The old guy at the end, the family doctor, tells the skrink about broken this and that, then goes on to explain his horror at the 'insides' of sybil knowing she will never have children.
so why oh why, did he not do anything??!!
why was he allowed to continue practising? why no insight into this shocking neglect? her mother may have been round the twist, but he wasnt..
I agree. A big mystery for me...
share
I read that the doctor may have been a composite of all the doctors that ignored Sybil's injuries, not sure.
But regardless whether it was 1 doctor or 10, it seems odd that they didn't do anything given the absolute certainty of the abuse.
I've read story after story from 'back in the day', and the only thing that they all seem to come out with is that child abuse was either not acknowledged at all OR it was thought of as only something that happened in poor families.
In the rare instances where people tried to intervene, sometimes this did no good at all. Cases were hard to prove, and no one wanted to believe that a parent (especially the mother would do such a thing.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
Dr. Quinones WAS a composite character, and Sybil's internal damage wasn't recognized until she around 20, too late to intervene. It's in the book.
Do you hate me because I have no avatar? Do you even give a damn?
Reporting child abuse back then was way different then reporting it today. Today people can get CPS called on them for spanking a child too hard, but I remember reading a book where a man talked about being abused as a child and he mentioned that his teacher's (who reported his mom) was risking loosing their jobs for it. He also mentioned in an interview that when he was a child CPS didn't exist yet and you would have to do A LOT to your child before the police would do anything. Thankfully, the rules have changed since then.
shareYou're right the doctor wouldn't have seen the vaginal abuse and bladder trouble until Sybil was older but the broken clavicle, burned hand, broken shoulder bone, beans stuck in nostrils wow if you don't call the cops tell someone and save the child. Such a sorry time when abuse was ignored.
shareIf you recall when sybil was a child it wasn't modern times.
Child Services and stuff wouldn't have been a thing. And raising a child was considered none of anyones business outside of the household.
Especially since the Dorsett family were well known and Hattie was a 'pillar of the town' it would have been easier for the abuse to be swept under the rug or not even noticed than it would be in modern times.