration can also be time-intensive and
inappropriate when there is not enough trust, respect or communication among
participants for collaboration to occur. Fourth is compromise. People are to find a
middle opinion in which each party is partially satisfied. Fifth is competition. It
emphasized on one’s viewpoint at the possible solutions of another. It can be useful
when achieving one's objectives balances one's concern for the relationship
(Wikipedia, free encyclopedia).
Intrapersonal conflict occurs within one’s self. It deals with the struggle a
person or character within himself/herself. There are some types of conflict within a
self. The first is approach-approach because it involves making choice between two
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equally attractive alternatives. The opposite of this is avoidance-avoidance conflict,
in which the alternatives are equally unattractive. It means we are damned if choose
one and doomed if we do not. And the last is double-approach-avoidance. The
conflict involves such choices of good and evil on both sides (Warga 112).
1. Sybil’s Interpersonal Conflicts
The interpersonal conflict is considered as person-to person conflict. It means
that the incompatible goals, perception, and resources between the persons may
cause the conflict. In this novel, the interpersonal conflicts occur in Sybil’s
relationship with her parents and people in Willow Corner. The conflict between
Sybil and them are aroused by their incompatible perception.
a. The Conflict between Sybil and Her Mother
The relation between Sybil and Hattie is not good. As a mother, Hattie always
does some tortures to her during Sybil’s childhood. Here, it is clearly shown that
actually there are some fights that have happened. It can be in the way Sybil refuses
what her mother asks or the way Sybil thinks differently from her mother.
Sybil’s mother approached the wagons after the farmers had left them and
helped herself to peas and corn, which she put in her apron. Other people did
this, too, but Sybil was embarrassed because her father had said that it was
stealing…Even though her mother explained that items stolen never would be
missed because the owners had more than they needed, or that on the loading
platforms were out in the sun and would spoil anyway, Sybil felt it was
wrong to steal….Let’s get some, ‘Hattie suggested conspiratorially as Sybil
walked with her toward the Bishop’s rhubarb stalks. Hattie bent over the
stalks, but Sybil hung back. ‘You’d be the first to eat the rhubarb pie,’
(Schreiber 190-191)
The quotation above reveals Sybil’s consideration that what Hattie does is wrong.
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Hattie wants Sybil to steal the corn and peas. However, Sybil refuses what Hattie
wants, for the consideration that stealing is wrong. Hattie also makes Sybil
embarrassed by talking loudly at the church functions, which embarrasses her by
watching her mother’s voyeuristic, get some satisfying by seeing other’s sexual
activities and to shit on the people’s house yard she hates (Schreiber 191-193).
Sybil at the age of three, four and five has to follow her mother walking out
the house and walking apprehensively through the town (Schreiber 192). It means
that Sybil finds that accommodation is the safest way to solve the conflict, since by
accommodation she finally surrenders on what her mother wants and accommodate
her wants. She feels that there is no best way to unravel the problems, because she is
afraid of her mother’s threat and what her mother will do toward her if she does
some fights.
b. The Conflict between Sybil and Her Father
The interpersonal conflict between Sybil and her father, Willard can be seen
when Danny Martin comes into Sybil’s life. When Danny comes into Sybil’s life, her
father tries to separate them. The conflict between Willard and Sybil is that Willard’s
will is incompatible with Sybil’s feeling. It can be seen from the quotation below.
When Dr. Wilbur accused Willard of having wanted to break up Sybil’s
friendship with Danny Martin, which had a healing effect on Sybil and which
could have developed into a marriage, for religious reason, the father took the
umbrage. ‘I did only what I knew to right. I didn’t want her to marry out of
our faith, if she had been older, she would have been agreed with me’
(Schreiber 248)
The quotation above implies that Willard purposely breaks up Sybil’s relationship
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with Danny. He considers that the best way for Sybil to have relationship is with the
man who is from the same religion. This arouses the conflict between them. The
conflict here is caused by her consideration that her father already does the
incompatible attitude that is by marrying Hattie, who has a different religion. Hattie
is a Methodist. And since Danny is Methodist, he is warned by Willard not to have
relationship with Sybil. Sybil feels that her father is hypocrite (Schreiber 146-149).
What Willard has done to separate Sybil and Danny makes Sybil sad. This situation
makes Sybil dissociate into Vicky. The existence of Vicky is Sybil’s way in facing
the conflict.
From the explanation above, it seems that there is no other way, except just
following what her father wants. It means that Sybil also chooses accommodation to
solve the conflict. She accommodates what he wants to separate her from Danny
Martin. But, this accommodation brings her a deep pain, which she cannot hold on
subsequently. Thus, she dissociates into Vicky. For years, she keeps the pain inside.
No body ever knows it. Finally, she can not bring that emotional burden. She escapes
from the fact by dissociating herself.
c. The Conflict between Sybil and Parents’ Hypocrisy
This conflict is shown when Sybil’s parents have sexual intercourse in the
same room where Sybil sleeps. That intercourse in psychoanalytic term is called
primal scene, which means a child‘s auditory and visual perception of the parents’
sexual intercourse. The scene is called primal because it is first in time in the sense
that it is the child’s first encounter with adult sexuality. And it is as a foundation
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toward children in building their future feeling, attitudes, and behaviour. For some
children this primal scene happen accidental, inadvertent and it will have no
significant psychological damage if the family at home think that the intercourse is
something private, but not forbidden (Schreiber 173).
