Sybil by: Flora Rheta Schreiber

How do I even begin to describe the eloquence of this novel (though I just looked it up and it is actually a biography, my bad).
Meet Sybil.
Sybil suffers from multiple personality disorder (now referred to as dissociative identity disorder) and is in actuality 16 different people sharing one body.
At the beginning of the book, Sybil is unaware of her condition and experiences semi-frequent boughts of amnesia, nervousness, and the inability to function on a daily basis. She would be in her apartment one moment, and the next she could be in another state. It could be hours, days, weeks, even years later, with absolutely no recollection of how she got there, what had happened, and how much time had passed.
Through eleven painstaking years of psychoanalysis, drug and hypnotherapy, Sybil learns to accept her condition and gradually Dr. Wilbur and herself, piece herself back together. Literally.
Slowly she meets her other personalities, each with their own tastes, desires, and distinct personalities and even ages. They include: Sybil (the waking self), Vicky, Marcia, Vanessa, Mary, Helen, Clara, Sybil Ann, The Blonde, Peggy Ann, Peggy Lou, Mike, Sid, Nancy Lou Ann, Marjorie and Ruthie.
As the reader, meeting each person in turn, you find yourself liking some more than others and learning to understand how each personality protects and enables Sybil to not only live her daily life, but eventually to graduate from college and have a successful career.
Its incredibly fascinating and awe-inspiring that the author can SO SUCCESSFULLY portray 16 people so uniquely and SPOT ON, that you really do think of them as individuals and separate characters.
Written beautifully. I literally missed my stop, a few times, while on the subway because I was so stuck in this book. Captivating, horrifying, and disturbing. I really feel like I learned something from this novel. About the practices of psychoanalysis, about this disease, and about what it would feel like to be so incredibly isolated yet find your way back. SO I guess its hopeful too! (but really I didn't really like the ending). Happy endings are so cliché.
The only REAL negative thing I can say about this novel, is that the author wrote herself into the book, and I HATE that. I mean, I fully understand that this is the account of a real person and the author actually knew her... but still!!! It seems so egotistical. Your name is on the spine, I think that is far more important than an character involved in the story. (Of course autobiographies and memoirs are exceptions... as that really defines them).
LOVED IT!