Sybil in Her Own Words by Patrick Suraci, Psychologist 12/15/11
....I recently published Sybil In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings. It is a follow-up to the case of a woman who had 16 personalities, then called Multiple Personality Disorder. Flora Schreiber wrote this story titled Sybil. The therapist, Dr. Cornelia Wilbur used unorthodox, but not unethical, treatment for ten years, such as, psychoanalysis, hypnosis and Sodium Pentothal which resulted in the complete integration of the 16 personalities.
Sybil was the pseudonym for Shirley Mason who was born on January 25, 1923, in Dodge Center, Minnesota. She was an artistically gifted and shy only child. Her family was well known in this little town; therefore, her mother's bizarre behavior was overlooked. During Shirley's treatment the alternate personalities emerged and told of the abuse by her mother. Whenever her mother committed an atrocious attack on Shirley, she would split and development another personality to cope with the trauma.
Attacking the veracity of Sybil published in 1973 did not begin until April 24,1997, when Dr. Herbert Spiegel gave an interview to the New York Review of Books. He stated that Sybil was not a multiple, but rather an hysteric. He claimed to have hypnotized her, performed regression studies and filmed her for the class he taught at Columbia University, thus, discovering that Sybil's therapist, Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, had been: "helping her (Sybil) identifying aspects of her life, or perspectives, that she then called by name. By naming them this way she was reifying a memory of some kind and converting it into a 'personality'..." In fact, he accused Dr. Wilbur of implanting false memories....
When I asked Dr. Spiegel for the film hypnotizing Sybil, he said he could not find it. When asked why he had waited 24 years to report this so-called fraudulent case, he said no one had ever asked him about Sybil....
After Ms. Nathan received many negative criticisms over her inaccuracies and fabrications in Sybil Exposed, a fact checker from the Times claimed she had verified the documents in the Schreiber archives in the Special Collections Library at John Jay College. The sign-in book, which is meticulously guarded, requires a person's signature and date. There is no such entry from this fact checker.
While researching my book, Shirley's cousin Naomi Rhode, found an audio cassette made by Shirley and Dr. Wilbur on February 18, 1977.They were discussion publishing a book about Sybil's paintings. They spoke about the time Dr. Wilbur sent Shirley to Dr. Spiegel. Dr, Wilbur says, "I think that hysterics are people who are willing to enter into a contract with someone whom they trust.
Now if they don't trust that individual to some extent, they may appear to enter into a contract, but they don't really. And as an example of that, I would like to point out that, although Sybil was very readily hypnotizable by me...An expert used her as a demonstration subject, and she agreed to this and he was disagreeable to her.
As a consequence he could not really hypnotize her" Shirley added, "She (Sybil) didn't trust him as much. He tried to make her make something special out of things in her life that weren't special, like birthdays...".
....Shirley gave me information, journals, art work, anything I wanted to make my book an accurate picture of her life. She wanted people to know the benefits of therapy and that she was cured and lived a productive life.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-suraci/post_2699_b_1152241.html
Patrick Suraci received his Ph.D. in psychology from the New School for Social Research. He taught at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Baruch College, City University of New York. He worked as a staff psychologist for the New York Police Department and is now in private practice in Manhattan. His first book was Male Sexual Armor: Erotic Fantasies and Sexual Realities of the Cop on the Beat and the Man in the Street and recently published SYBIL in her own words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-suraci/
400,666 US Girls Under Ten Are Forcibly Raped
By James R. Marsh on December 15, 2011
A recently released report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals some sobering numbers: nearly 1 in 5 women have been raped in their lifetime. This statistic is widely known and almost universally accepted. But what do these numbers say about children?
According to the study, approximately 80% of female victims experienced their first rape before the age of 25 and almost half experienced the first rape before age 18 (30% between 11-17 years old and 12% at or before the age of 10).
When you crunch the numbers even more, you discover that approximately 400,666 girls under ten have experienced "completed forced penetration, attempted forced penetration, or alcohol/drug facilitated completed penetration." http://www.childlaw.us/2011/12/400666-girls-under-ten-forcibl.html
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS)
On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, based on a survey conducted in 2010. Over the course of a year, that equals more than 12 million women and men.
