Sunday, November 6, 2011
Fraud "proven"...again.
Shirley Ardell Mason was born Jan. 25, 1923. She grew up in a small town in Minnesota. In the early 1950's she was a substitute teacher and a graduate student studying art at Columbia University. She lived in West Virginia for a while, then settled in Lexington, Kentucky where she taught art at the local community college and ran an art gallery out of her home.Shirley never married, never had any children, and she had severed all ties with her family decades before her death. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, Shirley lived with and cared for Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, who died in Lexington in 1992. She died in Lexington Feb. 26. 1998 from breast cancer; she was 75 years old.
Shirley Ardell Mason was "Sybil Isabel Dorsett", made famous by the book, "Sybil" by Flora Rheta Schrieber and the movie of the same name starring Sally Field and Joanne Woodward. The name Sybil was used to allow for Shirley to remain anonymous, though it has been reported that when the movie came out, several people from Shirley's home town recognized her and her mother.
Recently a book called "Sybil Exposed" by Debbie Nathan has hit the bookstores. Several people have posted about it on blogs, and there are ongoing discussions in online psych communities (both for those with dissociative disorders, and general psych). In this book Nathan "proves" "Sybil" to be a fake. Nathan asserts that Mason and Dr. Wilbur intentionally colluded to perpetrate fraud in order to make money. Nathan also claims that Dr. Wilbur wanted to see multiple personalities, so Mason created them during therapy in order to keep Dr. Wilbur's attention. In short, Mason manipulated Dr. Wilbur...the claim is also made that Dr. Wilbur planted the idea or actually created the alters while having Mason under sodium pentathol or hypnosis, or both. So which is it? They knowingly created a fraud, or the doctor was manipulated, or the doctor created it...either they both knew, or one of them knew or it was real...it can't be all of the above as suggested in the book!
I have other issues with this, as follows....
- Debbie Nathan is an American journalist. American media is well-known for not giving all the facts and skewing the ones they do give in order to show whatever it is they want to be seen by the lay public. As a journalist, I don't believe Nathan to be qualified to or even ethical in asserting such an opinion. A journalist's job is to report the facts and let others form their own opinions. Nathan is neither a Psychologist nor a Psychiatrist, the only professionals qualified to make a diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities); it logically follows that only a Psychologist or Psychiatrist would be qualified to DENY said diagnosis.
- Nathan is a board member of the N*tion*l C*nter for Re*son and J*st*ce (spoiled to foil search engines, I hope). This organization is a non-profit who's express purpose is to help people who are falsely accused of harming children. Nathan was the first to write about the "ritual abuse panic" of the 1980's and her writing helped free some people who were convicted. Seems to me that Nathan has a vested interest here. "Proving" the most famous case of child abuse to be false would certainly do wonders to further her cause.
- This is not the first time "Sybil" has been "proven" to be a fake. During her treatment, Mason saw Dr. Herbert Spiegel while Wilbur was on vacation. Dr. Spiegel claimed Mason showed no signs of multiple personalities. My thinking is "Duh!"...of course she didn't! Mason didn't know this doctor, she had no trust established, and no reason to believe that anything really needed to be established since Wilbur would return from vacation. In 1998, psychologist Robert Rieber challenged Mason's diagnosis claiming that Wilbur manipulated Mason. Neither of these claims of fraud stuck...why should they now?
- A well-known letter that Mason wrote to Wilbur is being used to claim that Mason herself acknowledged being a fake. In the letter, Mason does in fact say the alters are not real, she made them all up, etc. This however, is a very common protective/coping technique (for lack of a better word) that those with multiple personalities use when things get scary. I myself have done this...I didn't write a letter, but deny the existence of the others regardless of the evidence in front of me...oh yes, I did that! As did many other people diagnosed with multiple personalities that I "know" through online forums. This letter was also published in entirety in the book by Schreiber, and this denial is portrayed in a different fashion in the movie. The letter proves nothing.
- My biggest issue is the question "why?". Why does it matter whether or not Mason was real? Why now? Why back in '98? Mason died in early '98, she can't defend herself. Wilbur and Schreiber are both dead. None of the people truly involved in the case are around to say anything about this. Wilbur's records were destroyed, there are "some notes" from Schreiber's archives...how can anything be proven without examining the patient?
~sera
Posted by Battle Weary at 6:53 AM 5 comments
Saturday, September 24, 2011
I guess it is time for an update. I am not really sure why it is time, since blogging seems to be disappearing. Of my admittedly small blogroll, only two are posting with any consistency, and one other has recently updated. My tracker shows that in the last week only two people beside myself have visited this blog, though I am aware that there is one other person that can check if there is a new post without actually coming to the blog...however, I can simply talk to that person face-to-face. It's a bit of a vicious cycle...people don't come read, that makes me feel less inclined to post, which makes people less inclined to come read...not sure what the solution to that is, if there is a solution.
Well...the update. I have good news and I have bad/sad news.
