Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder

Frank W. Putnam, MD, is a leading authority on dissociative disorders. Trained as a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist, he is Chief of Developmental Traumatology at the National Institute of Mental Health and directs clinical research on the effects of maltreatment, community violence, and other types of trauma across the lifespan.

• Dissociation. Multiple Personality Disorder. Etiology, Epidemiology, and Phenomenology. Diagnosing Multiple Personality Disorder. The Alter Personalities. Beginning Treatment. Issues in Psychotherapy. Psychotherapeutic Techniques. The Therapeutic Role of Hypnosis and Abreaction. Adjunctive Therapies. Crisis Management and Resolution.

Putnam's Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder is an excellent text for advanced undergraduates or graduate students. The detailed presentation of stages of treatment is especially useful, and the discussion of boundary management and other therapeutic issues is timely and thought provoking. --David Rainey, Ph.D., Psychology Department, John Carroll University Demystifies MPD and places it squarely in the mainstream of contemporary knowledge about the impact of childhood trauma. The book promises to be a synthesis of the ideas, techniques, and treatment philosophies about MPD. It delivers on these promises and more. It places MPD in its historical perspective as the disorder that clarifies much about the nature of human consciousness, and now has the potential of helping to unravel the psychobiological linkages between mind and body. The sober, detailed, step-by-step guide through every conceivable aspect of the complex therapy of these patients provides a balanced guide for all clinicians dealing with multiple personality and other dissociative disorders. Putnam's work will be the standard in the field for a long time to come. In breadth of scope, clarity of style, and lucidity of ideas it may even surpass Janet's classic works on the subject. --Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Massachusetts Mental Health Center Trauma Clinic Director, Harvard Medical School, Author of Psychological Trauma - An encyclopedic volume, certainly the definitive textbook of the disorder. --Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2/5/1989