Sybil Exposed book: angry

Has anyone heard of this book? I saw it when I was looking to purchase my copy of Sybil at the bookstore. I'm so mad that anyone would come out with a book like this. Even if Sybil was fictionalized, her story and illness is so true for so many people. Since Sybil is what really exposed DID to the public, saying it was a hoax is, in my mind, almost saying in a roundabout way that DID is also a hoax.

Yuck. I put it back on the shelf and purchased the book and the movie. Fact or fiction, the truth of the experience that is DID is very real, and the movie especially is something that I think has brought a lot of suffering people out of the woodwork, giving them hope that their experiences might possibly be validated by the psychological community.

I've heard of the book. Every DID group I'm in has some members fuming about this book and all the articles on the internet related.

I try to stay away from them. They're irrelevant.

Bourbon

That book makes me angry too!

By provoking outrage denialists can actually serve to establish the truth of the very thing they deny. Consider the history of denials, and subsequent vindication, of:

AIDS
Evolution
Climate change
Continental drift
Asteroid impact at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary
Prevalence of child abuse, especially incest

I am quite pleased to add DID to this list.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201110212
Look for show player in upper right hand corner.
Check this site for interview with the writer Debbie Nathan, Paul McHugh University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland and Bethany Brand Professor of Psychology Towson University Towson, Maryland. The book is 263 on the list of best selling books on Amazon. Some what she claims has now been shown to be half truth or total fabrications. I am with Bourbon on this, basically, one case does not make the case for those who suffer from DID. All must remember that the book and movies on Sybil were dramatized and souped up for mainstream reading interest and should never be seen or used as a standard or measure for those who suffer with DID.
We like what Herschel Walker said on the issue in the first link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfiB82OUXf0
Herschel Walker story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXuG2zI3 ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=6XlKOC-WnZo

It makes me sick her book is selling so well. I would hate to add to that in any way.

Why are people so quick to believe this rubbish but doubt DID?

I have to admit, when I first saw this book I was genuinely angry. However, I also see where Una is coming from.

The comments on the Amazon site really say it all. The book, though completely biased on the author's opinion, is really just exposing the unethical treatment of Sybil. Yes, the author tosses around how she believe's Sybil's story was fabricated, but only based on the unethical treatment of Sybil. I didn't read the book, but I'm guessing the author isn't flat out saying 'I don't believe in DID and neither should you'. And, when I went to look at the author's other books, she's apparently done this kind of 'EXPOSED!' before. -shrug-

Apparently, Debbie Nathan is pretty much a nobody. She's not a scientific doctor, nor a therapist; she's a journalist. The facts that she digs up....does she really understand them? This isn't the work of a well known psychologist/psychiatrist/clinical worker/ect who went hunting for clinical information they actually understood, it's the efforts of a journalist to make an 'exciting and controversial' book on an already controversial diagnosis. In other words, money!

Aka...her book will be torn apart once some qualified people fight about it. More than likely it will be read, gone 'eh', and forgotten. Not a single university is going to pick this book up and start teaching it to their psychology students. They might take some of the finer points, such as 'hey, don't overdose the poor patients with truth serum!' or 'don't become their friend and let them live with you!'....but that's kind of common sense now.

So my anger has abated knowing this. If I'm proven wrong, though, I might have to burn a bookstore down and recant my sanity.

What would be really constructive would be to go into a bookstore that has this junk book on display and request they special order one or more of the DID classics for you. Think Christmas presents for family and friends. A savvy bookseller would be likely to order extras of your chosen book to display alongside this one.

Yes, I listened to that NPR science friday episode the other day. I was not happy at how they treated the doctor who called in(claiming to have known Shirley and Connie Wilbur personally). I thought it was pretty disrespectful.

LinaeveWorkman wrote:IThis isn't the work of a well known psychologist/psychiatrist/clinical worker/ect who went hunting for clinical information they actually understood, it's the efforts of a journalist to make an 'exciting and controversial' book on an already controversial diagnosis. In other words, money!

Indeed, that seems to be the book's sole function.

When i watched Sybil, i was shut down and out for a few days. What books do u consider DID classics? What books do people recommend? I just got the dissociative identity disorder sourcebook n the mail yesterday and am pleased with it so far. I ordered The Gatekeeper. I got alot out of Dr. James G. Friesen book that he wrote. He has written others that i have not read yet.