I, too, read this book long ago - in my early 20's - and have never been able to forget it. Unfortunately i judge other books weak in comparison. I still wonder if this guy is locked up, and what happened to his poor kid? He is now an adult - and a good cause for worry. It should be deemed a classic in this genre, and kept on the shelves.

This book I think is awesome just because i know my mother lived next to this man and i was eager to see what it was like great book

I also read this book years ago in my early teens. As an adult, this book has left a large impression on my mind. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in psychology or serial killers.

It is impossible to say a book on such a sensitive and horrific issue as child abuse is a great book to read; in fact, this book is probably one of the most difficult ones to read that you will ever come across. Having studied psychology, it is a known fact that Multiple Personality Disorder(MPD) is associated with child abuse. The personality "splits" when the human psyche can no longer cope with the pain of abuse.

Sybil is a story of such abuse at the hands of a mentally disturbed mother - sexual, physical and emotional abuse prevail. Sybil is a true story based on one of the most severe cases of MPD and child abuse in history. Over a span of twenty years, it reveals the various "personalities" living within one woman. How one could even survive such atrocities is beyond belief. The time period of this story ends in the 40's. Today, research continues on this subject and much has been learned since Sybil's case, but one can never have enough knowledge.

Sybil's personalities eventually merge and in 1998, the real Sybil died, finding, we hope, final peace and contentment. If you are interested in books on MPD, another true life story is, First Person Plural: My Life as a Multiple, by Cameron West, PH.D.

I read this book over 20 years ago. It was one of the first books I read as an adult. It remains today the most fascinating book I have ever read. We are so used to outlandish fictional stories being thrown at us that we become jaded. Creatures that visit from other planets or monsters that have no purpose other than to scare teenagers are commonplace but unreal. What is much scarier than they could ever be is the real world. So horribly betrayed by what should be the most trusted person in her world - her mother; that Sybil must write her own science fiction story to survive. I remember staying up through the night reading this book. While the TV movie with Sally Field obviously isn't as detailed as the book, it too is riveting. To this day, I grow pale whenever the actress who played Sybil's mother Hattie appears on my TV - in anything. No other actor or actress has that effect on me. The recent airing of the TV movie has brought all this back to me. This is a great story of someone beating the odds and the eventual triumph of good over evil.

The first time I picked up the book, I knew I wasn't going to put it down until I close it's last pages considering Doris Lessing's back-cover note, it really gave me all the extra-ordinary intellectual energy I needed to boost me read the book twice and over again. I feel great reading it. It was like skating on thin ice, yet a foresight into the pains of felony and hatred, the need to be loved and cared.

From the shattering sounds of broken glasses to the odor of the old drugstore and the chemistry laboratory, Vicky who is Sybil's memory trace during her blackouts began to recall all her lost episodes from childhood at Willow corner through adolescence in Philadelphia. "Sybil", the Biography of Sybil Isabel Dorsett by Flora Rheta Schreiber is a psychological masterpiece that will eventually make the reader take a closer look at the person next to him/her considering the astonishment discovery of this intriguing and fascinating true-life-story of a woman possessed with sixteen separate and distinct personalities. The book unveils the evil associated with child abuse & neglect. It also condemns the horrific ordeal of nursing emotions within as a naïve person. Infact it is Reality beyond the limits of perception in the research of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD).

Sybil, who through the scourge of a schizophrenic inflicted mother went through certain odd torments, disassociated herself by splitting into sixteen separate and distinct personalities while coping with the anguish of fear and anger in order to protect and defend herself through disintegration when the real self could no longer bear the pains of neglect and abuse coupled with a fundamentalist father who was less concerned about the emotions and feelings of his daughter. In her struggle for survival and recovery, Flora Rheta introduced Dr. Cornelia Wilbur a psychoanalyst to Sybil. She diagnosed her and indeed befriends all the other selves after hypnotizing them with the aim of merging them into a single self. Another intriguing aspect of this book is that two out of the sixteen personalities were male features thereby lengthening the therapy.

The insight objective part of this story is that it is helpful to all both as a psychologist and as a person because it reveals a lot of damages done mentally, emotionally, physically and psychologically in child abuse/neglect, moreso it unravels the building of a defensive wall within some emotional struggles in a naïve person as a means of survival. I hereby recommend the book "SYBIL" as a must read for all who crave and quest for intellectual knowledge in child psychology and juvenile delinquency.

Infact if I could ever narrate a book with all pleasure, it will be 'Sybil' and if I could ever re-reader a book over and over again with all interest, it must be "Sybil". I love the story though a painful experience but I just can't let it go. Her case was a misdemeanor of neglect and the need to be loved and cared for. The Real Sybil died in 1998 after successfully becoming whole. She has proved change to be a dynamic fact and time to be there for us no matter how long it takes to heal a wound. It's one of the best books on earth. Thanks goodness I read the book. If you are crazy about biographies, then go check this out; First Person Plural: My Life As A Multiple by Cameron West, Ph.D.