In Sybil’s case, it is no accidental glimpse. For nine years, she has to see her
parents doing sexual intercourse as a daily activity. The parents’ activity is also
incompatible with the rules in the house “where a kiss, touch and address each other
are not allowed, either by any endearment, affectionate attitude or perfunctory.
Moreover, sex is regarded as wicked attitude in the Dorsett’s house” (Schreiber 174).
However, her parents do the incompatible activities, and it is considered as
hypocrisy. It automatically raises a conflict. Sybil thinks that her parents do the
wrong activity. She wants to stop it, but she does not know how to do it.
To deal with this conflict, she applies two ways. Firstly is accommodation.
She surrenders on one's own needs, applying Sybil’s parents’ needs and wishes.
Secondly, it also can be solved in avoidance. In this method, people usually avoid or
postpone conflict by ignoring it, changing the subject, etc. Sybil, for almost nine
years pretends that there is nothing happening in the nights where she sleeps. But,
her splitting personalities react differently.
Peggy Lou was wakeful, uneasy, but she did not try to cover her eyes or to
keep from listening….enraged by the feeling of exclusion endangered by the
whispering, Peggy Lou was also made furious by rusting of the sheets. Every
time she heard that rustling she wanted to stop it. (Schreiber 175)
Sybil as Peggy Lou becomes angry of her parents’ activity. She feels
disturbed by the whispering sound produces by the sexual activities. Peggy Lou
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thinks that they may talk about her. Therefore, each time when her parents do the
intercourse, she always tries to disrupt by making some noises. Peggy is applying the
avoidance, it means she wants to stop it, but she does not know what to do, except
makes some noises. So, she just ignores it. Vicky has certain reaction toward that
primal scene. What Vicky’s done is completely different from Sybil. Vicky just
looks at the shadow of that activity, but she is too scared to stop it. Vicky just looks
at her father’s penis and watches the activity. In the beginning Vicky thinks that her
father is going to kill her mother, but instead of dying, her mother rolls over with
Willard. Vicky thinks that that it certainly is not up her to save her mother (Schreiber
175). She applies accommodation to solve her conflict. She accommodates what she
wants with what her parents’ wants. When Sybil dissociates into Marcia, she fears
for her mother’s safety because she thinks that Willard will kill her mother
(Schreiber 176). When Mary appears, she hates that thing to be done in front of
Sybil. She thinks that it is such a private activity (Schreiber 176). When Vanessa
controls Sybil’s body in that primal scene, she questions about the inconsistence of
their behaviour. On the day they behave as if they are good people who always obey
all the rules. But, the reality is that the hypocrisy exists (Schreiber 176). The most
courageous rebellion against the primal scenes is done by Ruthie, who is still a baby;
she bravely climbs to her parents’ bed and lies between them (Schreiber 176-177)
According to Thomas and Kilman in wikipedia’s article, mostly Sybil’s
splitting personalities applying accommodation and avoidance in solving the conflict.
They prefer to follow what their parents’ wants or to ignore it. Whereas, Ruthie
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prefers competition to solve the conflict, she emphasizes her viewpoint as the
possible solution, by climbs to her parents’ bed and lies between them.
2. Sybil’s Intrapersonal Conflicts
There are three types of intrapersonal conflict. First is approach-approach
because it involves making a choice between two equally attractive alternatives. The
opposite of this is avoidance-avoidance conflict, in which the alternatives are equally
unattractive. It means we are damned if choose one and doomed if we don’t. And the
last is double-approach-avoidance; that the conflict involves such choices of good
and evil on both sides (Warga 112).
a. The Conflicts between Sybil and Her Splitting Personalities
The conflicts here are the ones between Sybil and the personalities within her.
It can be assumed that Sybil faces a war within. As stated in chapter two that the
splitting personalities within a person suffering from dissociative identity disorder
are independent. It means they have their own age, name, sex, intelligence, and
personal states, own characteristics, hobbies, and interests (Huffman, Vernoy and
Vernoy 506). Inevitably they always trigger some clashes of interests of one to
another. The clashes are considered as a double-approach-avoidance conflict. The
thing that is good to an individual will not always be good for the other one. It has
good and bad perceptions on both sides.
The decision of Mary to buy a house makes Sybil burn in furry. In Mary’s
perspective, it is fine to buy a house because she wants a privacy that she does not
70
get in her childhood, and a house is also symbolize as an escape from the primal
scenes she ever sees. But, for Sybil, it will cost a lot of money, while she has not that
much (Schreiber 332-334). On the other hand, the other personalities also take its
wise action based on their thought. Peggy always plans to take over the selfhood,
Vanessa works at Laundromat, and Marcia storm the citadel of authorship (Schreiber
343).
Sybil realizes that she is a hostage of the selves that she has not been able to
deny. It raises conflicts also. For the limited funds, all the clothes in her wardrobe
she never buy, and her paintings are completed when she is absent. Furthermore,
because the others take individual doses of the medicines, consequently it runs out
before it is time to renew a prescription (Schreiber 343).
There are also conflicts among the alternates. It is portrayed in certain
occasions when Peggy Lou controls Sybil’s body and when she goes to a store in
Broadway. She picks a dish, and wants to break it, but, Vicky comes up and
restrains. And in spite of Vicky’s prevention, it makes them argue (Schreiber 344).
b. Ignoring Her Belief
This conflict is revealed in the story during psychoanalysis. There is a war
inside herself. Sybil tries to struggle against the rules of her religion. It is triggered
by the consideration that she has to obey the rules, whereas she does not like the
rules and has to break them. Whereas the conflict within herself is the want to get
free from the religious distortions, yet her wanting to hold her belief. She
71
understands that the problem is one of salvaging God while she has to release herself
from her past terror where religion was omnipresent (Schreiber 261).
