Shirley Ardell Mason also is known as (Sybil) was quietly living in Lexington Kentucky, and had run an art business out of her home in the 1970s. She later died on Feb 26, 1998, from breast cancer due to declining treatment. There was a movie based on Shirley Ardell Mason Life called Sybil which came out in 1976, her real name wasnt used in the book or movie because she wanted to protect her identity. The movie depicted what Shirley had gone through a child, which included physical, emotional, and severe sexual abuse of the hands of her mother who was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Due to Shirleys trauma as a child, she was diagnosed with a multiple personality disorder also called dissociative personality disorder, which consisted of 16 distinctive personalities in 1973 diagnosed by her therapist Dr. Cornelia Wilbur. Shirley Ardell Mason was born on January 25, 1923, in Dodge Center, Minnesota. Her parents Walter Mason and Martha Alice Hageman raised Shirley in Dodge center where they were well liked by others. However, Shirleys mother had a strange laugh, which caught others off guard. At times to get back at other neighbors she would sneak into their back yards and do malicious acts while Shirley was there. Shirley suffered from child abuse severely from her mother when she was a toddler up till she was a young teen. Shirley never knew why her mother would do such vicious acts to her. Shirley’s father was the breadwinner but still neglected Shirley at the same time. When Shirley was a young chil
d her mother had a miscarriage, which caused her to go into a deep depression state and became sick for a while. Shirleys father had buried the fetus in their backyard due to feeling ashamed about the situation; Martha was unable to take care of Shirley. The father had Shirleys grandmother move in to take care of her while he went to work. Shirley cherished good times with her grandmother because she felt that she was more of a good loving mother vs. her mother who was unstable. As Shirley got older her mother would be very cautious of her and wouldnt allow her to socialize with because she felt they were up to no good. Shirley had her first boyfriend at 16 and his name was Tommy but sadly she had witnessed him in a terrible accident. Years later, Shirley soon then had grown into a beautiful young woman and became intrigued by art, and soon became an artist. She was a student at Columbia University in NY studying art in 1957. Soon enough Shirley started to have these blackout episodes that would lead her to break glass, or have emotional breakdowns randomly, she would just do things that were out of the ordinary, which had taken over her life. Shirley was very concerned with her mental state and so she reached out to a psychotherapist named Dr. Cornelia Wilbur and had explained her concerns. Dr. Wilbur could tell that Shirley had been through something but she couldnt quite figure it out what. Shirley met with Dr. Wilbur every week but it became more frequent due to Shirleys behavior becoming worse.