Many of you have likely heard of Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly, Multiple Personality Disorder), the disorder in which people exhibit more than one alternating personality.
Introduced to the American public in the 1950s in a film called "The Three Faces of Eve," its popularity increased dramatically after the made-for-television version of the book "Sybil" was aired in the mid-1970s. Since then, thousands of people have been professionally diagnosed as having DID, and countless movies and TV shows have used it as a vehicle for drama, as well as occasional low-brow comedy.
Although always controversial, a new, more detailed indictment was published in 2011, entitled "Sybil Exposed," which accuses those originally involved in the Sybil case of fraud and deceit. Author Debbie Nathan maintains that three women set out to purposely create the story out of whole cloth, duping the world into believing that the Sybil story was real, and lending unwarranted credibility to the existence of the disorder itself.
CLICK HERE to read a short summary on Salon, and judge for yourself.
P.S. Since the book came out, the real Sybil has admitted in an NPR report that the story was fake.