Another proof about a religion conflict within herself is shown on the
quotation below
Pacing the consulting-room, Peggy Lou came to a sudden halt. ‘It’s supposed
to do more than not upset you. It supposed to help you. But it never helped
me. It never helped Peggy Ann or any of the rest of us.’ The fire of rebellion
had been unleashed, yet the church still stood’….’I’d like to tear the church
down!’ (Schreiber 264)
From the quotation above we can see the emotions that Sybil cannot have. The anger
reflects Peggy’s hatred that makes Peggy want to destroy the church. As she says that
the church only creates anger for her. The existence of the hatred and anger is also
related to the evidence of sexual abuses that her mother has done to some children in
front of the church, in which people in Willow Corner do not care of what Hattie
does (Schreiber 193).
In dealing with this conflict, Sybil sometimes dissociates into Ruthie. Since
the church become the place that she does not like to go, Ruthie, Sybil’s alternate
then tells to their parents that she is sick and can not go to the church (Schreiber
266).
That is why, the conflict considered as avoidance-avoidance conflict, means
that the alternatives are equally unattractive (Warga 112). Because, she wants to hold
her belief, on the other hand she also wants to get free from religious distortions.
c. Commiting Suicide
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After several years having psychoanalysis with Dr. Wilbur, Sybil feels that
there will be no way out of her suffering. She thinks she will never be healed. She
feels alone, useless, and futile. Based on that consideration, she thinks that death will
bring peace that will answer her problems.
She felt alone, useless, futile. Convinced that she was never going to get
better, Sybil was faces with self-recriminations and complaints…I’d like to
die. But God doesn’t let me. You see I’d have to do it to me, and suicide is
just wrong…Sybil walked closer to the river, but before she could actually
reach it, her body turned, propelled by another’s will. The body controlled by
Vicky, sought and found a phone booth in one of the apartment house on
Riverside Drive (Schreiber 320)
According to (Warga 112), the conflict here is considered as avoidanceavoidance conflict, which means both the alternatives are unattractive. She wants to
die, but it is not allowed by her religion. She traps into difficult situation. In her
hesitation, she finally decides to go to commit suicide. But, before she really jumps
into Hudson River, Vicky, one of Sybil’s alternate takes the control and evades her
from death. The existence of Vicky is the result of Sybil’s self-protection against the
conflict.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter consists of two parts, conclusions and suggestions. The
conclusions wrap up all the answers of the formulated problems. The suggestions
consist of two parts, namely suggestion for the further study on Sybil, the True Story
of Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities and for implementation of literature in
teaching Intensive Reading II.
A. Conclusions
After analyzing the novel, they are three points that can be concluded. The
first conclusions concerns with the problems formulation in Sybil, the True Story of
Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities that is how Sybil and her splitting
personalities described.
Based on the analysis, Sybil is described as a woman who possesses sixteen
separated personalities because of horrible childhood trauma in the hands of a psycho
mother. She has to face psychical, sexual and emotional persecutes every day during
her childhood. The most horrible thing is that when she tries to search for a helping
hand from her father, she only gets ignorance instead. Hence, she searches auxiliary
within herself. Then, her unawareness creates some imaginary personalities that may
become rescuers. Sybil does not know about their existence, but all the personalities
know about Sybil. They are: Vicky, who is sophisticated and generous; Marcia and
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Vanessa, who are close friends that always do things together; Mary, a house woman
who is very sensitive; Sybil Ann, the depressive woman; Peggy Lou, an energetic,
moody and bad tempered girl who takes Sybil’s unexpressed anger; Peggy Ann, an
individual who takes the fearfulness of Sybil; Mike and Sid Dorsett, boys who comes
up based on identification of Sybil’s grandpa and father; The youngest Ruthie;
Helen, a personality who gets the biggest terror because of Hattie Dorsett; Marjorie,
the sanguine personality; Clara, the religious girl; Nancy, a girl who also fanatic, but
she claims herself as a person who just sees and listens the abuses, not experiences it;
and the last one is The Blonde, she comes up during Sybil’s recovery treatment. She
claims that she is the girl Sybil wants to be.
The second conclusion concerns with Sybil’s Dissociative Identity Disorder,
which includes the characteristics, the symptoms, and the causes. A person is said to
have this personality splitting is when he/she has two or more distinct personalities,
by which each personality has its own name, sex, intelligence, and personal states.
Sybil is considered to have the Dissociative Identity Disorder. Sybil has the
symptoms that show the proofs of this personality disorder. The first proof is that
Sybil has multiple personalities, namely: Peggy Lou who arrives in 1926; Peggy
Ann, into whom the original Peggy has developed; Vicky, who appears in 1927;
Mary on 1933, Vanessa on 1935; Sid and Mike who arrive in the early1928, Nancy,
Ruthie, Helen, Marjorie, Claire, and the Blonde who arrive during Sybil recovery
treatment. Sybil also has multiple attitudes. She will act differently based on who
emerges within. The other symptoms are that headache and other body pain. When
Sybil is in the college, she is ever refused because she suffers from extreme
75
nervousness or hysteria, and because of that, a half of Sybil’s body becomes numb.
