Trivia / Sybil

• Creative Differences: Anthony Page was the original director but was replaced by Daniel Petrie before filming began in New York City.
• Referenced by...:
  • The title of the Tears for Fears album Songs from the Big Chair and the B-Side "The Big Chair" are both references to this movie.
  • In computer tech, a "Sybil attack" is similar to Sockpuppetry (i.e., a single user creating multiple identities for the purpose of exploiting the system) and is named after the film.
• Science Marches On: In the film, DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) is called "Multiple Personality Disorder". This change occurred because of a scandal in the 1980s and 1990s involving overdiagnosis by overzealous therapists horrified by the prevalence of child sexual abuse, plus some really skeevy behavior by prestigious doctors (some of whom lost their licenses and/or went to prison), and a less well known insurance company scam. "MPD" hasn't been the official name for it since the DSM-III and, like the name, a lot of the terminology and diagnostic criterion since the '70s and DSM-III had changed (the "alters" are called "personalities"). Dr. Ralph Allison, who coined the term MPD, says that multiple personality and dissociative identity are really two different things and that MPD should be regarded as valid.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Natalie Wood was the casting director's first choice for Sybil, but the screenwriter turned her down. The role was then offered to Audrey Hepburn, who declined. Patty Duke auditioned, but left due to clashes with the original director.
  • Riding on the book's popularity, author Flora Rheta Schreiber pitched an idea for a Sybil musical with songs like "The Peggy Part of Me" and "I Want to Be the Man I Marry," but it never got off the ground.

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