Putnam, F.W. Old Before Their Time: A Scientific Life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become. Routledge.
Old Before Their Time is a scientific primer on the psychobiological effects of child sexual abuse centered on a 35+ year study of a cohort of female incest victims. Tracking numerous markers of physical, cognitive, psychological, social, and epigenetic development, Old Before Their Time arrives at the startling conclusion that early childhood trauma accelerates biological aging across multiple bodily systems.
Old Before Their Time is the deeply personal story of a 35-year scientific investigation of the effects of childhood sexual abuse on child development and adult outcomes.
The reader will gain a comprehensive perspective on the many ways in which maltreatment embeds itself in a child’s mind, body, and behavior and is expressed across generations. It concludes that the prevention of child maltreatment is the single most powerful target for the prevention of mental illness, and for reducing premature death from the leading causes of death in the United States.
One in five women and one in eight men report a history of child sexual abuse. As adults, victims often have questions about how it has affected them. Old Before Their Time provides answers as well as recommendations to improve child protection and treatment services which impact millions of children and families every year. Written for a general science reader, this engaging book is well-referenced for professionals who work with children or adults with histories of child maltreatment.
Putnam, FW (2016). The Way We Are: How States of Mind Influence our Identities, Personality, and Potential for Change. New York: International Psychoanalytic Books
The Way We Are focuses on the dynamic interplay of discrete states of consciousness – altered, alternative and ordinary – that compose our personalities and structure our daily behavior.
Drawing on a rich scientific literature gleaned from numerous discrete mental states ranging from vegetative to manic states of mind, intoxicated to inspirational states of being, The Way We Are provides a new way of understanding perplexing and paradoxical human behavior.
Integrating 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 Zen monks. Challenging readers to scrutinize their own states of mind, he examines the nature and paradoxes of personality such as hyprocrisy, secret lives, and religious conversion. PTSD, drugs, addictions, thrill-seeking, multiple personality disorder, peak states, epiphanies, meditation, sex, and hypnosis provide further examples of the illumination of the states-of-mind perspective on behavior and human potential. A Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina and Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, Dr. Putnam is an author of over 200 scientific publications related to child maltreatment and maternal depression and two books on the dissociative disorders.
Putnam, F.W (1997). Dissociation in Children and Adolescents: A Developmental Perspective. New York: Guilford Press.
Recognizing that maltreated and traumatized children and adolescents often manifest serious dissociative symptoms, Dissociation in Children and Adolescents: A developmental Perspective provided the first developmental approach to understanding the impact of pathological dissociation on child development.
Presenting a comprehensive developmental approach, this book examines the origins and course of normal and pathological dissociation in children and adolescents. The volume illustrates the critical connection between pathological dissociation and trauma, and provides a clear synthesis of what is known about the psychobiology of dissociative disorders and the effects of pathological dissociation on cognition, memory and behavior. Amply illustrated with clinical vignettes, the book describes an array of diagnostic and treatment techniques and includes reproducible copies of validated dissociation scales for all age groups.
Putnam FW. (1989). Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York: Guilford Press.
First published in 1989, Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder has remained a perennial classic in the field of dissociative disorder diagnosis and treatment. Often recommended as a primer for clinicians with their first case, Diagnosis and Treatment remains an authoritative source on clinical approaches to dissociative patients.
Geared to the needs of mental health practitioners unfamiliar with dissociative disorders, this volume presents a comprehensive and integrated approach to diagnosis and treatment. Each step-from the first interview to the final post-integrative treatment-is systematically reviewed, with detailed instructions on specific diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and examples of their clinical applications. Concise yet thorough, the volume offers expert advice on such topics as how to foster a strong therapeutic alliance, how to manage crises, and what basic errors to avoid.
Putnam, F.W. (Preorder December 5, 2025/Release Date December 26, 2025). Old Before Their Time: A Scientific Life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become. Routledge.
Old Before Their Time is a scientific primer on the psychobiological effects of child sexual abuse centered on a 35+ year study of a cohort of female incest victims. Tracking numerous markers of physical, cognitive, psychological, social, and epigenetic development, Old Before Their Time arrives at the startling conclusion that early childhood trauma accelerates biological aging across multiple bodily systems.
Old Before Their Time is the deeply personal story of a 35-year scientific investigation of the effects of childhood sexual abuse on child development and adult outcomes.
The reader will gain a comprehensive perspective on the many ways in which maltreatment embeds itself in a child’s mind, body, and behavior and is expressed across generations. It concludes that the prevention of child maltreatment is the single most powerful target for the prevention of mental illness, and for reducing premature death from the leading causes of death in the United States.
One in five women and one in eight men report a history of child sexual abuse. As adults, victims often have questions about how it has affected them. Old Before Their Time provides answers as well as recommendations to improve child protection and treatment services which impact millions of children and families every year. Written for a general science reader, this engaging book is well-referenced for professionals who work with children or adults with histories of child maltreatment.
Putnam, FW (2016). The Way We Are: How States of Mind Influence our Identities, Personality, and Potential for Change. New York: International Psychoanalytic Books
The Way We Are focuses on the dynamic interplay of discrete states of consciousness – altered, alternative and ordinary – that compose our personalities and structure our daily behavior.
Drawing on a rich scientific literature gleaned from numerous discrete mental states ranging from vegetative to manic states of mind, intoxicated to inspirational states of being, The Way We Are provides a new way of understanding perplexing and paradoxical human behavior.
Integrating 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 Zen monks. Challenging readers to scrutinize their own states of mind, he examines the nature and paradoxes of personality such as hyprocrisy, secret lives, and religious conversion. PTSD, drugs, addictions, thrill-seeking, multiple personality disorder, peak states, epiphanies, meditation, sex, and hypnosis provide further examples of the illumination of the states-of-mind perspective on behavior and human potential. A Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina and Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, Dr. Putnam is an author of over 200 scientific publications related to child maltreatment and maternal depression and two books on the dissociative disorders.
Putnam, F.W (1997). Dissociation in Children and Adolescents: A Developmental Perspective. New York: Guilford Press.
Recognizing that maltreated and traumatized children and adolescents often manifest serious dissociative symptoms, Dissociation in Children and Adolescents: A developmental Perspective provided the first developmental approach to understanding the impact of pathological dissociation on child development.
Presenting a comprehensive developmental approach, this book examines the origins and course of normal and pathological dissociation in children and adolescents. The volume illustrates the critical connection between pathological dissociation and trauma, and provides a clear synthesis of what is known about the psychobiology of dissociative disorders and the effects of pathological dissociation on cognition, memory and behavior. Amply illustrated with clinical vignettes, the book describes an array of diagnostic and treatment techniques and includes reproducible copies of validated dissociation scales for all age groups.
Putnam FW. (1989). Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York: Guilford Press.
First published in 1989, Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder has remained a perennial classic in the field of dissociative disorder diagnosis and treatment. Often recommended as a primer for clinicians with their first case, Diagnosis and Treatment remains an authoritative source on clinical approaches to dissociative patients.
Geared to the needs of mental health practitioners unfamiliar with dissociative disorders, this volume presents a comprehensive and integrated approach to diagnosis and treatment. Each step-from the first interview to the final post-integrative treatment-is systematically reviewed, with detailed instructions on specific diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and examples of their clinical applications. Concise yet thorough, the volume offers expert advice on such topics as how to foster a strong therapeutic alliance, how to manage crises, and what basic errors to avoid.