Sybil

Fearing going into Dr. Wilbur’s office and telling her about her excursion to Philadelphia, Sybil reflects on the first time she had seen the doctor in New York, on October 18, 1954.

The re-introduction Sybil makes to the doctor over the first two months of analysis is factual, and cold. Sybil discusses whether to accept a proposal of marriage from a man named Stan, a marriage, the doctor gleans from Sybil’s euphemistic narration, that would be platonic. Dr. Wilbur wonders why a young woman would consider accepting a man when sex seems to not be a part of their relationship. Sybil, meanwhile, takes to researching psychiatric literature in Columbia’s library so she can become more adept at disguising her symptoms.

One morning, during analysis, Sybil enters Dr. Wilbur’s office and says that she wants Dr. Wilbur to see a letter Stan sent her that morning. But when she reaches into her purse to pull out the letter, she finds that half of it has been torn off and lost. Sybil, knowing she did not tear the letter herself, ransacks her purse for the other half with increasing panic. She tries to conceal what’s happened from the doctor, who is asking where the letter is, and whether Sybil wants her to see it.