Way We Are: How States of Mind Influence Our Identities, Personality and Potential for Change

Drawing on scientific research from diverse disciplines coupled with his ground-breaking work with dissociative states of consciousness, Dr. Frank. W.Putnam describes the psychobiology of states of mind and traces their roles in normal and abnormal mental phenomena from newborns to meditating Zenmonks. PTSD, drugs, addictions, thrill-seeking, multiple personality disorder, peak states, epiphanies, meditation, sex, and hypnosis provide further examplesof the insights that a behavioral states of mind perspective provides on human behavior and potential for change - for better or worse. A Professor ofPsychiatry at the University of North Carolina and Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, Dr. Putnam is the author of over 200 scientific articles and 4 books - mostrecently, Old Before Their Time: A Scientific life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become (Routledge, 2026), which describes his 35 + year prospective study of the effects of childhood sexual abuse on female development.