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

by Frank W. Putnam

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 Zen monks. Challenging readers to scrutinize their own states of mind, he examines the nature and paradoxes of personality such as hypocrisy, 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 a 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.

Genres: Psychology

448 pages, Paperback

Published December 8, 2016

Reviews

[Eduardo Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top-grade material, worthy of at least one more star which I don’t feel qualified to give. It’s fascinating material, informative, well presented, I’m just not sure who he’s trying to reach or even what he’s trying to express. If pressed for a guess I’d say he’s presenting evidence for the existence of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) as a distinctly diagnosable and treatable medical condition, and his target audience is other medical practitioners. Should you, dear reader, count yourself as such, I might urge you to bump this book’s place in your to-read list up by a position or three.

For the rest of us: I just can’t recommend this except to the most diehard of all-things-neuro fans. Putnam’s basic argument throughout the book is the nonexistence of af Self, upon which there’s pretty much universal consensus among neuroscientists and contemplative practitioners. He interweaves his defense with informative and genuinely riveting history of psychology, of different movements and personalities throughout time, of how we’ve arrived where we are. I’ll confess to having loved each of these histories: Putnam offers compassionate and insightful perspectives on people and practices we now recoil from; such is the risk of hindsight. (Should there still be humans in the 22nd century they will rightly condemn us for what we do today). Putnam’s personal recollections are especially engaging. He’s a good writer, with an important message—no, many important messages—there’s just too much material in this book, with too many tangents and side threads for a lay reader.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. The author presents his totally (mental/physiological) state-based model of consciousness and psychopathology, and argues for the development of a corresponding state-based treatment. He includes a lot of foundational history of the study of the mind and consciousness (fun fact: when I began this book, I did not previously remember ever reading about William James...by the time I finally finished it, I can't seem to stop seeing James' cited in nearly everything I read), and manages to makes what could be some very dry topics quite riveting. It's a nearly 400-page book, but I can't say I ever was bored or disinterested.

Due to the author's history of treating patients with complex dissociative disorders, I found myself wishing for some integration of (or argument with) structural dissociation theory, but didn't find anything explicitly addressing it. I'm hoping to read more by Putnam soon!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting.