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Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality
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Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case Paperback - 2012 - 1st Edition

by Debbie Nathan

A "New York Times"-bestselling book that offers a new perspective on the smash hit book and film, "Sybil," and on multiple personality disorder itself. Nathan gives proof that the allegedly true story was largely fabricated and reveals what really powered the legend.


Summary

Sybil: a name that resonates with legions of obsessed fans who followed the nonfiction blockbuster from 1973. The book rocketed multiple personality disorder into public consciousness and played a major role in having the diagnosis added to the psychiatric bible, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But what do we really know about how Sybil came to be? In her news-breaking book Sybil Exposed, journalist Debbie Nathan gives proof that the allegedly true story outlined in the megabestseller 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 Nathan reveals the trio of women behind the legend: the willing patient, her ambitious shrink, and the imaginative journalist who spun their story into bestseller gold.

Sybil Exposed draws from an enormous trail of papers, records, photos, and tapes to unearth the lives and passions of these three women whose story exploded into an epic movement with consequences beyond their wildest dreams. 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, bold but unchecked ambition, runaway greed, utter human vulnerability, duplicity and shared delusion, shaky theories of psychoanalysis exuberantly and drastically practiced, and how one modest young womans life turned psychiatry on its head and radically changed the course of therapyand our culture, as well.

From the publisher

Debbie Nathan has been a journalist, editor, and translator for almost three decades. Debbies 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.

Details

  • Title Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case
  • Author Debbie Nathan
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Pages 320
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Free Press, US
  • Date 2012-06-12
  • Features Bibliography, Index, Price on Product - Canadian, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9781439168288 / 1439168288
  • Weight 0.64 lbs (0.29 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.36 x 5.54 x 0.82 in (21.23 x 14.07 x 2.08 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 1970's
  • Library of Congress subjects Multiple personality - Patients, Sybil - Mental health
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

Media reviews

Citations

  • Entertainment Weekly, 07/26/2013, Page 69

About the author

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.
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Sybil Exposed
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Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case
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Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case

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by Debbie Nathan

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Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case

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Sybil Exposed : The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case

by Nathan, Debbie

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Sybil Exposed : The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case

by Nathan, Debbie

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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Sybil Exposed : The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case
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Sybil Exposed : The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case

by Nathan, Debbie

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781439168288 / 1439168288
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