She grows weak on one side, not always same side. Sybil and her other personalities
will twitch, jerk and carry on with unrestrained body movements. The symptoms are
intensified by headache. Sybil must face, emptiness, lost time. It appears when Sybil
cannot be up against her problems. This is the phase when the other personalities
take control.
Sybil faces a depersonalization as one symptom of dissociative identity
disorder. Sybil becomes a paranoid of music, shoes and a buttonhook. Sybil often
feels that her life seems to be floating by in an unreal kind of way, filled with strange
presentiments. She seems that her life is like a dream. She often feels that she is
walking beside her and watching her.
The actions of taking over her body by the alternates create a hard pressure to
Sybil. It makes a deep depression as one of dissociative identity disorder’s
symptoms. She faces a self-recriminations and complaints. And, she does not want to
live like the way she does. And the culmination of her depression is the desire to end
her life.
By analyzing the novel deeply, it can be concluded that parents play a big
role in making a healthy personality of the child. Hattie Dorsett, Sybil’s mother is a
person who becomes the taproot of her psychological disorder. Sybil’s mother does
not give love and warmth; she does sexual, psychical and emotional abuses to Sybil
instead. Sybil is a victim from her mother's failed ambition in her youth and a target
of her anger toward her father for stumbling off her dreams in music career. A father,
a person who supposes to come together with a mother to makes a synergy in raising
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a child, but rather be somebody who cannot play his responsibility. Willard takes
actions to be apathetic, incompetence, irresponsible, or emotionally withdrawn. He
builds a distance from the child, critical and uncommunicative.
The place where children live have effect on shaping child’s personality. The
environment where Sybil has spent her childhood may take a part in making her to be
multiple. Moreover she has spent her eighteen years of her life there. She lives in the
puritan environment that the people live are also hypocrite, Willow Corner.
Although, the self-righteous in the utterances of the people, but cruel is done in its
behavior. Everything is all looks as if run so average, so normal, and so puritanical.
And for its actions, it large the prospect of Sybil’s sickness grows more fertile.
The third conclusion concerns with Sybil’s ways to cope with all the conflicts
she is up against to. There are interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts. Relating to
the novel, Sybil faces interpersonal conflicts with both Hattie Dorsett and Willard
Dorsett, as her parents. The relationship between Sybil and her mother, as a motherdaughter is in an unharmonious one. Hattie, not only does some abuses, but also
compels Sybil to do something incompatible with her lustrous. Sybil finds no best
way, except to accommodate her wants and surrenders on her mother’s wants.
Accommodation is also considered as a best way in facing a conflict with Willard. It
expresses in the confrontation when Willard tries to separate Sybil with Danny
Martin because of they are from different religion. Sybil thinks that it is such a
hypocritical thing because Willard also married with Hattie, who is a Methodist. And
since Danny Martin is a Methodist, Willard sets a plan to move Danny’s family to
Texas. Sybil always sees the private activity of her parents during her childhood, in
77
psychology it calls primal scenes. It creates conflict. Because in Dorsett’s house
never shows such affection expressions, for example: kisses, hugs. Moreover, those
expressions of love are forbidden and consider as sin. She traps in the confusions of
what she experiences and the puritanical way of live in her house also.
Sybil also faces intrapersonal conflicts with the personalities within, because
those personalities do what they think is right to do. Peggy Lou has a passion to
control the body. Marry decides to buy a house without Sybil’s permission, Vanessa
works at Laundromat, and Marcia storm the citadel of authorship. What they do
makes Sybil be like a prisoner within herself. The conflict raises when she only has
limited funds, but she finds the clothes in her wardrobe she never buys, the
medicines runs out long before it is time to renew a prescription, etc.
The wanting to hold or ignore her religion also becomes an intrapersonal
conflict within Sybil. The conflict within Sybil is the want to get free from the
religious distortions, yet she wants to hold her belief. Sybil understands that the
problem is one of salvaging God while she has to release herself from her past terror
where religion is ubiquitous.
After several years having a psychoanalysis consultation, Sybil feels that
there will be no way out from her psychological disorder, she thinks she never be
healed. She feels alone, useless, and futile. The conflict happens within Sybil is that
she wants to die, but it is not allowed by her religion. She traps into a difficult
situation. In her hesitation, she finally decides to go to commit suicide.
B. Suggestions
78
1. Suggestion for Further Study on Sybil, the True Story of Woman Possessed by
Sixteen Personalities
It is impossible to discuss all aspects of Flora Rheita Schreiber’s Sybil, the
True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities because the limitation of
time and sources. Thus, the writer realizes that the analysis in this study is not
perfect. There are some studies of Sybil’s Dissociative Identity Disorder in this
analysis. Besides, Sybil, the True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities
still provide other topic to be analyzed and other approaches to be applied.
Future researchers may explore Sybil’s character development that is
influenced by her puritan environment using physiological approaches. Moreover,
the analysis on the other characters such as Hattie Dorsett and Willard Dorsett can
also be considered. Another choice of topic that the future researchers may explore is
the analysis of the parental influence on a specific area such as mother-daughter
relationship or it may study on Willow Corner, as a primal environment of
personality’s growth. The psychological and socio-cultural historical approach can
be applied in analyzing those topics.
2. Suggestions for Teaching Intensive Reading II by Using Sybil, the True Story
of Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities
A literary work is the source of knowledge for teachers to implement their
activities in educating their students. The writer recommends the novel to be taken as
a possible teaching material considering the fact that Sybil, the True Story of Woman
Possessed by Sixteen Personalities offer potential benefits to reach the main goal in
79
teaching English that is the language mastery.
