Synopses & Reviews
Sybil: a name that conjures up enduring fascination for legions of obsessed fans who followed the nonfiction blockbuster from 1973 and the TV movie based on itand#8212;starring Sally Field and Joanne Woodwardand#8212;about a woman named Sybil with sixteen different personalities. andlt;iandgt;Sybil andlt;/iandgt;became both a pop phenomenon and a revolutionary force in the psychotherapy industry. The book rocketed multiple personality disorder (MPD) into public consciousness and played a major role in having the diagnosis added to the psychiatric bible, andlt;iandgt;Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disordersandlt;/iandgt;. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;But what do we really know about how andlt;iandgt;Sybil andlt;/iandgt;came to be? In her news-breaking book andlt;iandgt;Sybil Exposed, andlt;/iandgt;journalist Debbie Nathan gives proof that the allegedly true story was largely fabricated. The actual identity of Sybil (Shirley Mason) has been available for some years, as has the idea that the book might have been exaggerated. But in andlt;iandgt;Sybil Exposed, andlt;/iandgt;Nathan reveals what really powered the legend: a trio of womenand#8212;the willing patient, her ambitious shrink, and the imaginative journalist who spun their story into bestseller gold. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;From horrendously irresponsible therapeutic practicesand#8212;Sybiland#8217;s psychiatrist often brought an electroshock machine to Sybiland#8217;s apartment and climbed into bed with her while administering the treatmentand#8212; to calculated business decisions (under an entity they named Sybil, Inc., the women signed a contract designating a three-way split of profits from the book and its spin-offs, including board games, tee shirts, and dolls), the story Nathan unfurls is full of over-the-top behavior. Sybiland#8217;s psychiatrist, driven by undisciplined idealism and galloping professional ambition, subjected the young woman to years of antipsychotics, psychedelics, uppers, and downers, including an untold number of injections with Pentothal, once known as and#8220;truth serumand#8221; but now widely recognized to provoke fantasies. It was during these and#8220;treatmentsand#8221; that Sybil produced rambling, garbled, and probably and#8220;false-memoryand#8221;and#8211;based narratives of the hideous child abuse that her psychiatrist said caused her MPD. andlt;iandgt;Sybil Exposed andlt;/iandgt;uses investigative journalism to tell a fascinating tale that reads like fiction but is fact. Nathan has followed an enormous trail of papers, records, photos, and tapes to unearth the lives and passions of these three women. The andlt;iandgt;Sybil andlt;/iandgt;archive became available to the public only recently, and Nathan examined all of it and provides proof that the story was an elaborate fraudand#8212;albeit one that the perpetrators may have half-believed. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Before andlt;iandgt;Sybil andlt;/iandgt;was published, there had been fewer than 200 known cases of MPD; within just a few years after, more than 40,000 people would be diagnosed with it. Set across the twentieth century and rooted in a time when few professional roles were available to women, this is a story of corrosive sexism, unchecked ambition, and shaky theories of psychoanalysis exuberantly and drastically practiced. It is the story of how one modest young womanand#8217;s life turned psychiatry on its head and radically changed the course of therapy, and our culture, as well.
Review
and#8220;What forces cause a diagnosis like Multiple Personality Disorder to rise and fall within less than a generation? Debbie Nathan broke the story 20 years ago and now, in andlt;iandgt;Sybil Exposedandlt;/iandgt;, sheand#8217;s finally putting all the puzzle pieces together. Unless we learn the lessons in this journalistic masterwork, we are doomed to fall victim to the next fad and the next caring healer who claims to have our best interest at heart.and#8221; and#8211;andlt;bandgt;Ethan Watters, author of andlt;iandgt;Crazy Like Usandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"Debbie Nathan's Sybil Exposed is a first-rate historical detective story recreating the lives of the three protagonists of one of the most popular accounts of a psychiatric patient in American history.
