Debbie Nathan

{{infobox writer

|name=Debbie Nathan

|birth_date={{birth year and age|1950}}

|birth_place=Houston, Texas, U.S.

|occupation={{flatlist|

Journalist
writer

}}

|education=Shimer College
Temple University (BA)
University of Texas at El Paso

|spouse=Morton Naess

|children=2

|website={{url|http://www.debbienathan.com}}

}}

Debbie Nathan (born 1950) is an American feminist journalist and writer, with a focus on cultural and criminal justice issues concerning abuse of children, particularly accusations of satanic ritual abuse in schools and child care institutions. She also writes about immigration, focusing on women and on dynamics between immigration and sexuality. Nathan's writing has won a number of awards.[http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/about/sponsoredawards.aspx?id=113091 John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720035900/http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/about/sponsoredawards.aspx?id=113091 |date=July 20, 2011 }}, Medill School of Journalism (retrieved February 12, 2012). (Nathan won 1st prize in 1991 for work for The Village Voice.)[http://www.altweeklies.com/aan/Awards?year=2000 2000 AltWeekly Awards], Association of Alternative Newsmedia (retrieved February 12, 2012). (Nathan won 1st place Arts Feature award for an article for the San Antonio Current.)[http://www.altweeklies.com/aan/Awards?category=2184399 1998 AltWeekly Awards, Social Reporting], Association of Alternative Newsmedia (retrieved February 12, 2012). (Nathan won 1st place Social Reporting award for an article for The Texas Observer.)[http://hmhfoundation.org/site/?page_id=88 "Winners and Judges of the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150823213004/http://hmhfoundation.org/site/?page_id=88 |date=August 23, 2015 }} (retrieved February 12, 2012). (Nathan won a Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in 1991.) She appears in the 2003 Oscar-nominated film Capturing the Friedmans.David Edelstein, [http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2003/06/his_fathers_son.html "His Father's Son: The haunted men of Capturing the Friedmans."] Slate, June 5, 2003. She has been affiliated with the National Center for Reason and Justice, which, among other things, provides support to persons who may have been wrongly accused of sexual abuse.David Folkenflik, [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15430924 "Seizures Hurt Memory, Ex-'Times' Reporter Says"], All Things Considered (National Public Radio), October 19, 2007.

Biography

Nathan was born in 1950 into a Jewish family in Houston, Texas. She received her BA from Temple University in 1972, after first attending Shimer College, a very small college in Great Books, Illinois.{{cite book|title=Shimer College Faculty & Alum Directory 2000|year=2000|author=Shimer College}} She went on to receive a master's degree in linguistics from the University of Texas El Paso.

Nathan taught English as a second language at Brooklyn College, then moved to Chicago in 1980, where she began her journalism career at the Chicago Reader. She returned to El Paso in 1984 to work for the El Paso Times, then became a freelance journalist. In 1998, she took a job writing for the San Antonio Current, then moved to New York City in 2000.Richard Baron, [http://www.newspapertree.com/culture/282-profile-debbie-nathan "Profile: Debbie Nathan"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120428174228/http://newspapertree.com/culture/282-profile-debbie-nathan |date=April 28, 2012 }}, Newspaper Tree (El Paso), February 22, 2004. Nathan is a board member for the National Center for Reason and Justice, non-profit organization that aids people likely to have been falsely accused and/or convicted of harming children.

= Personal life =

Nathan is married to Morten Naess, a family physician. The couple have two grown children.[https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Debbie-Nathan/65997920 Debbie Nathan – About The Author] Simon & Schuster Official Publishers. Retrieved February 11, 2019

Works

= ''Satan's Silence'' =

Satan's Silence, a 1995 work which Nathan co-authored with Michael Snedeker, examined and aimed to debunk the wave of satanic ritual abuse allegations that took place beginning in the 1980s.{{cite news |url= https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204524604576609350972680560 |title=Multiple Personality Deception: The famous patient who inspired the panic was more the victim of her psychiatrist than of mental illness |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |location=New York |date=October 29, 2011 |first=Carol |last=Tavris |author-link=Carol Tavris |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151118001027/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204524604576609350972680560 |archive-date=November 18, 2015}}Edward Wasserman, [http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/26/4146847/wasserman-media-should-exercise.html "Media should exercise caution covering sexual abuse scandals]{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Sacramento Bee, December 26, 2011. Victor Navasky described the book as the "definitive study" of the subject.Victor Navasky, [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940CE0DB1038F93BA3575AC0A960958260&scp=3&sq=satan%27s%20silence&st=cse "The Demons of Salem, With Us Still"], The New York Times, September 8, 1996.

