Sybil is a novel about a young woman named Sybil Dorsett who lived with Disassociate identity disorder (DID) for most of her life. As a young child, Sybil was sexually abused by her mother, and her father failed to recognize what was going on in his own home. Many psychologists believe that a form of abuse during early childhood can cause a severe disassociation to help the child "escape" from the pain. (Dissociative) .
Sybil's home in Willow Corners was a home in which there were extremely strong religious beliefs. Every Sunday was a day of rest. No one was allowed to do anything except go to Church and rest. Sybil wasn't even allowed to attend birthday parties on the Sabbath day. The religious feelings were so strong in the Dorsett home, that Sybil was not allowed to read or say anything but the truth. She loved writing stories, but was forbidden to, and could not even listen to fairy tales. This lack of freedom to do what she loved doing led one of her alternating selves, Peggy Lou, to cut words and single leaders in headings out of newspapers, and put the letters in little gray boxes, which she took to school and then pasted onto paper so that she could "write without writing" which Sybil later recalled during a conversation with her roommate Teddy Reeves. .
Despite the religious sentiments, Sybil's mother, Hattie Dorsett, was far from pious. Dr. Wilbur later diagnosed her as being schizophrenic, although after her death and only based upon what had been said by Sybil and Sybil's father. While Sybil was a young girl, her mother would often take her for walks in the town. Only, the walks had a purpose other than to just be with her daughter. Hattie would excrete on the porches of people whom she had something against. This act severely embarrassed Sybil, though no one ever directly blamed Hattie for what was happening. Sybil was also embarrassed by her mother's "games" that she would play with the neighbors" children during church, which could easily be convicted as sexual abuse, and by these same "games" that she played with two teenage girls behind the bushes before they would take Sybil in the lake.