First the bad/sad because I would rather end on an up note. Our elderly (16 years) kitty whom has had fairly serious health concerns over the last several years (heart murmur and borderline hyperthyroid dx'd 6 or 7 years ago, clearly arthritic the last 2-3 years) is dying. She is really D's kitty, and doesn't like me all that much, but I have been nursing and comforting her since Thursday because D is out of town until Sunday night. This involves giving her a natural pain med that a relative that is a vet tech recommended, mixing wet food with warm water to make it a gravy (and stinky) to encourage her to eat, standing guard at the same time so the younger two boys don't push her out of the way and take her food, carrying her back and forth to the water bowl and litter box trying to get her to use both, and checking every few minutes to make sure she is still breathing. *phew* She will barely eat a tiny bit, she barely drinks, I haven't seen her use the litter box since Thursday night, and she isn't grooming herself. I am basically just trying to keep her comfortable until D gets home tomorrow evening and is able to make a decision. Really, the decision was made a long time ago (if blah blah, then blah), and D is completely aware of the situation...I need her to be able to say good bye.
And...the good news. The interview went well. It felt like a 10-15 minute conversation, but when I hung up the phone, I realized it had been 40 minutes. I took that as a good sign...not the actual length, which I hear is about average, but the fact that it didn't feel long at all. To me that means there wasn't any awkward silences, stumbly responses, but rather a flowing conversation. On Monday I got a letter from them, not a thin one, but also not the fat one I was hoping for, it was clearly more than one page. The letter was to inform me that I was being offered a spot on the wait list for January, with an option to be reconsidered for May if no spot opened for January. There was a form to return to indicate if I wanted to be on the wait list or not and an envelope to return it (by Oct. 7). I filled out the form and mailed it at the post office before 8 am the next morning...and yes, I indicated I want to be on the wait list. I am hoping that my early response gets me a spot near the top of the wait list! So I am waiting by the phone, hence the picture. I really, really, really want to go to this school! Meanwhile I am preparing to start a CNA program at the local community college, and I have an offer of a job after the CNA (not as a CNA), if I don't get in for January. The job would be with my sis-in-law who is the clinical director in a sleep lab. I have been looking into the "ticket to work" program through SSDI. I would have to go talk to them when/if the time comes, but it appears that under the program, if I make more than 700ドル a month, I can continue to receive full benefits and collect pay checks, for 9 months. If I go past 9 months, then I get partial benefits (keep Medicare if needed) but if I am not able to work after benefits are reduced, then I get expedited reinstatement of benefits. It seems good, or at least worth a try if I am waiting to get into a program. At the very least, it would give me an opportunity to get some money put away for school or to pay down some of the student loan debt I already have!
~Sera
Posted by Battle Weary at 8:36 AM 4 comments
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
I have an interview!! It will be a phone interview with undergrad nursing faculty at "Small-medium Sized Prestigious East Coast School" (above). I am intentionally not naming the school, due to anonymity issues...google finds all. :P Anyways...I am seriously excited, and nervous, and excited, and terrified, and excited! Mostly excited, as you can see.
For any who wonder, email me and I will tell you the school. Dr. Deb...you can probably figure it out pretty quickly. It's in your state, almost as far north as you can get and still be in the U.S. (note what appears to be a large body of water (a really great lake?!? ;) ) on the horizon in the picture. :D
Sera
Posted by Battle Weary at 6:11 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Major Irritation/frustration
Here's the latest update on the nursing grad school front....
Apparently nursing schools (and existing nurses) don't think anyone with any kind of psych issue currently or in the past should be allowed to become a nurse. Since I had a crappy childhood filled with emotional, psychological, and physical abuse, I am not capable of caring for people in a medical setting of any kind. It does not matter that I have spent years improving my own mental health and dealing with this past. It does not matter that I am a nearly straight A student now. It does not matter that I have completed all the pre-reqs and even taught some of them now. All that matters is that I *may* be unstable because more than 20 years ago my parents beat me! What a bunch of BS.
Also...I better not show up in anyone's ER with an anxiety issue either, because apparently that makes me the equivalent of an "obese drug seeker with fibromyalgia"...the other three biggest ER irritations. *sigh* Someone remind me why I want to work in the medical field?
Posted by Battle Weary at 4:17 PM 5 comments
Saturday, March 12, 2011
About smoking...
Go check outthis post by Raine, and add your 2 1/2 cents!
Posted by Battle Weary at 2:21 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
2010: Year in Review
This past year was rather interesting when I looked back through posts.
January began with a new addition to our family...Bags, an adult female kitty. She has turned out to be a very sweet kitty with a bit of grumpiness. She doesn't like the two boys, AT ALL. She growls and grumbles if they get too close to her...too close means she can see them! This grumbling will continue all day ...it's kind of funny really. Of course the boys get excited and want to play (chase) her when she growls, so it ends up being a self-replicating cycle. Other than that issue, Bags has settled in.