Relating to teaching learning activities, teaching reading literary works bring
its own benefits toward students. Students can strengthen their comprehension in
reading. Students can also not only get life value, but also develop their maturity
toward certain case in the novel. In this case, the writer chooses intensive reading
than extensive reading, because of two reasons. Firstly, the text material is chosen by
the teacher, considering that the teacher can measure the level and the need of the
students. It is different from the extensive reading, where students choose their own
reading passage by themselves. Secondly, the writer is focus on vocabularies and
main idea, and it is different from extensive reading, where only focus on general
understanding of the text.
The writer chooses to use Sybil, the True Story of Woman Possessed by
Sixteen Personalities on teaching Intensive Reading II class of Sanata Dharma
University, Yogyakarta. The writer suggests three parts procedures of teaching
learning activity. They are pre reading activity, whilst reading activity and post
reading activity.
1. Pre Reading activity
In this section, teacher gives an opening activity, such as: asking several
questions related to the topic in order to get the students close to the topic of
the passage.
2. Whilst Reading Activity
-
The teacher distributes the reading passage to the students
-
The teacher asks the students to read the passage carefully
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-
The teacher divides students into some groups to answer the questions
given and discuss it in a group.
-
The teacher asks one of the group to answer the question and
comparing with others, then discussing it
3. Post Reading Activity
-
The teacher asks the students to write a passage commented on the
passage given
-
The teacher asks some students to present their opinion on the passage
given
-
The teacher states the concluding remark.
The reading material and the sample of the lesson plan and teaching learning are
provided in the appendices.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abrams, M.H. 1981. A Glossary of Literary Terms, 4th ed. New York: Holt, Rivehart
and Winston, Inc.
Allers, Rudolf. 1943. The Psychology of Character. London and New York: Sheed
and Ward.
Baldick, Chris. 1991. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Term. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Bird, Joseph and Lois. 1972. Power to the Parents. New York: Doubledary and
Company. Inc.
Coleman, James C. 1950. Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life. London:
Foresman Scott.
Deutsch, Helena. 1973. The Psychology of Women. Volume 11: a Psychoanalytic
Interpretation. New York: Grune and Stratto. Inc.
Hjelle, Larry A and Daniel J. Ziegler. 1981. Personality Theories, Basic
Assumptions, research, Application. Washington: International Students
Edition.
Huffman, Karen Vernoy, Mark Vernoy, and Judith Vernoy. 1997. Psychology in
Action, 4th ed. Toronto: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia. 1999. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry
and Drama. 7th ed. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Murphy, M.J. 1972. Understanding Unseens: An Introduction to English Poetry and
the English Novel for Overseas Students. London: George Allen and Unwin,
Ltd.
Papalia, Diane E, Olds, Feldman, Gros. 2003. Human Development. Boston:
McGraw Hill.
Schreiber, Flora Rheita. 1975. Sybil, the True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen
Personalities. New York: Penguin Books.
Stanton, Robert. 1965. An Introduction of a Literature. New York: Holt, Rinehart,
and Winston, Inc.
Warga. Richard G. 1983. Personal Awareness a Psychological of Adjustment,
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Watson, Robert I and Henry Clay Lindgren. 1973. Psychology of the Child. New
York: John Wiley.
Wilson, G. Terence and Peter E. Nathan, K. Daniel O’Leary, Lee Anna Clark. 1996.
Abnormal Psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, A Simon and Schuster
Company.
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Sources from the Internet:
1. Characterization: Character development
http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/LTCharacter.html
Accessed on May 22, 2009 at 8.10 pm
2. Conflict
http://www.indiana.edu/~uhrs/training/ca/personality.html
Accessed on June 4, 2009 on 06.09 pm
3. Depersonalization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization_disorder
Accessed on May 24, 2009 on 06.15 pm
4. Freud’s Personality Factors
http://changingminds.org/explanations/personality/freud_personality.htm
Accessed on June 2nd, 2009 on 06.15 pm
5. Mental Health
(HTTP://WWW.WEBMD.COM/MENTAL-HEALTH/DISSOCIATIVEIDENTITY-DISORDER-MULTIPLE PERSONALITY-DISORDER)
Accessed on May 22, 2009 on 05.59 pm
6. Multiple Personality Disorder (Dissociative Identity Disorder)
By: Dr. Paul McHugh
http://skepdic.com/mpd.html
Accessed on March 17, 2009 on 4.40 pm
7. Structure of Mind: Freud's Id, Ego, & Superego
http://wilderdom.com/personality/L8-4StructureMindIdEgoSuperego.html
Accessed on March 3, 2009
8. Sybil (book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_(book)
Accessed on May 22, 2009 at 6.26 pm
9. Sybil: A Woman with 16 Multiple Personalities by Violet on October
23,2008
http://violetcrush.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/sybil-a-woman-with-16multiple-personalities/
Accessed on March 17, 2009 at 11.19 am
10. Unconscious Mind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_mind
Accessed on March 17, 2009 an 05.50 pm
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Appendix 1
SUMMARY OF SYBIL, THE TRUE STORY OF WOMAN POSSESED BY
SIXTEEN PERSONALITIES
This incredible psychological true-story regarding multiple personalities is disturbing
to read but highly recommended. Sybil Isabel Dorsett (not her real name) has sixteen
separate personalities, two of which are male, and struggles throughout her life to try
and live with the frightening ‘dark thing’ which threatens to overcome her.
