Sybil

Wondering about the connections between the selves as the analysis progresses, Dr. Wilbur decides to ask Vicky in June 1955 whether she is related to Sybil. Vicky is reticent: she admits that she knows Sybil, and, when asked what they share, she says that she and the others sometimes do things together. She continues to insist, though, that they are people–not the same person.

When pressed further, Vicky evades by introducing Mary. Mary announces herself as the homemaker: she manages things around the apartment, and rarely leaves it. Mary speaks of the grandmother’s death in the present tense–she seems to continually live in the moment of her grandmother’s death. And though Mary feels that Sybil’s mother is not her own, she loves her father completely, and calls him “an almost perfect human being” (177).

In the next session, two new personalities, Marcia and Vanessa, appear and speak through Sybil simultaneously. Though the doctor wonders at first how she will tell them apart, she comes to see that they’re quite different. Both speak with English accents, and when asked what they like to do, they say that while they have their own likes, they enjoy things most when they do them together. What they like to do is travel, go to the theater, and read.