Bieber Study Co-Author, Cornelia Wilbur, Accused of Fabricating Case of Sybil

Sunday, Salon briefly reviewed a book by Debbie Nathan which claims to debunk the case of Sybil. Sybil, actually a young Minnesota girl named Shirley Mason, was one of the first cases of multiple personality disorder to catch the public attention. The book about the case sold 6 million copies and inspired a movie starring Sally Field.
The Salon article by Laura Miller gives enough detail to hook my inner skeptic. According to Nathan, most of the details reported in the book were fabricated, based on grueling sessions where Shirley/Sybil was under the influence of Sodium Pentothal, administered by her psychoanalyst, Cornelia Wilbur. At one point, Shirley Mason wrote Wilbur confessing that the information about lost time, and other personalities was made up to keep her therapist’s attention. Miller writes:

Nevertheless, Mason did at one point attempt to jump off Wilbur’s train, writing her doctor a long letter confessing that all the multiple-personality stuff — the lost time, the named “alters” and the grotesque tortures supposedly inflicted on Mason as a child by her supposedly psychotic mother — had all been made up. Wilbur briskly dismissed this as a “major defensive maneuver” designed to derail the “hard work” of therapy lying ahead. The pitiably vulnerable Mason soon caved.

The Salon article and the book it features would be interesting enough for a post. However, it gets more interesting. While she was involved in the invention of multiple personalities, Cornelia Wilbur was a member of the Society of Medical Psychoanalysts, along with Irving Bieber. In fact, she was a co-author of the famous “Bieber study” from which current reparative therapists derive much of their claims about the causes of male homosexuality. The Bieber authors surveyed psychoanalysts about their patients (presumably Wilbur was one of the participants as well) and reported their results in the 1962 book Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study.
The Bieber study has been widely criticized, and for good reason.  First, the homosexual participants were psychoanalytic patients in analysis with doctors who already believed that homosexuality was a pathological condition. Also, the patients themselves were never interviewed. Rather, the authors surveyed the analysts to assess the histories and attitudes of their patients. The analysts had already formed the opinion that homosexuality was shaped in childhood and that is exactly what they reported as results.
So it is intriguing to read about Cornelia Wilbur’s conduct in relationship to her most celebrated case. Is it possible that her biases about homosexuality operated first in the Bieber study? While one cannot say based on the case of Sybil, I think is natural to question her part in the Bieber study as a result. This seems especially true given how open the Bieber methodology was to confirmation bias.
The Bieber study is central to reparative therapy. Whenever I have asked reparative therapists for the three best studies which they believe support reparative therapy, they always mention Bieber.
A number of studies mentioned over the years as supports for sexual reorientation change efforts have later come into disrepute. Rekers work with Kyle Murphy, and the Masters and Johnson studies are just two other prominent investigations which later have been questioned.
Additional information: The New York Time Magazine has a lengthy piece on Wilbur and the Sybil case here. This article makes it clear that the sessions with Mason took place while Wilbur was involved with the Bieber study.

24 thoughts on “Bieber Study Co-Author, Cornelia Wilbur, Accused of Fabricating Case of Sybil”

  1. Just random… When I watched this video I was struck by how normal these people are and how MEAN we are to them for no good reason that I can figure out
    http://youtu.be/1H_yfhRXA3Y
    Why are we as a society hurting these people? Why?
    Number 2 random… A grad student taking a business call was told by her instructor (Professor?)

    During a discussion that turned to homosexuality, her business professor, who has not been identified, called it “disgusting, unnatural, and abnormal” and when Santiago identified herself as a lesbian he told her that the words applied to her. The teacher continued, telling her that “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Adam.