Sybil’s first dissociation happens when she is but a baby and the major cause of her
multiple personalities is rooted in her mother, who was likely, a paranoid
schizophrenic. Sybil fights an increasing ‘loss of time’ where she cannot remember
why she has ended up in a certain place or why ‘that dress’ hangs in her closet.
Knowing she is mentally ill, she begs her father, Willard Dorsett, to allow her to visit
a psychiatrist. Her local physician suggests a Dr. Wilbur, a female psychologist, but
her parents are skeptical. Highly religious, they believe that such intervention is
sinful. Yet, Mr. Dorsett knows there is something drastically wrong and reluctantly
allows Sybil to visit the doctor in August, 1958.
Sybil, though desperately needing help, tries to disguise her problem and before she
can receive any real help, comes down with a fever and unbeknownst to her, her
mother Hattie cancels her appointment. In 1948 Hattie dies and Sybil tries to work
but her bouts with ‘lost time’ continue until finally, in 1954, she locates Dr. Wilbur
in New York and moves there for therapy. It is months after her first session that Dr.
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Wilbur meets the first of the many other personalities in Sybil. Her name is Vicky,
and she knows what all the ‘others’ do and think, but keeps all knowledge of her
other selves from Sybil. Dr. Wilbur is excited. This is a major breakthrough and she
reads all she can on dual personalities. Nothing much has been noted except for the
highly publicized story of Eve who had three distinctive personalities.
Before long, Dr. Wilbur discovers that Sybil has many more than three personalities.
All multiple personalities have one which knows everything and Dr. Wilbur becomes
very dependent on Vicky to keep her updated on the actions of the ‘others’. The most
notable after Vicky are Peggy Lou and Peggy Ann who reflect Sybil’s unrealized
anger and fear against her abusive mother. Dr. Wilbur is gradually introduced to the
dramatic Vanessa, the artistic Marcia, and the suicidal Sybil Ann. Lurking inside are
also two male personalities, the carpenters, Mike and Sid, who have taken on the
traits of Sybil’s father Willard, and her tyrannical Grandfather. Willard Dorsett’s
chief sin is that he ignored his daughter’s growing emotional instability and allowed
his mentally ill wife to continue raising the child even though he knew Hattie was
deeply ill. For two years, Hattie was catatonic, and still Willard did nothing about her
condition.
Hattie Dorsett, when alert, was a monster. Sexually and physically abusive, Sybil
suffered a broken larynx, dislocated shoulder, a bead up her nose, black eyes and
constant bruises, as well as intense sexual abuse involving a shoe hook which
resulted in Sybil’s incapability to have children. Why, asked the doctor, when
Willard finally agreed to come in for a ‘chat’ did he allow this to go on? Passive and
indifferent, Willard answered he simply felt that a mother should raise her child and
86
that their belief in God was enough. It was not and a shaken Willard agrees that Sybil
needs much more therapy and agrees to send his daughter a check each month to
make sure she is treated.
Sybil, after three years of intense sessions with Dr. Willard is still reluctant to ‘meet’
her other personalities. She believes that her other selves may have committed ‘sins’
and deeply religious, Sybil is terrified to learn what they might have really done.
After the ‘Peggy’s’ flee to the countryside for a holiday, Dr. Wilbur finally convinces
Sybil to hear the tapes she’s made about what they did while vacationing. There
pastimes were pleasant, even fulfilling and Sybil finally acknowledges their
existence and their right to be there. The sixteen personalities were her protectors
against the cruel Hattie and the voices that fought back against constant neglect,
abuse, and indifference. It is Dr. Wilbur’s duty to try and merge these separate
personalities into one new Sybil. It takes eleven years, but finally, after three sessions
a week and a financially supportive father, a new Sybil emerges. Sybil realizes her
dream to become a college professor and an artist and writes Dr. Wilbur in 1969,
after a year of no ‘lost time’ that she is finally not afraid and able to live a full life.
Dr. Wilbur goes on to diagnose and treat seven other cases of multiple personalities,
though none are as complex and compelling as Sybil’s. The author, Flora Rheta
Schreiber, becomes a personal friend of Sybil’s and with her permission, writes a
book about her traumatic childhood and dissociations. This book, published in 1972,
became an instant best seller, finally resulting in a movie with Sally Field in the lead
role. For people who generally do not enjoy non-fiction, this book reads like a sad,
yet strangely exhilarating novel and just illustrates how ‘fact really is stranger than
87
fiction.’
Taken from: http://www.shvoong.com/books/155992-sybil/
accessed on March 4th, 2010
Appendix 2
COVER OF SYBIL, THE TRUE STORY OF WOMAN POSSESED BY
SIXTEEN PERSONALITIES
88
APPENDIX 3
Shirley Ardell Mason (Sybil’s novel reference)
Sybil’s film and Sally Field (Sybil’s cast in the film)
89
APPENDIX 4
THE AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Flora Rheta Schreiber (April 24, 1918) an American journalist was the author
of the 1973 bestseller Sybil, the story of a woman (identified years later as Shirley
Ardell Mason) who suffered from dissociative identity disorder. Miss. Schreiber was
an English instructor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Before teaching at
John Jay College, Miss Schreiber taught for many years at the New School for Social
Research and at Adelphi College. She specialized in children's speech and wrote a
1956 manual for parents called ''Your Child's Speech.'' She was a theater critic in the
1940's and later contributed to many magazines and published several short stories.
