Sybil

by Flora Rheta Schreiber
Read June 2008

I read this for my biography choice for the library's adult summer reading program.
I'm not sure why I became interested in this. Did I see the new tv movie version of this before reading the book or after?
The real Sybil lived in Lexington in the latter part of her life. Maybe that's what led me to reading it.

Anyway... very good book. It was fascinating. Sybil led an awful life because of her mentally ill mother. Her father was not as ill as her mother, but he was guilty by his inaction. Throughout the whole book I found myself thinking, "What if?"
What if Sybil had not lived with the monster mother? Would mental problems still have developed for some other reason? Other children suffer abuse but do not develop multiple personalities. I'm sure they suffer mentally all their lives, but are some people predisposed to such extreme mental illness?