8000 York Road
Towson, Maryland, USA
From the website:
“Founded in 1866, Towson University is recognized among the nation’s best regional public universities, offering more than 100 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in the liberal arts and sciences, and applied professional fields. …
With more than 21,000 students, Towson University is the second-largest public university in Maryland. As a metropolitan university, Towson combines research-based learning with practical application. Our many interdisciplinary partnerships with public and private organizations throughout Maryland provide opportunities for research, internships and jobs. Towson University is a founding member of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU).”
Towson University is hard at work educating young students about the validity and existence of the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder & multiple personalities. It has an impressive track record for hiring a teaching staff that is a virtual who’s-who among proponents of the diagnosis and treatment of what remains a highly controversial psychiatric disorder. In addition, several professors are linked to the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD).
About the ISSTD
Vision Statement
Social policy and health care will address the prevalence and consequences of chronic trauma and dissociation, making effective treatment available for all who suffer from the effects of chronic or complex trauma.
Mission Statement
ISSTD seeks to advance clinical, scientific, and societal understanding about the prevalence and consequences of chronic trauma and dissociation.
Below are snippets of the teaching and research staff biographies.
Bethany Brand, PhD
Principle Investigator
She began her career in trauma related work as a research assistant with Frank Putnam in 1988. She completed a two year trauma disorders postdoctoral fellowship at Sheppard Pratt Health Systems, after which she was an attending psychologist within the Trauma Disorders program. She supervises the psychological assessment of the trauma postdoctoral fellows at Sheppard Pratt Health Systems. She has served as the Chair of the Education Committee and as a Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Chronic Trauma and Resiliency for the International Society for the Study of Dissociation and Trauma.
Catherine Classen, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator
Catherine Classen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Academic Leader of the Trauma Therapy Program at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, Director of the Women’s Mental Health Research Program at the Women’s College Research Institute in Toronto, and President of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. She received her PhD in 1991 from York University, completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University in 1993
Richard J. Loewenstein, M.D.
Co-Investigator
Richard Loewenstein, M.D., is a Senior Psychiatrist and the Medical Director of the Trauma Disorders Program at Sheppard Pratt Health Systems, Baltimore, MD, ranked by U.S. News and World Report as among America’s 10 top psychiatric facilities. He is also Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is the author of over 50 papers and book chapters on sleep disorders, consultation-liaison psychiatry, dissociation, dissociative disorders, and trauma disorders. He is co-author, with Frank W. Putnam, M.D.,
Frank Putnam, M.D.
Co-Investigator
Frank W. Putnam, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital National Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He was formerly Chief of Developmental Traumatology at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD.
Dr. Putnam is the co-developer of the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) along with Eve Bernstein, PhD, which is a non-scientific psychological tool used to recognize dissociation. The DES is used by both laypersons and professionals.
Questioning Dissociative Identity Disorder, Multiple Personalities, and Plurals 