Review
and#8220;Journalist Debbie Nathan -- whose investigative exposure of day care worker Kelly Michaels's wrongful conviction for child molestation did so much to unearth the witch hunts among us -- has found a delicious, hiding-in-plain-sight historical saga to tell: the making of the most famous "multiple personality" case and book. A troubled, impressionable young girl from a Sinclair Lewis-type small town; a brilliant, bullying, female neuropsychiatrist in 1950s Manhattan; and a glamorous, frustrated feminist magazine writer who'd had an affair with Eugene O'Neill Jr.: how these three disparate American women's fates, fantasies, and ambitions came together to create a fiction that rocked the culture and continues to affect us today makes compelling and sobering reading. Who knew this true story existed?! It's as compulsively readable as it is cautionary -- two traits rarely shared in one book.and#8221;-- andlt;bandgt;Sheila Weller, award winning magazine journalist and author of the andlt;iandgt;New York Timesandlt;/iandgt; bestseller andlt;iandgt;Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simonand#8212;and the Journey of a Generationandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"Debbie Nathan's fine, insistent mind will stop at nothing to get to
Review
"I've long considered Debbie Nathan to be the most important and unsung writer working in America today. andlt;Iandgt;Sybil Exposedandlt;/Iandgt; affirms her brilliance. Using a fierce blend of investigative journalism and cultural criticism, she exposes multiple personality disorder as yet another lurid myth cooked up by the collective unconscious of our popular culture. The book is an astonishing achievement." -- andlt;bandgt;Steve Almond, author of andlt;iandgt;Candyfreakandlt;/iandgt; and andlt;iandgt;God Bless Americaandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"In this startling exposand#233;...Nathan serves up a tale just as shocking as the famed original."--andlt;bandgt;andlt;iandgt;Publisher's Weeklyandlt;/iandgt;, starred reviewandlt;/bandgt;
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"Throughout Sybil Exposed, Nathan traces the winding path from truth to falsehood"--Salon
Review
"In this dazzling exposand#233; of a manipulative psychiatrist, an author whoand#8217;d do anything for fame and a vulnerable girl caught in the middle, journalist Nathan reveals how these three women changed the psychiatric landscape by raising questions of identity that resonated with a generation. The result is a cautionary tale about the ways in which science, in the wrong hands, can capitalize on our collective fears. " --andlt;Bandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Moreandlt;/Iandgt; magazineandlt;/Bandgt;
Review
"A compelling account of the creation, packaging, and selling of this case of medical and journalistic malpractice." --andlt;iandgt;andlt;bandgt;Scienceandlt;/bandgt;andlt;/iandgt;
Review
"A massive undertaking of research that teases apart fact from fiction to reveal an even more interesting and educational account...andlt;Iandgt;Sybilandlt;/Iandgt; remains a good book and movie, but perhaps Nathan's version of the story is the one worth telling in classrooms. " --andlt;Bandgt;andlt;Iandgt;New Scientistandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;/Bandgt;
Review
"A gripping history of crackpot psychiatry" --People magazine
Review
"The true story of andlt;iandgt;Sybilandlt;/iandgt; has found its ideal historian in Debbie Nathan...This is the book that should be a made-for-TV movie." --andlt;iandgt;andlt;bandgt;The Wall Street Journalandlt;/bandgt;andlt;/iandgt;
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"Throughout andlt;Iandgt;Sybil Exposedandlt;/Iandgt;, Nathan traces the winding path from truth to falsehood"--andlt;Bandgt;Salonandlt;/Bandgt;
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"A gripping history of crackpot psychiatry" --andlt;bandgt;andlt;iandgt;Peopleandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt; magazine
Review
and#8220;andlt;iandgt;Sybil Exposedandlt;/iandgt; isn't only an exposand#233; of a blockbuster that pulled the wool over 6 million readers' eyes. She asks deeper questions: Why did people love this book? To what cultural zeitgeist did it respond?....Riveting, thought-provoking and a quick read, andlt;iandgt;Sybil Exposedandlt;/iandgt; is impossible to put down.and#8221; andlt;BRandgt; --andlt;iandgt;andlt;bandgt;The Oregonianandlt;/bandgt;andlt;/iandgt;
Review
"A nuanced, not-entirely-unsympathetic account of the women who perpetrated a sensational literary fraud." --andlt;bandgt;andlt;iandgt;Kirkus Reviewsandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"A nuanced, not-entirely-unsympathetic account of the women who perpetrated a sensational literary fraud." --Kirkus Reviews
Review
andlt;divandgt;"Debbie Nathan's fine, insistent mind will stop at nothing to get to
Review
andlt;divandgt;"Debbie Nathan's andlt;iandgt;Sybil Exposedandlt;/iandgt; is a first-rate historical detective story recreating the lives of the three protagonists of one of the most popular accounts of a psychiatric patient in American history.