Those numbers only tell part of the story—more than 1 million women are raped in a year and over 6 million women and men are victims of stalking in a year. These findings emphasize that sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence are important and widespread public health problems in the United States. http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nisvs/
Showing posts with label Nathan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nathan. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Inaccuracies in Nathan's book, Sybil Exposed
Inaccuracies in Nathan's book, Sybil Exposed
October 19, 2011, Statement from Dr. Patrick Suraci
I went to the Special Collections Library at John Jay College of Criminal Justice to verify statements made by Debbie Nathan in her book SYBIL EXPOSED.
1. On pages 99-100 Nathan writes: "Connie would carry her apparatus to Shirley's apartment and climb in bed with her. She would clamp the paddles to Shirley's temples, twirl the dials, and press the buttons. Connie's gadget was an old electro-convulsive machine she had retired years earlier."
Nathan cites the evidence for this in her "Notes: Chapter 8, No.38.. FRS Box 37, Files 1081, Tape 124." In this document on January 26, 1955, Shirley writes about "electric shock" along with her other treatments. There is absolutely no documentation of Nathan's outrageous claim.
2. On page 71 Nathan writes: "Completely inexperienced with men, she had little idea of how to take Gene's (O'Neill) measure. He noticed her ignorance and didn't like it. Too‘girlish' he called Flora, particularly when it came to sex. In a sheaf of notes she wrote to herself, she described feeling pain at having his finger inside her, let alone his penis. ‘Be an animal,' Gene would urge her, and he blamed her reticence on the fact that she had a profession. ‘You bring Adelphi College into the bedroom. It is not that career women don't want to go to bed – it is that they don't know how,' he scolded Flora."
To prove this Nathan cites in: "Notes: Chapter 6, No.11, FRS Box 34, File 1051" In this document Schreiber writes about Eugene O'Neill: "His complaint – Be an animal – give – you bring Adelphi College into the bedroom – we're close friends in the living room and the moment we go into the bedroom you become a stranger…he says that it is not that career women don't want to go to bed – it is that they don't know how. Outcome might have been different if she had gone to bed with him on the last Saturday after he told her about _____" Schreiber at no time writes about O'Neill's "finger" or "penis."
3. On page 232 Nathan writes: "…She (Shirley Mason) died quietly in her home, surrounded by nurses, on February 26 of that year. She was seventy-five years old. It was early evening when she died."
In my book SYBIL in her own words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings. On page 261 I write:
"The penultimate time I phoned Shirley's home was on February 26, 1998, at 12:07 PM. In the background I heard her weak voice pleading to Roberta ,(Guy) ‘Tell him I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' Roberta informed me that Shirley was too sick to speak on the phone. I mumbled, ‘Please tell her that it's okay, it's okay. I'll call later.' …
"When I called later that day at 3:01 PM Roberta stunned me with the news than Shirley had just died."
Dr. Suraci has the telephone records of that day, February 26, 1998.
Information about Dr. Suraci:
“SYBIL In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings” by Patrick Suraci, Ph.D.
SYBIL is a new book about Shirley Mason who had 16 personalities. It tells the story of her life after her cure depicted in the book SYBIL and TV movie starring Sally Field. This book contains paintings by 5 of Sybil’s alternate personalities. The author’s interviews with Shirley Mason report her own words and her new whole personality.
In the book, the author presents evidence refuting Dr. Spiegel’s claim to have hypnotized Shirley Mason. Dr. Suraci discovered an audio cassette where Ms. Mason and Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, her therapist, discuss how it was impossible for Dr. Spiegel to hypnotize Shirley, because she did not trust or like him.
--
Dr. Leah Dickstein, who worked with Mason in her later years, stands by her assessment of Mason as a multiple. Professionals and staff at Wilbur's Lexington, Kentucky clinic confirm that Mason was multiple, and that she attempted to integrate several times, without success. Dr. Leah Dickstein, whose mentor was Dr. Wilbur
Dr. Dickstein also stated that she was in touch with Mason for many years after Wilbur died. She remembers Mason telling her that "every word in the book is true." She stated that Wilbur had "no need to make this up." Ritter, Malcolm Doubt Cast on Story of `Sybil' AP 8/16/98
Dr. Leah J. Dickstein
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_85.html
The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis - Jan 2008 The bifurcation of the self: The history and theory of dissociation and its disorders, The
by Lawrence, Mark
"In fact, from my perspective, it is Rieber who has distorted the evidence to establish his case. For example, the appendix includes a long letter which includes a short section in which Sybil refers to having written something to the effect that she had made up everything about being a multiple personality, but this was presented in her letter in the context of trying to find a way of not needing Dr. Wilbur. Rieber calls this a "letter of denial" of MPD/DID. There are many more instances in which Rieber misrepresents the material in the appendix to support his case."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4087/is_200801/ai_n21279759/
"SYBIL In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings" by Patrick Suraci, Ph.D.
