Summary Of Sybil

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In the movie Sybil Sally Field portrays a woman named Sybil Dorsett. Sybil Dorsett has what is called Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or formally known as Multiple Personality Disorder Dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder) is a fairly common effect of severe trauma during early childhood, usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse. Dissociative identity disorder is characterized by two or more distinct or split identities or personalities have power over the person's behavior. With dissociative identity disorder, there's an inability to recall personal information. There are also highly distinct memory differences that switch with the person's personality. The different identities have their own age, sex, or race. Each has his or her own postures, gestures, and distinct way of talking. Sometimes the identities are imaginary people. As each personality reveals itself and controls the individuals' behavior and thoughts, it's called switching. Switching can take seconds to minutes to days. Symptoms of dissociative identity disorder may include headache, amnesia, time loss, trances, and out of body experiences. Some people with dissociative disorders have a tendency toward self-persecution, self-sabotage, and even violence (both self-inflicted and outwardly directed). As an example, someone with dissociative identity disorder may find themselves doing things they wouldn't normally do such as speeding, reckless driving, or stealing money from their friend. Sybil portrayed this disorder very accurately because in the movie the main character had sixteen distinct personalities. Some of the identities are Vanessa, Vickie, Peggy, Marcia, Mary, Nancy, Ruthie, Clara, Ellen, Margie, Sybil Ann, Sid and Mike. Sybil would continuously have black outs and would never recall anything that
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