Also in January I began the second-to-last semester of undergrad. I believed it would be an easy semester and I was mostly right. Being a TA for an intensive science class with a lab was not easy! By March I was exhausted from all the work involved...not physically challenging work in any way...mentally challenging. The biggest challenge was dealing with a group of students that were younger on average than usual for the class. The reason for this is that due to the budget crisis in CA, the class was not going to be offered. When an increase in funding was given to CA public Universities, the class was immediately added to the schedule as it is a pre-req class for many health occupation programs. Unfortunately registration had already begun and juniors and seniors had both already completed both passes at registration...leaving only freshmen and sophomores able to register for the class...in fact...mostly freshman managed to get the class. So the class went from normal/average age of early to mid 20's down to 18. There is a huge difference no matter how many people (usual themselves 18) think otherwise! I spent much of my teaching time listening to whining and complaining, explaining why I would not give answers to lab exercise questions, and repeating at least 3 times a day that flip-flops were not allowed in the lab. Frustrating and tiring.
Prior to the start of the semester, I received a Happy Birthday wish on my facebook page. The wish came from a second cousin that I had seen a couple times (twice, literally) between the ages of 3 1/2 to 41. I had also believed, due to my mother's (intentional?) vagueness, that from an infant to 3 1/2 I had spent "some" time with her because my Great Aunt (her mother) took care of me " a little". The birthday wish sent a ripple of unnamed and unrecognized but painful feelings through me and the system...a bit odd considering I barely knew this person. The birthday wish also started an email dialogue between her and myself, and then between her eldest brother and myself. Turns out that taking care of me "a little' was actually I lived with them (and my mother) the first 4 months of my life, my mother moved out with me when I was 4 months, then at 6 months she dropped me off for a weekend visit that lasted 3 years, with no contact from her. One day when I was 3 1/2 she called up and said she would be there to pick me up in an hour, and then I didn't see them again aside from one visit when I was about 10 (for a couple hours, only the great Aunt and female cousin were there), and at the great Aunt's funeral when I was 27. Suddenly things began to fall in place and make sense. I spent my childhood waiting for my "real family" to come get me because there actually was another family that I spent my most important formative years with. I always felt like there were siblings missing from my life because I had 3 older "brothers" and an older "sister"...I wasn't wishing to have them...I DID have them, and I was taken from them. The reason I completely fell apart at my Great Aunt's funeral even though I hardly even knew her, was because she was "mommy". This was the person I had bonded with in early childhood, and this was the person that kept me safe during those important years. It's interesting to me that alter ages correspond with these events. We have an infant (around 6 months, possibly younger) and then there is a gap of no additional alters until about 3 1/2. At 3 1/2 - 4 there are MANY alters, but another important event within the system happened around that time also; the "original" went to sleep...she woke up this past year. Since January I have been developing a relationship with these lost siblings. It has been painful, and wonderful. In August we had a family reunion where I was reunited in person with all 4 of them, their spouses, and their children. I have 8 nieces and nephews ranging from 12-34 years old. One of my nieces is expecting her first child ( a girl) around Valentines day.
My partner informed me last spring that I should go ahead and apply wherever I wanted, she would move with me for grad school. This hugely opened up possibilities and widened my search for programs. After August, I began preparing applications for graduate school in nursing. I submitted three apps between October and December, with several more to submit through the coming spring. I am applying mostly on the East Coast, with one "Southern" school (Vandy in Tenn). The application process is grueling. I almost wish I was applying to some other type of program because I hear from people who have applied to others that they write one personal statement, and basically just change it a tiny bit for each app. My apps all require different essays! There are specif, different questions that each school wants answered. Very frustrating. Also...exactly how do I make myself stand out in 200 words!?! BLAH.
In September I decided to clean-up this blog, and at the same time, an issue regarding a 3d friend. The friend suddenly stopped answering emails, deleted her blog, canceled her cell phone, and stopped visiting our blog as well as others she regularly frequented. This was someone very important to the system as a whole, and individually. The really bad thing is that she had done this type of thing before...to make a long story short, I decided that this was her third strike...she's out. I can't have someone in my life that can do the kind of damage she did...especially when it is repeatedly done! Each time she did this, after a while, she would come back. We would work whatever the issue was out, and promises were made...only to be broken again. Note to anyone reading who does not get this...DO NOT promise someone that believes everyone will eventually leave that you will not, then leave! This is very, very bad! :P So anyway...its been well over a year and I do not think she will try to come back, but if by some weird chance she does, that bridge has burned...in fact, not even a charred skeleton remains.
The end of the year proved very stressful with school stuff being the primary cause of stress. My senior thesis being the biggest one of the school "issues" I had to deal with. I had several stress related physical issues...head aches, back pain, an almost panic attack (accomplishment...it was "almost") related to back pain, but I managed. I got everything in on time, I did two major presentations, I completed my research and then my paper, I made it to all my finals. I got 3 A's, and a B+. So now I have completed my BA, and I await grad school decisions.
I guess that is it for now!
Sera
Posted by Battle Weary at 9:27 AM 4 comments