SYBIL is a new book about Shirley Mason who had 16 personalities. It tells the story of her life after her cure depicted in the book SYBIL and TV movie starring Sally Field. This book contains paintings by 5 of Sybil's alternate personalities. The author's interviews with Shirley Mason report her own words and her new whole personality. (video of Dr. Suraci explaining the book.)
http://bea11.mapyourshow.com/3_0/exhibitor_details.cfm?exhid=331445&markcamefrom=y
"SYBIL In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings" by Patrick Suraci, Ph.D. presents evidence refuting Dr. Spiegel's claim to have hypnotized Shirley Mason. Dr. Suraci discovered an audio cassette where Ms. Mason and Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, her therapist, discuss how it was impossible for Dr. Spiegel to hypnotize Shirley, because she did not trust or like him.
SYBIL In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings (2011), a book written by Patrick Suraci, Ph.D. ISBN: 978-0-615-44600-4
http://members.authorsguild.net/psuraci/
Born May 31, 1936 in Rochester, New York, Patrick Suraci received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Assumption College, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the New School for Social Research, New York in 1981.
His latest work, Sybil In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings is being launched at Book Expo America at the Jacob Javitz Center in New York City on May 24, 2011....Dr. Suraci was a Staff Psychologist for the New York Police Department and is now in private practice in Manhattan. He has taught at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Baruch College at the City University of New York.
Sybil In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings
Dr. Suraci developed a friendship with Shirley Mason (Sybil) after she was cured from Multiple Personality Disorder. She gave him personal effects and paintings made by five of her personalities which all appear in the book. He discovered evidence to disprove the critics who were attempting to attack the veracity of her case.
http://members.authorsguild.net/psuraci/
Sybil In Her Own Words on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sybil-In-Her-Own-Words/108610352553254
October 19, 2011, Statement from Dr. Patrick Suraci
I went to the Special Collections Library at John Jay College of Criminal Justice to verify statements made by Debbie Nathan in her book SYBIL EXPOSED.
1. On pages 99-100 Nathan writes: "Connie would carry her apparatus to Shirley's apartment and climb in bed with her. She would clamp the paddles to Shirley's temples, twirl the dials, and press the buttons. Connie's gadget was an old electro-convulsive machine she had retired years earlier."
Nathan cites the evidence for this in her "Notes: Chapter 8, No.38.. FRS Box 37, Files 1081, Tape 124." In this document on January 26, 1955, Shirley writes about "electric shock" along with her other treatments. There is absolutely no documentation of Nathan's outrageous claim.
2. On page 71 Nathan writes: "Completely inexperienced with men, she had little idea of how to take Gene's (O'Neill) measure. He noticed her ignorance and didn't like it. Too‘girlish' he called Flora, particularly when it came to sex. In a sheaf of notes she wrote to herself, she described feeling pain at having his finger inside her, let alone his penis. ‘Be an animal,' Gene would urge her, and he blamed her reticence on the fact that she had a profession. ‘You bring Adelphi College into the bedroom. It is not that career women don't want to go to bed – it is that they don't know how,' he scolded Flora."
To prove this Nathan cites in: "Notes: Chapter 6, No.11, FRS Box 34, File 1051" In this document Schreiber writes about Eugene O'Neill: "His complaint – Be an animal – give – you bring Adelphi College into the bedroom – we're close friends in the living room and the moment we go into the bedroom you become a stranger…he says that it is not that career women don't want to go to bed – it is that they don't know how. Outcome might have been different if she had gone to bed with him on the last Saturday after he told her about _____" Schreiber at no time writes about O'Neill's "finger" or "penis."
3. On page 232 Nathan writes: "…She (Shirley Mason) died quietly in her home, surrounded by nurses, on February 26 of that year. She was seventy-five years old. It was early evening when she died."
