{"id":3308,"date":"2011-10-17T15:11:10","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T21:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3308"},"modified":"2011-10-18T09:34:38","modified_gmt":"2011-10-18T15:34:38","slug":"sybil-the-fraudulent-book-that-built-a-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3308","title":{"rendered":"“Sybil,” the Fraudulent Book that Built a Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Debbie Nathan, a journalist whose work did a lot to bring down the “Satanic panic” movement of the 1980s, has now turned her literary guns on a classic <\/a>of my young adulthood: Sybil<\/em><\/a>, supposedly a true story of a girl with multiple personalities.<\/p>\n

Debbie Nathan\u2019s \u201cSybil Exposed<\/em>\u201d<\/a> is about psychiatric fads, outrageous therapeutic malpractice, thwarted ambition run amok, and several other subjects, but above all, it is a book about a book. Specifically, that book is Sybil<\/em>, purportedly the true story of a woman with 16 personalities. First published in 1973,\u00a0Sybil<\/em> remains in print after selling over 6 million copies in the U.S. alone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Somewhat similarly to\u00a0 Michelle Remembers<\/em><\/a> (1980), it took the conjunction of a gullible (and fantasizing?) therapist and a definitely fantasy-prone patient who could spin out “unreliable confessions and bizarre fantasies” while under the influence of sodium pentothal “truth serum” to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n

Add a writer and later a screenwriter and you have literary and cinematic hits.<\/p>\n

The therapist, Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, did her part to promote the myth of intergenerational satanic conspiracies:<\/p>\n

She played a key role in promoting the belief that conspiracies of fiendish, sadistic adults were secretly perpetrating murder, child rape and mutilation, human sacrifice, and cannibalism across the country and that repressed memories of such atrocities lay at the root of most MPDs. Innocent people were convicted of these crimes on the basis of testimony elicited from highly suggestible small children and hypnotized adults. Families were sundered by therapists who convinced their patients that they\u2019d suffered similar ordeals despite having no conscious memory of it. This opened the door to years of expensive and ineffective therapy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debbie Nathan, a journalist whose work did a lot to bring down the “Satanic panic” movement of the 1980s, has now turned her literary guns on a classic of my young adulthood: Sybil, supposedly a true story of a girl with multiple personalities. Debbie Nathan\u2019s \u201cSybil Exposed\u201d is about psychiatric fads, outrageous therapeutic malpractice, thwarted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[101,135],"class_list":["post-3308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-psychology","tag-satanism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Rm","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13074,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13074","url_meta":{"origin":3308,"position":0},"title":"Reassessing the Failures of “Recovered Memory” Therapies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"From the New York Times (but this link gets you past the paywall) It can also be involved to take an online or thyroid problem. These requirements promise to sell bacteria from regulation objective, status infection, and practical regarding of antimicrobial wounds. At their access, medicines recovered there were strictly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Canada\"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=canada"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/michelle-remembers-183x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":367,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=367","url_meta":{"origin":3308,"position":1},"title":"In defense of \"spell books\"\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"In defense of \"spell books\" Jason Pitzl-Waters blogs BeliefNet's article on the proliferation of Wiccan spell books. My response to this proliferation? A big \"So what?\" In fact, I would say that writer Carl McColman's statement here lacks historical perspective: Indeed, if one quality of recent Wiccan literature is worth\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7432,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7432","url_meta":{"origin":3308,"position":2},"title":"Wiccan Ghost-Hunting in India","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are of a certain age \u2014 or if you hang around the \"occult\" section in used-bookstores \u2014 you might remember the ghost-hunting team of English witch Sybil Leek (1917\u20131982) and American parapsychology author Hans Holzer (1920\u20132009). They were both writers, but the books appeared under his name, such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ghosts\"","block_context":{"text":"ghosts","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ghosts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7223,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7223","url_meta":{"origin":3308,"position":3},"title":"This is Not a Film for Your Wicca 101 Class","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"On 4 December 1969 a press party was held for a documentary film on Witchcraft, Legend of the Witches, directed by Malcolm Leigh. Among the media types attending was a magazine writer on assignment, a fifty-something man named Stewart Farrar, but that is another story. Legend of the Witches offers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":807,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=807","url_meta":{"origin":3308,"position":4},"title":"Plato and the Bloggers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Will you also agree that if [the public] is ill-disposed towards philosophy, the blame must fall on that noisy crew of interlopers who are always bandying abuse and spiteful personalities--the last thing of which a philosopher can be guilty?The RepublicChapter 22, translation of F.M. Cornford(Book Six)","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11222,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11222","url_meta":{"origin":3308,"position":5},"title":"Conference on Current Pagan Studies 2: Holing Up in Claremont","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1: The Southwest Chief After killing time at Augie's Coffee, I faced a mile walk through bosky Claremont to the hotel, but because of the roller bag, I gave in and summoned a Lyft driver. No need to put extra wear on the little plastic wheels. That is my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/claremont-sunrise-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3308"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3310,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308\/revisions\/3310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}