Her last book The Shoemaker was the true story of a mass murderer who suffered
from schizophrenia. Because of her studies of the psychological origins of
criminality, Schreiber became interested in writing about Joseph Kallinger, a
shoemaker who killed three people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She interviewed
him in jail in 1976, saying that a book about the murderer would show that ''it's even
more important to prevent the development of psychosis that leads to crime than to
get tough with criminals after the event.'' Like ''Sybil,'' the new book by Miss
Schreiber provoked considerable controversy. After ''Shoemaker'' was published in
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1983, she was sued by the family of one of Kallinger's victims under a so-called Son
of Sam law in New Jersey that required that money owed to a criminal or his
representatives as a result of his crimes go to the victims. A Superior Court ruled that
not only the 12.5 percent promised to Mr. Kallinger but also money earned by Miss
Schreiber and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, be paid to the victim's family.
Publishers called the ruling a violation of First Amendment rights of free speech, and
an appellate panel reversed the decision, ruling that the law applied only to payments
received by the criminal. She died (November 3, 1988), of a heart attack at Beth
Israel Hospital in Manhattan. She was 70 years old.
Taken from http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/04/obituaries/flora-schreiber-70-thewriter-of-sybil-and-of-shoemaker.html?pagewanted=1 accessed on March 4, 2010
APPENDIX 5
Dr. Cornelia B. Wilbur
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APPENDIX 6
LESSON PLAN FOR TEACHING INTENSIVE READING II
Subject
: Intensive Reading II
Level of students
: 2nd semester students of English Language Education
Study Program
Topic
: Parental Abuses
Time Allocation
: 2X50 minutes
Material
: Sybil, the True Story of Woman Possessed by Sixteen
Personalities by Flora Rheta Schreiber (chapter 10)
General Course Objectives
:
1. Apply various reading strategies: previewing, skimming, scanning,
identifying main idea, summarizing.
2. Improve literal and inferential comprehension by reading various kinds of
texts.
3. Develop English vocabulary.
4.
Write simple responses to the ideas or issues presented in the texts.
Achievement Indicators
:
1. The students are able to identify main idea and the supporting idea of the
text.
2. The students are able to improve their literal and inferential
comprehension by reading the texts given from Sybil, the True Story of
Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities by Flora Rheta Schreiber
(chapter 10).
3. The students are able to define unfamiliar words in the passage.
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4. The students are able to answer the comprehension questions about the
text.
5. The students are able to write responses to the issues presented in the text.
Learning Experiences
:
1. Teacher gives some explanations about the topic by giving several
example of dissosiative identity disorder from the slide-show and also
giving several questions about the topic.
2. Students read the passage and get the comprehension.
3. Students discuss the passage and answer the questions in group of five.
4. The students write a comment based on the text individually and
presented in front of class.
Appendix 7
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TEACHING INTENSIVE READING II
I. PRE-READING ACTIVITIES
1. What you think about Parental Abuses?
2. In your opinion, what is the effect of Parental Abuses?
3. In your opinion what id Dissociative Identity Disorder in connection
with Parental Abuses?
4. Have you ever experiences a blackout or temporal lose
consciousness?
5. In your opinion, is there a connection between blackout and
Dissociative Identity Disorder? Explain!
95
READING PASSAGE
fifth grade. Inexplicably, she had lost
her friends. And, although her
fundamentalist faith had always set her
apart from other children, it was now as
if they were noticing it for the first time.
Now, because she could not do all the
things they did – because the
prohibitions of her faith – they directed
at her sinister epithet ‘white Jew’.
The vague memory of the girl who
had distributed the funeral flowers gave
Sybil the incentive to ask Danny about
all of the things that were different.
Houses had been built. Stores had
changed hands. The town was not the
same. Sybil knew that she could ask
Danny about any or all of it.
‘How come the Greens are living in
the Miners’ house?’ Sybil asked.
Less painful, too, because of
Danny, was her father’s coolly critical
counsel, ‘You should be able to talk to
people and to face the world,’ and her
mother reactivation of an old complaint,
‘I never know from one day to the next
what mood you’ll be in or what kind of
person you’ll be.’
‘They moved there last summer,’
Danny replied
‘Who’s the baby Susie Anne is
pushing in the buggy?’ Sybil wanted to
know.
‘That’s Susie Anne’s little sister,’
Danny explained. ‘She was born last
spring.’
If it weren’t for Danny, Sybil knew
she could not have endured the
humiliation at school, where, because of
her problem with maths, her marks had
gone down. Without Danny, Sybil could
not have withstood her mother’s
unrelenting accusation: ‘But you used to
know the multiplication tables. You
used to know them. You’re just
pretending to forget. You’re a bad girlbad.’….
‘Who is Mrs Schwarzbard?’
‘A dressmaker who came to town a
year ago.’
Danny never asked. ‘How come
you don’t know?’
Sybil was freer with Danny Martin
than she had been with any human being
except her grandmother. The freedom
with Danny was the more remarkable
because it came during the spring,
summer, and fall of 1934, the very
period which, tricked by time, Sybil
enshrouded herself in a green alones and
fortified her usual reserve with a special
invincible armour against the world.
When Sybil was with Danny, she
was able to forget that otherwise she
walked alone. And she was alone. In the
morning she was careful not to leave
home until after she had ascertained that
none of her classmates was in sight.
After school she lingered at her desk
until all the other children had left.
