Debbie Nathan has been a journalist, editor, and translator for almost three decades. Debbie's work has won numerous national and regional awards, including: The H.L. Mencken Award for Investigative Journalism, PEN West Award for Journalism, theTexas Institute of Letters Award for feature journalism, and the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Service Journalism.
"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."-- Sheila
Weller, award winning magazine journalist and author of the "New
York Times" bestseller "Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell,
Carly Simon--and the Journey of a Generation"
"A gripping history of crackpot psychiatry" --"People" magazine
"The true story of "Sybil" has found its ideal historian in Debbie
Nathan...This is the book that should be a made-for-TV movie."
--"The Wall Street Journal"
"A compelling account of the creation, packaging, and selling of
this case of medical and journalistic malpractice." --"Science"
"A massive undertaking of research that teases apart fact from
fiction to reveal an even more interesting and educational
account..."Sybil" remains a good book and movie, but perhaps
Nathan's version of the story is the one worth telling in
classrooms. " --"New Scientist"
"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. The sixteen personalities ascribed to "Sybil" set
the medical and legal tone for discussions of the 'epidemic' 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 "first-hand"
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." --Sander
L. Gilman, author of SEEING THE INSANE Distinguished Professor of
the Liberal Arts and Sciences; Professor of
"Debbie Nathan's fine, insistent mind will stop at nothing to get
to the truth behind Sybil, no how many walls are put up-- Her
research is beyond compare"."" --Susie Bright, author of "Big Sex
Little Death"
"I've long considered Debbie Nathan to be the most important and
unsung writer working in America today. "Sybil Exposed" 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." --
Steve Almond, author of "Candyfreak" and "God Bless America"
"In this dazzling expose of a manipulative psychiatrist, an author
who'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. " --"More" magazine
"In this startling expose...Nathan serves up a tale just as
shocking as the famed original."--"Publisher's Weekly", starred
review
"Throughout "Sybil Exposed", Nathan traces the winding path from
truth to falsehood"--Salon
"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 "Sybil Exposed", she'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." -Ethan Watters, author of "Crazy Like Us"
"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."-- Sheila
Weller, award winning magazine journalist and author of the "New
York Times" bestseller "Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell,
Carly Simon--and the Journey of a Generation"
"A gripping history of crackpot psychiatry" --"People" magazine
"The true story of "Sybil" has found its ideal historian in Debbie
Nathan...This is the book that should be a made-for-TV movie."
--"The Wall Street Journal"
"A compelling account of the creation, packaging, and selling of
this case of medical and journalistic malpractice." --"Science"
"A massive undertaking of research that teases apart fact from
fiction to reveal an even more interesting and educational
account..."Sybil" remains a good book and movie, but perhaps
Nathan's version of the story is the one worth telling in
classrooms. " --"New Scientist"
"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. The sixteen personalities ascribed to "Sybil" set
the medical and legal tone for discussions of the 'epidemic' 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 "first-hand"
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." --Sander
L. Gilman, author of SEEING THE INSANE Distinguished Professor of
the Liberal Arts and Sciences; Professor of
"Debbie Nathan's fine, insistent mind will stop at nothing to get
to the truth behind Sybil, no how many walls are put up-- Her
research is beyond compare"."" --Susie Bright, author of "Big Sex
Little Death"
"I've long considered Debbie Nathan to be the most important and
unsung writer working in America today. "Sybil Exposed" 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." --
Steve Almond, author of "Candyfreak" and "God Bless America"
"In this dazzling expose of a manipulative psychiatrist, an author
who'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. " --"More" magazine
"In this startling expose...Nathan serves up a tale just as
shocking as the famed original."--"Publisher's Weekly", starred
review
"Throughout "Sybil Exposed", Nathan traces the winding path from
truth to falsehood"--Salon
"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 "Sybil Exposed", she'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." -Ethan Watters, author of "Crazy Like Us"
Made famous by the publication of Flora Rheta Schreiber's Sybil, Shirley Mason (aka Sybil) allegedly possessed 16 unique personalities, a condition for which she was treated by psychoanalyst Cornelia Wilbur. This book by Nathan suggests that Mason may have been far less disturbed than initially reported-and that, in fact, her "illness" was the product of a collaborative fabrication, dreamed up by Wilbur, Schreiber, and Mason herself. Marguerite Gann provides this audio edition with strong, declarative narration that suits the thorny subject matter. When inhabiting one of Mason's personalities or capturing the fraught relationship between Mason, Wilbur, and Schreiber, the narrator shines, varying her vocal tone and creating significant drama. However, during more straightforward passages, Gann's performance is markedly less compelling. Still, this is a fascinating audiobook that will interest listeners fascinated with the human psyche. A Free Press hardcover. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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