A great review on Dr. Suraci’s book, and one for the good guys when it comes to understanding Sybil and DID.
This issue is important in that some are trying to use Sybil to dismiss satanic ritual abuse at the same time. As my book Rabbit Hole: A Satanic Ritual Abuse Survivor’s Story will show when it is out on the market in January- satanic ritual abuse can no longer be denied!
“After reading this review- FINALLY someone who actually KNEW the women that have been at the center of such controvery. I am anxious to read this book- as I read Sybil Exposed and found Nathan’s arguments to be flawed, as well as agenda driven. I readily look forward to reading this book- as I would like to hear from someone who spoke too and knew these women personally rather than from a journalist who just looked over a bunch of papers. I thank you Dr. Suraci for writing such a book- esp. at a time that Sybil, DID, and a myriad of other situations are being discredited, not only by Nathan’s book- but also in the media. Bringing us back to reality- you help explain, through these women’s lives, that satanic ritual abuse was not a part of their lives or part of any therapy associated with Sybil. Nathan- unfortunately, has alledged that Sybil started our nation’s history with satanic abuse- and this is simply not the case. It is nice that you have such a book that gives a vastly different perspective than what has been previously introduced- thank you!!”
This was sent to me via the web and I thought I would share this email…..
“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://goo.gl/1FJTh <http://goo.gl/1FJTh>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-suraci/post_2699_b_1152241.html
<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/
<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://goo.gl/u5MIY <http://goo.gl/u5MIY>
http://www.childlaw.us/2011/12/400666-girls-under-ten-forcibl.html
<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://goo.gl/4yT73
<http://goo.gl/4yT73> http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nisvs/
<http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nisvs/>
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