Sybil Exposed (55 page)

Shirley Mason and Jean Lane featured in their art classes in the college yearbook.
Courtesy Minnesota State University, Mankato

Dr. Wilbur injects a patient in World War II–era Omaha with barbiturates to induce “narcosynthesis.” Note the enormous needle.
Courtesy The Nebraska Medical Center and National Library of Medicine

Dr. Wilbur compares the behavior of one troubled patient before and after treatment.
Courtesy The Nebraska Medical Center

A young Flora Schreiber working at NBC in New York. From
Film and Radio Discussion Guide.

The Schreiber family, who lived together for most of Flora’s life.
Courtesy Sealy Library Special Collections, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

The faculty of John Jay College, circa 1965. Flora Schrieber is third from the left.
Courtesy Sealy Library Special Collections, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

A rail-thin Shirley Mason, looking posh and cosmopolitan, shortly before she moved to New York City in 1954.
Courtesy David Eichman

A sample of Shirley’s art during the time she was being treated by Dr. Wilbur. The name of this piece was “Good Mother/Bad Mother.”

A sample of Shirley’s journals from one of her therapy sessions, in which she writes about her mother “I hate her” seventeen times. In contrast to her beautiful script, the drug-induced writing is barely legible.
Courtesy Sealy Library Special Collections, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

An idolatrous letter written to Dr. Wilbur by Shirley. In her gorgeous cursive, Shirley writes, “I think whatever you say must of course be right and it’s intolerable ever to think you might be mistaken about anything …”
Courtesy Sealy Library Special Collections, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

The building that housed Open Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, where Dr. Wilbur allowed patients the run of the slowly decaying space.

Dr. Connie Wilbur at the West Virginia University.
Courtesy West Virginia University