Doomed to not be alone (8 photos)

In 1923, a girl, Shirley Adele Mason, was born in a Minnesota town. Which was doomed to live alone, but not alone.





Shirley's childhood cannot be called happy and cloudless. Her mother Martha suffered from schizophrenia, which left an imprint on both the woman’s character and her attitude towards others. The baby had to endure a lot from a mentally unstable parent as a child. But children have a flexible psyche. And the grown-up daughter forgot the ice baths, the beatings, and the horrors of a locked chest, and assured everyone that she had the best mother in the world.



Shirley as a child





Shirley Mason in her youth

After graduating from school, the girl went to college, but childhood psychotraumas made themselves felt. Sessions with Dr. Cornelia Wilbur were interrupted by her mother, who lied that she refused to work with Shirley.

Mason made attempts to improve her condition only after her death, in 1954, when she was already an adult woman and taught at Columbia University, from which she graduated.



Shirley was afraid of memory lapses. Waking up in the morning, she could find a mess and broken dishes in the kitchen. Or several new dresses in the closet and no salary just received. Or finding yourself in an unfamiliar place far from home, without the slightest idea of how you got there.

Trying to understand herself, the woman found Dr. Wilbur and resumed the sessions. During which the frightening truth became clear: as many as 16 personalities lived in the woman’s mind. And when Shirley needed to hide from the world in order to once again relive stressful memories, one of them took on the role of host.





In the teacher’s mind coexisted the sophisticated Frenchwoman Vicky (it was she who was buying the dresses), the musician Vanessa, the carpenters Sid and Mike, the artist Marcia, the rebel Peggy Lou, a little girl, a teenager and more.

The psychotherapist believed that personalities began to appear in childhood in order to divide stress into several “people” and help the child cope with his experiences. For 10 years, Shirley received treatment for dissociative identity disorder. She became friends with her doctor because all her life she had been looking for support that was missing in childhood. And when Cornelia was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she moved to live with her.



The doctor decided to use the unique case of a patient who became a friend to become famous. And, after asking Mason’s permission, she hired writer Flora Retha Schreiber to work on the book.

Which was published in 1973. "Sibyl" became a bestseller - the entire circulation of 6 million copies was sold out in record time.



Still from the film "Sibyl" 2007

Shirley bought a house with her fee and continued teaching at the university. She did not have a husband or children. In 1990, a woman learned about cancer. She refused treatment, but lived another 8 years and died in February 1998.

Many researchers questioned the story with numerous personalities, believing that the specialist simply skillfully manipulated a patient with an unstable psyche, leading her to the necessary answers and conclusions.

Years after Shirley's death, many paintings were found in the basement of her house, sold at auction for quite substantial sums from 30 to 100 thousand dollars. Who actually was their author - Shirley herself, who did not study painting, or one of her personalities - the artist Marcia? This question remains unanswered.