When she walked on Main Street, doing
Danny became the antidote to the
loneliness and vulnerability Sybil
experienced after ‘coming to’ in the
96
97
some errand for her mother, she often
crossed from one side of the street to the
other six or seven times in a single
block to avoid an encounter with one of
townsfolk. Turning from everybody
else, she turned to Danny. Danny,
without erecting barriers against other
children, turned as surely to Sybil as she
did to him. Sybil and Danny just
naturally assumed that when they were
old enough, they would marry. Sybil
firmly believed that when this
happened, time would cease to be
funny.
Then, on a brisk October day, as
Sybil and Danny sat on the front steps,
Danny said, somewhat awkwardly,
‘Syb, I have something to tell you.’
‘What?’ Sybil, sensing his tone,
asked anxiously.
‘You see,’ Danny continued, ‘my
dad – well, he brought a gas station in
Waco, Texas, and well, we’re going
there to live. But you’ll come to see me.
I’ll come back here. We’ll see each
other.’
‘Yes,’ Sybil said, ‘we will.’
That evening, when Sybil told
Hattie Dorsett that Danny was leaving
Willow Corner forever, Hattie shrugged
and said, with great deliberateness:
‘Well, Daddy didn’t like you to spend
so much time with that boy anyway.
Daddy thought you were too old to be
playing together.’
…….
Ultimately however the day
came for Danny to say goodbye. Sybil,
sitting with him on the front steps,
which for so long had been the scene of
close communion, was quiet and
composed.
‘You’ll come to see me,’ Danny
reminded Sybil.
‘I’ll come,’ Sybil temporized.
‘We’ll see each other,’ Danny
repeated.
‘We’ll see each other,’ Sybil
echoed.
Danny rose to go. Sybil sat
motionlessly on the steps. ‘Well, Sybil,’
he said. ‘Well…’ overwhelmed by
adolescent embarrassment and unable to
complete sentence, he fell silent,
bending over instead to where Sybil was
still sitting. He kissed her swiftly on the
cheek, turned and was gone.
Sybil, who, since early childhood,
had shunned even the most casual
physical contact, was now transported
by a joyous tingle. At first, she was not
even aware that Danny was no longer
beside her. Then, when awareness did
come, she panicked apprehensively
searching for Danny. There he was – his
blond hair, his little body-moving
retreating.
As he turned from Vine Street into
Main Street, he faded out of sight. Sybil
sank down onto the steps. The rescue
that Danny represented had been
withdrawn. The town was deserted. All
that existed now was an unmitigated
aloneness.
And there still was something funny
about time, which, like invisible soap in
imperceptible water, slipped away.
The Sky is blue, Vicky thought, as
getting up from the front steps, she
stepped into the time from which Sybil
had just departed.
Vicky walked around the white
house with black shutters thinking about
how nice it was to be able to give
locomotion to the body, which for the
first time belonged wholly to her, Vicky
…
Vicky knew what had happened in
life of Sybil Isabel Dorsett, whether or
98
not Sybil herself had been present.
Paradoxically, while time had been
discontinuous for Sybil, who had lived
in the world, it had been continuous for
Vicky, who had existed in the recesses
of being. Time, which had been
capricious and often blank for Sybil, had
been constant for Vicky. Vicky, who
had total recall, served as a memory
trace in the disjointed inner world of
Sybil Dorsett.
This solidity of memory, combined
with the fact that, in surfacing into the
world, Vicky incorporated within
herself a powerful fantasy of Sybil’s
own coinage, became the source of
Vicky’s strength. The Victoria of the
fantasy, like the new Vicky, an
alternating self, was confident, unafraid,
and immune from influence of the
relationships that had disturbed Sybil.
**************************
II. WHILST READING ACTIVITY
A. Read the following statements. If a statement is true, write T in the front
of statement. If it is false, write F!
__ Danny Martin always asked Sybil ‘How come you don’t know?’ if Sybil
asked him about something.
__ Because of her fundamentalist faith, Sybil had lost friends.
__ Sybil used to know the multiplication table.
__ Sybil was accustomed to the physical contact since her childhood.
__ Vicky knew everything about Sybil, vice versa.
B. Reading passage above has only one main idea. Which one of the
following statements is the main idea?
1. Sybil had relationship with Danny Martin.
2. Sybil suffers because of her school mates’ humiliation.
3. Sybil suffers because of splitting personality’s blackout.
4. Vicky’s emergence because of Sybil’s suffers.
99
C. Find the supporting idea (with evidence) of the following main idea of the
passage above.
•
Sybil felt free to tell everything to Danny Martin.
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
•
Sybil’s Father did not like Sybil and Danny’s relationship.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
•
With Danny, Sybil was able to forget her reclusions.
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
•
The existence of Vicky was a product of Sybil’s imaginary denomination
of her own.
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
100
D. Try to guess meaning of following words which are used in the passage
1. Vague (par.1)
2. Buggy (par.4)
11. Adolescent embarrassment
(par. 24)
3. Enshrouded (par. 9)
12. Swiftly (par.24)
4. Green aloneness (par. 9)
13. A Joyous tingle (par. 25)
5. Fortified (par. 9)
14. Unmitigated (par. 26)
6. The antidote (par.10)
15. Imperceptible (par. 27)
7. Vulnerability (par. 10)
16. Capricious (par.28)
8. Sinister epithet (par. 10)
17. Coinage (par.29)
9. Lingered (par 13)
10. Deliberateness (par.18)
III. POST READING ACTIVITY
A. What do you think about what Sybil’s parents had done in relation with
Sybil’s blackout?
B. Write in one paragraph what value can you get from the passage!
101

a study of sybil`s dissociative identity disorder in

Transcription

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