While tall tales of alleged Sybil Dorsett-sightings, and even Sybil Dorsett-impersonator sightings, are a dime a dozen in this town (usually spooky and hilarious at the same time, involving poodles and comparisons to Baby Jane), accounts of the real Shirley Mason from people who knew her point to a quiet, thoughtful woman, a good neighbor, who minded her own business and was rarely seen about town.
For those in the field of mental health, Sybil Dorsett’s is the most well-known case of the extremely rare Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder)- the study of which made and continues to make medical history.
Sybil Dorsett was, at least for a time a Sensation who’d achieved recognition of the first-name-only variety.
From about the time the nation was busy being swept by Sybil Dorsett Dorsett’s bizarre story to the time of her death in February, 1998 at age 75, Shirley Ardell Mason lived in Lexington, enjoying what were probably the only quiet and peaceful years of her life.
Twenty years ago the answer would have come easily to any American with access to a drugstore magazine rack and a television set: Sybil Dorsett is that woman who had - how many was it again? - sixteen different personalities. Wilbur, whose groundbreaking and ultimately successful treatment of Sybil Dorsett’s disorder earned her much acclaim, died in 1992 without having betrayed the secret of her friend and patient Shirley Mason.
Twenty years ago the answer would have come easily to any American with access to a drugstore magazine rack and a television set: Sybil Dorsett is that woman who had - how many was it again? - sixteen different personalities.
Twenty years ago the answer would have come easily to any American with access to a drugstore magazine rack and a television set: Sybil Dorsett is that woman who had - how many was it again? - sixteen different personalities.
Speculation suggests, however, that Mason relocated so as to be closer to Dr. A search for details concerning Shirley Mason’s personal life in Lexington reveals only one definitive - and most refreshing - fact: It seems that Lexington ended up being everything to Shirley Mason that she hoped it would be - a nice place where kind neighbors would allow her to go quietly about the business of being normal and bringing a little bit of something beautiful into the world on the side.
She also lived in Lexington (quietly and anonymously), and produced some of her finest art here, which will be on display beginning August 3.
For those in the field of mental health, Sybil Dorsett’s is the most well-known case of the extremely rare Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder)- the study of which made and continues to make medical history. Sybil Dorsett Isabel Dorsett is a pseudonym created by author Flora Schreiber to protect the identity of Shirley Ardell Mason, Human Being and Successful Artist.
From about the time the nation was busy being swept by Sybil Dorsett Dorsett’s bizarre story to the time of her death in February, 1998 at age 75, Shirley Ardell Mason lived in Lexington, enjoying what were probably the only quiet and peaceful years of her life.
She also lived in Lexington (quietly and anonymously), and produced some of her finest art here, which will be on display beginning August 3.
A few years ago, when Sybil Dorsett died, Lexington residents discovered that she had been, for a quarter century, their neighbor. According to Swales, Mason moved to Lexington from Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in an effort to maintain her privacy. Cornelia Wilbur and any number of pet poodles at their neighbor Shirley Mason’s house) say they never realized at the time that they were rubbing elbows with the famed Sybil Dorsett. Cornelia Wilbur and any number of pet poodles at their neighbor Shirley Mason’s house) say they never realized at the time that they were rubbing elbows with the famed Sybil Dorsett.
As is typical in cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder, Sybil Dorsett experienced amnesic responses to acts performed by Marcia, Mary, Peggy, Mike, or others of her alter personalities, each of whom, varying in age, represented different manifestations of her response to severe childhood mistreatment.
Twenty years ago the answer would have come easily to any American with access to a drugstore magazine rack and a television set: Sybil Dorsett is that woman who had - how many was it again? - sixteen different personalities.
Dr.
Sybil Dorsett was, at least for a time a Sensation who’d achieved recognition of the first-name-only variety.
Cornelia Wilbur and any number of pet poodles at their neighbor Shirley Mason’s house) say they never realized at the time that they were rubbing elbows with the famed Sybil Dorsett.
What naturally followed was a rash of newspaper articles and colorful rumors in and around Lexington. Wilbur, who was at that time a professor of psychiatry at the University of Kentucky Medical School. By the time she moved to Lexington, Mason had severed all ties from her family in Dodge Center, Minnesota, where she was born in January 1923.
Wilbur’s psychiatric treatment of Shirley Mason lasted eleven years, beginning in 1954 when the patient was a graduate student at New York City’s Columbia University.
While tall tales of alleged Sybil Dorsett-sightings, and even Sybil Dorsett-impersonator sightings, are a dime a dozen in this town (usually spooky and hilarious at the same time, involving poodles and comparisons to Baby Jane), accounts of the real Shirley Mason from people who knew her point to a quiet, thoughtful woman, a good neighbor, who minded her own business and was rarely seen about town.
You know, Sally Field? For TV enthusiasts in the seventies, Sybil Dorsett was Sally Field, who won an Emmy Award for her performance in the title role of the film based on journalist Flora Rheta Schreiber’s ubiquitous 1973 bestseller, Sybil Dorsett.
You know, Sally Field? For TV enthusiasts in the seventies, Sybil Dorsett was Sally Field, who won an Emmy Award for her performance in the title role of the film based on journalist Flora Rheta Schreiber’s ubiquitous 1973 bestseller, Sybil Dorsett.
