SHIRLEY MASON (1923 – 1998) was the real name of the American woman the world would come to know as SYBIL.

She underwent 11 years of psychotherapy sessions – beginning in 1954 when she was aged 31 – with her psychiatrist Dr Connie Wilbur (1908 – 1992).

The doctor/patient relationship that developed between Shirley and her psychiatrist over the eleven years of their sessions together was one like no other.

Dr Connie Wilbur treated her patient night and day, on weekends and weekdays; inside her office and outside, making house calls and even taking Shirley with her to social events and vacations.

Dr Wilbur fed Shirley, gave her money and paid her rent. She acted as an art broker to sell Shirley’s many paintings.

Shirley took to staying overnight at her psychiatrist’s house – enjoying what is humourously described in the book SYBIL EXPOSED as ‘Freudian slumber parties’.

The two women developed a slavish dependency upon each other. Towards the end of their lives they ended up living together.

Ethics rules were not so clearly codified for psychiatrists back in the 1950’s and early ’60’s when Dr Wilbur was treating Shirley.

Even so, the self-described ‘maverick‘ Dr Wilbur – whose clients included Hollywood types such as Roddy ‘Planet of the Apes’ McDowell – most likely would have been disciplined if her colleagues had known she was giving a patient free treatment, clothes, a house pet, rent money and even furnishings from the apartment where the patient’s analysis was taking place.

The psychiatry community would also have been shocked to know that part of Dr Wibur’s treatment of Shirley involved having the patient work for her.

The job involved secretarial duties, dog walking and care for a family member. To do this work Shirley went into Dr Wibur’s house at all hours, unannounced – she even had her own key.

Shirley often spent whole days in her doctor’s orbit. Mornings she walked the dogs. Early afternoon she went to libraries to do psychiatry research for Dr Wilbur.

Later she would return to her psychiatrist’s apartment to walk the dogs again. Then she’d have a psychoanalysis session that freqently would last for two to three hours. It would be nighttime before she got back to her own apartment.

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er. Towards the end of their lives they ended up living to

The two women developed a slavish dependency upon each oth

gether.

The two women developed a slavish dependency upon each other. Towards the end of their lives they ended up living together.