    Make sure and watch the video that is in the news article.
    Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/10/indianasantiago.html#ixzz1b5jcds8i
    This is a school with 15,000 students and a quick look shows it does not look to be religiously based. Again we see attacks on sexual minorities (don’t forget the New Jersey Special Education teacher who lashed out against sexual minorities last week on Facebook) that the perpetrator justifies the attacks based on the Bible.
    If you regularly read news from the gay community like I do, you come to understand that these incidents are just another day. These incidents happen day in and day out, every day 24/7/365. Learning about sexual minorities has been a real eye opener for me. Equally eye opening is learning about the Evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons who are dead set against sexual minorities being granted Equal Civil Rights.
    I also read today that Montana voted to maintain their unenforceable sodomy law on the books. Even though it cannot be enforced after the 2003 Supreme Court decision in Lawrence vs. Texas, the legislators in Montana still want to keep it on the books, must be simply for symbolism and to send a message.
    I really have a hard time with this. What is wrong with our country, it is like mass prejudice and stupidity. Look at that first video, there is nothing wrong with those people, I just see them as fellow American citizens. I do not get why our governments DISCRIMINATE against them, and the govt. permits private DISCRIMINATION against them also. I do not understand this at all. I don’t get it.

  2. Here’s a turn-up for the books. BTW. It was Joanne Woodward who did the original film and won the Oscar. Terrible performance in an utterly silly film. I can’t say I’m surprised. But I had no idea there was some link between that malarkey and so-called reparative therapy.

  3. I should add that some in the Christian community were thrilled with the idea of MPD, because it came with terrifying stories of witches and covens and death rituals and animal sacrifices

    I know that one of the founders of Exodus, Greg Reid, was quite thrilled by it. After he quietly left Exodus, he got a very questionable honorary “doctorate” degree and became a self-proclaimed “expert” on “ritual satanic abuse”. He claims he was a victim of such rituals, that he was the “real Harry Potter” and that he could move things just by thinking about it, etc. He told me he thought that’s what might have caused him to be gay.
    About the time “Sybil” came out, a whole slew of “ex-gay” programs latched on to the idea of “repressed memories” and “healing of memories” to explain why so many “ex-gays” couldn’t remember how they had been traumatized into being homosexual. Many were told that such repressed abuse is what led to the “demonic possession or oppression” at the root of their “same sex attractions”.
    http://lamarzulli.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/acceleration-radio-satanic-ritual-abuse-w-dr-gregory-reid/

  4. I should add that some in the Christian community were thrilled with the idea of MPD, because it came with terrifying stories of witches and covens and death rituals and animal sacrifices.
    I don’t think the APA ever came out and condemned this era of psychology.
    See Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” for a story that could have informed both psychology and Christianity to protect the consumer.
    Unfortunately it was not to be…the idiocy of Sybil and MPD on Oprah and elsewhere continued much longer than the Salem Witch Trials.

  5. This is a great catch Warren.
    Especially as the MPD drama built in the 80’s and 90’s; and spurred the whole confusion of false memories.
    This was a diagnosis built for TV and the movies…and expanded the power and authority of mental health professionals.
    It is important that the outrage that some have toward Reparative Drive theory understand that its root lie in a problem generally minimized in psychology: That Psychology often tries to assert that it know more than it actually does.
    MPD (or it’s new name, DID) was overdiagnosed for much of the 90’s. Many fabrications needed to be created to justify these diagnoses.
    Getting an healthier, less market-driven, less politically driven, psychology will be better for consumers.

  6. I should add that some in the Christian community were thrilled with the idea of MPD, because it came with terrifying stories of witches and covens and death rituals and animal sacrifices

    I know that one of the founders of Exodus, Greg Reid, was quite thrilled by it. After he quietly left Exodus, he got a very questionable honorary “doctorate” degree and became a self-proclaimed “expert” on “ritual satanic abuse”. He claims he was a victim of such rituals, that he was the “real Harry Potter” and that he could move things just by thinking about it, etc. He told me he thought that’s what might have caused him to be gay.
    About the time “Sybil” came out, a whole slew of “ex-gay” programs latched on to the idea of “repressed memories” and “healing of memories” to explain why so many “ex-gays” couldn’t remember how they had been traumatized into being homosexual. Many were told that such repressed abuse is what led to the “demonic possession or oppression” at the root of their “same sex attractions”.
    http://lamarzulli.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/acceleration-radio-satanic-ritual-abuse-w-dr-gregory-reid/

  7. I should add that some in the Christian community were thrilled with the idea of MPD, because it came with terrifying stories of witches and covens and death rituals and animal sacrifices.
    I don’t think the APA ever came out and condemned this era of psychology.
    See Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” for a story that could have informed both psychology and Christianity to protect the consumer.
    Unfortunately it was not to be…the idiocy of Sybil and MPD on Oprah and elsewhere continued much longer than the Salem Witch Trials.

