Thread by @TwisterFilm

1./ Is there a lesson from the scientific past that might explain the boom in people identifying as trans? Trans activists tell us the reason is that centuries of erasure are over. Critics argue transition is being promoted by stories like this.👇
nymag.com/intelligencer/…

2./ The piece in @NYMag tells the story of transman Gabriel Mac's struggle to get a surgical penis. The tone is captured in the opening line. "On the day I heard my penis would be huge I sobbed". The reception was as effusive. "It gives me such hope" said one entrepreneur. 👇

3./ Author of 'Becoming Heroines' and self-styled mentor of women, Elizabeth C McLaughlin also described the penis grafting as an example of agency both "miraculous and fucking brave". Given it's an op with a 50% fail rate and multiple complications brave is one word to use.👇

4./ Endless coverage like this now presents medical transition as fantastically liberating but trans activists tell us such stories don't actually influence young people. This despite the fact alcohol ads are regularly banned just for vaguely hinting at an appeal to the young.👇

5./ One reason people find it hard to believe the media is fuelling an artificial boom is those involved in what's now a vast industry of transition seem sincere. Surely doctors and surgeons like this noted penis-maker couldn't be deluded or on the make? Mmm. Maybe. Or maybe not.

6./ 20 years ago BBC Horizon made a film about a different medical obsession that exploded from nowhere. This one started in 1954 when psychologist Cornelia Wilbur began treating a woman suffering from mysterious blackouts. The woman would become known to the world as Sybil.👇

7./ Wilbur diagnosed 'Sybil' with multiple personality disorder (MPD). In a book published in 1973 she described how sexual trauma had caused Sybil to fragment into 16 different personalities. The book became a publishing phenomenon and then something very strange happened. 👇

8./ What had been just a popular paperback began to be treated as a scientific text book. Wilbur lectured across the world arguing that MPD had been overlooked. Therapists must now urgently look for signs of this hidden distress and then coax out all the 'alter' personalities.👇

9./ Wilbur preached an early form of affirmation saying doctors must validate the reality of all 'alters'. Hundreds of clinicians now took at her word. They began to look for MPD. And quickly found it. Soon patients too came forward; like this woman "with 8 personalities".👇

10./ As more people were diagnosed, media coverage exploded with a movie, TV series and chat shows. But there was a mystery. While MPD had been recognised for decades, until the 1970s no more than a handful of cases had ever been described. Then a serious problem emerged.

11./ Wilbur's original argument for validating all the different personalities was this was the way to 'integrate' the patient back to health...to oneness. But patients soon began to resist integration. They'd grown to rather like their different personalities.👇

12./ By the 1980s thousands of people were being diagnosed with MPD. A mass psychosis appeared to be underway. Then it suddenly peaked. In a series of scandals patients revealed they'd often felt under pressure to go along with the diagnosis.👇

13./ A picture emerged of clinicians who were so invested in the theory of widespread MPD they'd pushed their suggestible patients towards the diagnosis. Some therapists even remained so convinced of the truth of MPD they claimed denial was itself a proof of their diagnosis. 🤦‍♂️👇

14./ It's now widely accepted the huge spike in MPD was driven by wide-eyed media coverage and a rush by medics to become uncritical enthusiasts for a trendy new idea. This created an unhealthy conspiracy between patients and therapists. Stop me if this sounds familiar.👇

15./ So what was actually wrong with Sybil, real name Shirley Mason? No one can say for sure. But a 2017 book revealed Wilbur had broken serious protocols. She'd offered to treat Shirley for free if she collaborated on the book. She'd also given her drugs. cbc.ca/books/the-true…

16./ In addition to intravenous barbiturates which can make fantasies seem real, Wilbur prescribed Thorazine, an anti psychotic, that can cause hallucinations. It's now thought the cause of Shirley's blackouts was congenital anaemia. She may not even have needed psychiatric care.

17./ Wilbur went on to validate claims by multiple rapist Billy Milligan that the person who committed his crimes was one of his 24 identities. He evaded trial, was treated in institutions and was recently the subject of a sympathetic Netflix series.🤮👇 thedailybeast.com/the-dark-saga-…

18./ Multiple Personality or Dissociative Identity Disorder, as it's been renamed, continues to haunt psychiatry. Every now and again a startling case even features on TV. Here's a woman who has a range of very different identities that argue among themselves.👇

19./ It's remarkable tho how a diagnosis which once swept all psychiatry before it, required specialist clinics, was a magnet for research and provided a label eagerly embraced by thousands of patients has returned to Cinderella status. Perhaps it's because media hunger dwindled?

20./ The sudden explosion of multiple personality disorder had different dynamics to today's boom in transition (not least because it didn't involve life-changing surgeries). But perhaps it shows what happens when uncritical media coverage aligns with lazy and unethical science.

21./ The big question to which we won't know the answer until today's craze has run its course (hastened no doubt by scandals) is whether -as with multiple personalities- medics are responding to a real psychological need. Or like Cornelia Wilbur are they helping create it?👇