Paul Okami's review of the book in The Journal of Sex Research noted that the book "is not . . . a scientific work", and he had some criticisms of its organization and what Okami described as misapplication of certain social-science concepts and an over-reliance in some parts of the book on feminist and leftist economic theory. Nevertheless, Okami judged the book to be "essential reading . . . for its devastating journalistic portrait" and "for its more general analysis of proximate mechanisms by which our society can become vulnerable to patent collective madness."Paul Okami, [https://www.jstor.org/pss/3813692 "A Triumph of Skepticism: Nailing down the Coffin of 'Ritual Abuse'"], The Journal of Sex Research vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 164–65 (pay site), also available here [http://www.csub.edu/~cgavin/GST126/bookreviewscholex.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117024605/http://www.csub.edu/~cgavin/GST126/bookreviewscholex.htm |date=November 17, 2015 }}

In addition to the book, Nathan published criticism of Janet Reno's Country Walk case prosecution.{{cite web|url=http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume5/j5_1_1.htm |title=IPT Journal - "Revisiting Country Walk" |publisher=Ipt-forensics.com |access-date=January 14, 2020}}{{cite web |author=Debbie Nathan |url= https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/the-public-was-shocked-country-walk-parents-demanded-action-an-election-was-near-janet-reno-was-going-to-send-someone-to-jail-no-matter-what-6364629 |title=The public was shocked. Country Walk parents demanded action. An election was near. Janet Reno was going to send someone to jail. No matter what. |work=Miami New Times |date=March 3, 1993 |access-date=January 14, 2020}}

= ''Pornography'' =

Pornography, published in 2007, is written as a concise "guidebook" on the subject of pornography.Terry Ornelas, [http://www.austinchronicle.com/books/2007-12-07/568485/ "Readings"], The Austin Chronicle, December 7, 2007. Greg Bak, a Canadian reviewer, described the writing as "frank and cool." He also made note of Nathan's assertion that no connection has been established between the use of pornography and criminal behavior, as well as her focus on the "connection between porn and shame" to define pornography.Greg Bak, [http://umanitoba.ca/cm/vol16/no5/pornography.html Review of Pornography. (A Groundwork Guide).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130427002047/http://umanitoba.ca/cm/vol16/no5/pornography.html |date=April 27, 2013 }} CM: Canadian Review of Materials (Manitoba Library Association), October 2, 2009.

= ''Sybil Exposed'' =

Nathan's 2011 book, Sybil Exposed, takes on the case of the famous psychiatric patient known as "Sybil", whose supposed dissociative identity disorder was the subject of a 1973 best-selling book and two motion pictures.Maia Szalavitz, [https://healthland.time.com/2011/12/28/the-truth-about-sybil-qa-with-author-debbie-nathan/ "The Truth About 'Sybil': Q&A with Author Debbie Nathan"]. Time. New York. December 28, 2011.Molly Driscoll, [http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/1021/Sybil-authenticity-questioned-in-new-book ""Sybil" authenticity questioned in new book"], The Christian Science Monitor. Boston. October 21, 2011.[https://www.npr.org/2011/10/21/141591185/exploring-multiple-personalities-in-sybil-exposed "Exploring Multiple Personalities In 'Sybil Exposed'"], Science Friday (National Public Radio), October 21, 2011. Among other things, Nathan discovered that Sybil's psychiatrist was aware of (but apparently ignored) the fact that she had pernicious anemia, the symptoms of which would include most of the patient's complaints. Nathan's book received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which called it a "startling exposé".[http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-439-16827-1 Review of Sybil Exposed], Publishers Weekly, September 19, 2011. Carol Tavris, reviewing the book for The Wall Street Journal, commented that "Nathan's indefatigable detective work in Sybil Exposed has produced a major contribution to the history of psychiatric fads and the social manufacture of mental disorders. This is the book that should be a made-for-TV movie."

Bibliography

{{cite book |author=Nathan, Debbie |title=Women and other aliens: essays from the U. S.-Mexico border |publisher=Cinco Puntos Press |location=El Paso, Tex |year=1991 |isbn=0-938317-08-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/womenotheraliens00nath }}
{{cite book |author1=Snedeker, Michael R. |author2=Nathan, Debbie |title=Satan's silence: ritual abuse and the making of a modern American witch hunt |url=https://archive.org/details/satanssilencerit00nath |url-access=registration |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York |year=1995 |isbn=0-465-07181-3 }}
{{cite book |author=Nathan, Debbie |title=Pornography (Groundwork Guides) |publisher=Groundwood Books |location=Toronto |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-88899-766-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/pornographygroun00debb }}
{{cite book |author=Nathan, Debbie |title=Sybil Exposed |publisher=Free Press |location=New York |year=2011 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sybilexposedextr00nath_0/page/288 288] |isbn=978-1439168271 |url=https://archive.org/details/sybilexposedextr00nath_0/page/288 }}

Translations

1997: With Willivaldo Delgadillo: The Moon Will Forever Be a Distant Love by Luis Humberto Crosthwaite's novel: La luna siempre será un dificíl amor. Cinco Puntos Press, El Paso, TX, {{ISBN|0-938317318}}.