Review
"Debbie Nathan's fine, insistent mind will stop at nothing to get to the truth behind Sybil, no how many walls are put upand#8212; Her research is beyond compareandlt;iandgt;.andlt;/iandgt;" --andlt;Bandgt;Susie Bright, author of andlt;iandgt;Big Sex Little Deathandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/Bandgt;
Review
and#8220;Debbie Nathanand#8217;s andlt;iandgt;Sybil Exposedandlt;/iandgt; is a first-rate historical detective story recreating the lives of the three protagonists of one of the most popular accounts of a psychiatric patient in American history. The sixteen personalities ascribed to and#8220;Sybiland#8221; set the medical and legal tone for discussions of the and#8216;epidemicand#8217; of child abuse at the end of the 20th century as well as the psychological damage done to its survivors. Nathan shows how the subject of the study, her psychiatrist, as well as the author of the book invented a biography to explain something that never existed: the multiple personalities of the patient as well as their cause. Any reader captivated by our contemporary and#8220;first-handand#8221; accounts of mental illness, should read this account that illustrates how the demands of the readers at any historical moment shape such accounts and make them seem truer than true.and#8221; --andlt;bandgt;Sander L. Gilman, author of SEEING THE INSANE Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences; Professor of Psychiatry, Emory University andlt;BRandgt; andlt;/bandgt;
Synopsis
Debbie Nathan provides proof that the 1970s blockbuster Sybil—alleged non-fiction about a woman with multiple personality disorder—was fabricated.
Synopsis
The true story of the three women behind Sybil, the international bestseller and smash hit movie.
A bestselling book published in 1973, and a television movie starring Sally Field and Joanne Woodward, Sybil was both a pop culture phenomenon and a revolutionary force in the therapeutic industry. Sybil sold more than 6 million copies worldwide and influenced the way millions of people, young and old, saw themselves, their families, their sexuality, and their own psyches. Before Sybil was published, there had been fewer than 200 known cases of multiple personality disorder in history; afterwards, approximately 40,000 people were diagnosed with it in just a few years. Now in her news-breaking book, journalist Debbie Nathan gives proof that the supposed “true” story was largely fabricated.
Exposing Sybil combines fascinating, near mythic drama with serious journalism to reveal what really powered the legend: a trio of women—the willing patient, her devoted shrink, and the ambitious journalist who spun their story into bestseller gold. Nathan followed an enormous trail of papers, records, photos, and tapes to unearth the lives of these three women and tell the real tale. The result is an intensely fascinating portrait not just of the pop culture phenomenon, but of the complex psychological factors that primed the nation to receive it.
About the Author
andlt;bandgt;Debbie Nathanandlt;/bandgt; was born and raised in Houston, Texas. She has been a journalist, editor and translator for almost three decades. She specializes in writing about immigration, the U.S.-Mexico border, sexual politics and sex panics, particularly in relation to women and children. Debbie is author and co-author of four books, including andlt;iandgt;Sybil, Incandlt;/iandgt;. She has been involved in translating two others into English and#8212; one from Spanish and the other from Latin American Yiddish. Her essays appear in several anthologies, and her work has been published in venues as varied as andlt;iandgt;Redbookandlt;/iandgt; and andlt;iandgt;The Nationandlt;/iandgt;, andlt;iandgt;Ms.andlt;/iandgt; and andlt;iandgt;Playboyandlt;/iandgt;, andlt;iandgt;The Texas Observerandlt;/iandgt; and andlt;iandgt;Social Textandlt;/iandgt;, andlt;iandgt;The New York Timesandlt;/iandgt; and andlt;iandgt;Vibeandlt;/iandgt;. Debbieand#8217;s work has won numerous national and regional awards, including: The H.L. Mencken Award for Investigative Journalism, PEN West Award for Journalism, several prizes from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the Texas Institute of Letters Award for feature journalism, the Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award for Journalism, and the John Bartlow Martin Award (from Northwestern Universityand#8217;s Medill School of Journalism) for Public Service Journalism. She is a board member of the National Center for Reason and Justice (NCRJ), an and#8220;innocence projectand#8221; for people falsely accused of harming children. She currently lives in New York City with her husband, Morten Naess, a family physician, and has two grown children, Sophia and Willy.