In my book SYBIL in her own words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings. On page 261 I write:
"The penultimate time I phoned Shirley's home was on February 26, 1998, at 12:07 PM. In the background I heard her weak voice pleading to Roberta ,(Guy) ‘Tell him I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' Roberta informed me that Shirley was too sick to speak on the phone. I mumbled, ‘Please tell her that it's okay, it's okay. I'll call later.' …
"When I called later that day at 3:01 PM Roberta stunned me with the news than Shirley had just died."
Dr. Suraci has the telephone records of that day, February 26, 1998.
Information about Dr. Suraci:
“SYBIL In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings” by Patrick Suraci, Ph.D.
SYBIL is a new book about Shirley Mason who had 16 personalities. It tells the story of her life after her cure depicted in the book SYBIL and TV movie starring Sally Field. This book contains paintings by 5 of Sybil’s alternate personalities. The author’s interviews with Shirley Mason report her own words and her new whole personality.
In the book, the author presents evidence refuting Dr. Spiegel’s claim to have hypnotized Shirley Mason. Dr. Suraci discovered an audio cassette where Ms. Mason and Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, her therapist, discuss how it was impossible for Dr. Spiegel to hypnotize Shirley, because she did not trust or like him.
--
Dr. Leah Dickstein, who worked with Mason in her later years, stands by her assessment of Mason as a multiple. Professionals and staff at Wilbur's Lexington, Kentucky clinic confirm that Mason was multiple, and that she attempted to integrate several times, without success. Dr. Leah Dickstein, whose mentor was Dr. Wilbur
Dr. Dickstein also stated that she was in touch with Mason for many years after Wilbur died. She remembers Mason telling her that "every word in the book is true." She stated that Wilbur had "no need to make this up." Ritter, Malcolm Doubt Cast on Story of `Sybil' AP 8/16/98
Dr. Leah J. Dickstein
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_85.html
The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis - Jan 2008 The bifurcation of the self: The history and theory of dissociation and its disorders, The
by Lawrence, Mark
"In fact, from my perspective, it is Rieber who has distorted the evidence to establish his case. For example, the appendix includes a long letter which includes a short section in which Sybil refers to having written something to the effect that she had made up everything about being a multiple personality, but this was presented in her letter in the context of trying to find a way of not needing Dr. Wilbur. Rieber calls this a "letter of denial" of MPD/DID. There are many more instances in which Rieber misrepresents the material in the appendix to support his case."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4087/is_200801/ai_n21279759/
"SYBIL In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings" by Patrick Suraci, Ph.D.
SYBIL is a new book about Shirley Mason who had 16 personalities. It tells the story of her life after her cure depicted in the book SYBIL and TV movie starring Sally Field. This book contains paintings by 5 of Sybil's alternate personalities. The author's interviews with Shirley Mason report her own words and her new whole personality. (video of Dr. Suraci explaining the book.)
http://bea11.mapyourshow.com/3_0/exhibitor_details.cfm?exhid=331445&markcamefrom=y
"SYBIL In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings" by Patrick Suraci, Ph.D. presents evidence refuting Dr. Spiegel's claim to have hypnotized Shirley Mason. Dr. Suraci discovered an audio cassette where Ms. Mason and Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, her therapist, discuss how it was impossible for Dr. Spiegel to hypnotize Shirley, because she did not trust or like him.
SYBIL In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings (2011), a book written by Patrick Suraci, Ph.D. ISBN: 978-0-615-44600-4
http://members.authorsguild.net/psuraci/
Born May 31, 1936 in Rochester, New York, Patrick Suraci received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Assumption College, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the New School for Social Research, New York in 1981.
His latest work, Sybil In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings is being launched at Book Expo America at the Jacob Javitz Center in New York City on May 24, 2011....Dr. Suraci was a Staff Psychologist for the New York Police Department and is now in private practice in Manhattan. He has taught at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Baruch College at the City University of New York.
Sybil In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings
Dr. Suraci developed a friendship with Shirley Mason (Sybil) after she was cured from Multiple Personality Disorder. She gave him personal effects and paintings made by five of her personalities which all appear in the book. He discovered evidence to disprove the critics who were attempting to attack the veracity of her case.
http://members.authorsguild.net/psuraci/
Sybil In Her Own Words on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sybil-In-Her-Own-Words/108610352553254
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