  8. This is a great catch Warren.
    Especially as the MPD drama built in the 80’s and 90’s; and spurred the whole confusion of false memories.
    This was a diagnosis built for TV and the movies…and expanded the power and authority of mental health professionals.
    It is important that the outrage that some have toward Reparative Drive theory understand that its root lie in a problem generally minimized in psychology: That Psychology often tries to assert that it know more than it actually does.
    MPD (or it’s new name, DID) was overdiagnosed for much of the 90’s. Many fabrications needed to be created to justify these diagnoses.
    Getting an healthier, less market-driven, less politically driven, psychology will be better for consumers.

  9. Perhaps we should be surprised that Sybil wasn’t outted as gay by Wilbur?

  10. I liked Field’s portrayal of Sybil in the film, and there is a lot of it that I respect production-wise – but these are technical things unrelated to whether or not the story was a real story. I don’t know much about the real case, other than it always has been controversial.
    The movie helped to (continue to) break ground for the TV miniseries/movie; big-name actors could participate and high production value could be utilized to create a worthy final piece; albeit for the small screen.
    Fiction or not, it has created a sensational storyline.

  11. Warren, you’re absolutely right. It isn’t the same case? I thought it was. Anyhow, I will now got to the back of the class and think of how I can be a better person. Shouldn’t be hard. God knows there’s room for improvement.
    I want to really read through your links tomorrow. This is one of the most interesting things I’ve seen in a long time.

  12. Just random… When I watched this video I was struck by how normal these people are and how MEAN we are to them for no good reason that I can figure out
    http://youtu.be/1H_yfhRXA3Y
    Why are we as a society hurting these people? Why?
    Number 2 random… A grad student taking a business call was told by her instructor (Professor?)

    During a discussion that turned to homosexuality, her business professor, who has not been identified, called it “disgusting, unnatural, and abnormal” and when Santiago identified herself as a lesbian he told her that the words applied to her. The teacher continued, telling her that “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Adam.

    Make sure and watch the video that is in the news article.
    Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/10/indianasantiago.html#ixzz1b5jcds8i
    This is a school with 15,000 students and a quick look shows it does not look to be religiously based. Again we see attacks on sexual minorities (don’t forget the New Jersey Special Education teacher who lashed out against sexual minorities last week on Facebook) that the perpetrator justifies the attacks based on the Bible.
    If you regularly read news from the gay community like I do, you come to understand that these incidents are just another day. These incidents happen day in and day out, every day 24/7/365. Learning about sexual minorities has been a real eye opener for me. Equally eye opening is learning about the Evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons who are dead set against sexual minorities being granted Equal Civil Rights.
    I also read today that Montana voted to maintain their unenforceable sodomy law on the books. Even though it cannot be enforced after the 2003 Supreme Court decision in Lawrence vs. Texas, the legislators in Montana still want to keep it on the books, must be simply for symbolism and to send a message.
    I really have a hard time with this. What is wrong with our country, it is like mass prejudice and stupidity. Look at that first video, there is nothing wrong with those people, I just see them as fellow American citizens. I do not get why our governments DISCRIMINATE against them, and the govt. permits private DISCRIMINATION against them also. I do not understand this at all. I don’t get it.

  13. I liked Field’s portrayal of Sybil in the film, and there is a lot of it that I respect production-wise – but these are technical things unrelated to whether or not the story was a real story. I don’t know much about the real case, other than it always has been controversial.
    The movie helped to (continue to) break ground for the TV miniseries/movie; big-name actors could participate and high production value could be utilized to create a worthy final piece; albeit for the small screen.
    Fiction or not, it has created a sensational storyline.

  14. Warren, you’re absolutely right. It isn’t the same case? I thought it was. Anyhow, I will now got to the back of the class and think of how I can be a better person. Shouldn’t be hard. God knows there’s room for improvement.
    I want to really read through your links tomorrow. This is one of the most interesting things I’ve seen in a long time.

  15. Here’s a turn-up for the books. BTW. It was Joanne Woodward who did the original film and won the Oscar. Terrible performance in an utterly silly film. I can’t say I’m surprised. But I had no idea there was some link between that malarkey and so-called reparative therapy.

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