Building a Life Worth Living: A Memoir Hardcover – January 7, 2020

mental health is such an underestimated issue in the society. most of the stigma in the society make the situation even worse.Marsha uses her personal experience to develop the unique DBT treatment, that speaks for everything on how the society and the community should do for the populations with the mental health issues.passionated story teller with the accurate non biased narratives.

I delighted in reading Marsha's story in her words. We discovered the power of DBT therapy when we found a therapist for my daughter at 19. Before meeting her Linehan-certified therapist, she was constantly in a triggered state of emotions that caused her deep pain. As I read this book, I saw how Marsha's work influenced her therapist, who would call her out in very direct ways. Finally, someone got my daughter and she grew to respect her therapist. Plus we were also included in the training. I highly recommend this book to anyone and I see DBT skills up there with the 12 steps in terms of a life-changing way of thinking.

I have been a DBT therapist for about 15 years. One of my former coworkers was sent this book by the publisher to read and review. I sent the publisher an email and asked for a copy as well, citing trainings I had done as a participant and facilitator, reviews of books pertaining to DBT which I had read, and even included a photo of me with Marsha from a training in Seattle. I read it in one sitting and immediately purchased a copy through Amazon so I could loan it out.I tried not to do my normal reading thing--make notes in pencil, annotate specific quotes in a small notebook, and make a list of other books to read--but resorted to this by page 75. I also was making apple butter with pecans so had wonderful aromas in the kitchen as well as a pot of strong coffee. Then, to make the mood absolutely perfect--had my Alexa speaker play Adele. I think Marsha would have enjoyed that.I have been fortunate to participate in trainings with Marsha and to have staffed clients with her. She used to have students from her intensive trainings over for dinner at her house. It was absolutely wonderful to walk around arm-in-arm with her and have her tell me kind thoughts and wish me well with my clients. That was really one of my life's highlights.Around 2012 I was doing a DBT group with adolescent girls. One 12 year old asked if possibly Marsha was 'one of us?' I asked her what she meant by that, why did she think so? And the child said it was because she seemed to know exactly what we had been through. I nodded and told them about the NY Times article and brought it in the following week. When I had met Marsha her arms still bore severe scarring.On page 176 Marsha talks about using occasional strategic helplessness--which had me laughing out loud. When my oldest daughter was 18, the car made a funny noise and we pulled off road. She asked how we would get some help? I knew this kid was going to be moving out and on her own and I suggested she pop the hood and look forlornly at the engine--said some man would be by in about 5 minutes to help us out. Yes. I did that even after having come up in the 70's and having been told no most of my life--I have used occasional strategic helplessness to my advantage.On page 272 there is a remarkable awareness of the misery shared by many borderline clients which Marsha identifies as being homesick. How poignant. What an apt description.There is a brilliant quote by Rainer Maria Rilke that should be on the wall of all DBT therapists, at least 4 other books I want to look up. Much of the information on skills and research was familiar to me. It was fun to go to the ISITDBT conference and see many of the DBT rock stars.Many DBT therapists are gifted trainers and have helped thousands of people over the course of their work. Marsha is a solid human being who has made the most of what was given to and made available to her. She is a remarkable human being. She loves her clients and her work. If the level of DBT experience and capability was identified by the seat number you were given at the world's largest stadium--I would probably be at home watching the event on TV. Still, Marsha makes everyone feel they belong at the head table.One last thing. I grew up in Connecticut and our mother was at the Institute of Living on several occasions--also in the 1960s into the early 1970s. A sad dialectic-- it was a renowned hospital and it was unpleasant. Shock treatments and cold packs were often the norm and no one spoke of mental illness. Marsha's development of biosocial theory and her path to wellness are earned.This book would be validating to persons with borderline personality disorder, their family members, therapists who provide DBT services, and especially those who may work with persons with borderline personality disorder who do not share the love of those suffering.Thank you, Marsha. We love you.

This is the story, the narrative, of a survivor, Marsha Linehan, an innovator in the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) using a method she and her team invented called Dialectical Behavioral Treatment (DBT). Linehan has written a memoir, not a treatment manual (separately noted in the complete post). Her memoir contextualizes the diverse interventions used by DBT such as acceptance, distress tolerance, emotional regulation skills, self soothing skills, communication skills, limit setting skills, assertiveness training, and so on. She attempts and largely succeeds in connecting the dots between DBT and its skills and the key events in her life, many of which had not been publicly available.Linehan is on a tear – standard behavioral therapy doesn’t work with the most seriously distressed (suicidal) patients and cognitive behavioral therapy has serious issues, too. You have to get a person whose life and all-available-evidence “prove” that “all the good one’s are taken” or “life sucks” to be reasonable and admit that “some of the good ones are not taken” or “life does not have to suck at all times.”The thing about the iceberg [of life] is that it’s the iceberg “all the way down.” The visible part of the iceberg is not a different iceberg than the less visible part submerged beneath the water. The behavior is visible, but the biology is not visible, what the individual had to survive is not visible, how the community reacts to the individual of is not visible.  But unlike – or perhaps just like – the iceberg, research treats these all as different siloes. It is true that we all – including Linehan – now speak of the bio-psycho-social individual and express authentic commitment to integration. But the effort required to integrate just shows how dis-integrated the entire phenomenon is.The tip of the iceberg does not regard itself as distinct from the iceberg. The “tip” is our abstraction. Likewise, with behavior. Linehan demonstrates this compelling as she takes the psychoanalytic distinction of “introject,” operationalizes it, and shows collects evidence that DBT improves measures of introject over against a stricter behavioral intervention. Amazing.How shall I put it delicately? Like every other individual, Linehan has a privileged access to her own first person experience – the golden light moment, the blue hydrangea moment. She also has many advantages in interpreting what that experience means, since, like every other individual, she knows a lot about her own history that others might or might not know. But as to what the experience “really means,” one individual has as good a chance of getting it right as another once the experience has been captured and reported. At first she says “The golden light means God loves me”; but then, since that experience was like [felt like] her love for Ed [a person who she actually loved deeply], she reinterprets the golden light to mean “I love God.” So she has to continue searching for God’s love for her, which brings us to the blue hydrangea by which time the meaning of God and of love have shifted. Hence, the title: Saint Linehan.But wait. Her Zen experience will eventually have taught her this is just another Zen koan – it is like the ambiguous Gestalt image the duck-rabbit where the rabbit’s ears and the duck’s bill and the figure spontaneously reverses – perhaps she got it right the first time – “God is God” and “love is love.”In short, Linehan is really slinging it here, and there is nothing wrong with that. It works. Her rhetoric is that of the beginner’s mind after long struggle. She is irreverent, assertive, disruptive within limits (and without), empathic, highly empathic, and contrary within  limits (and without), innovative, all DBT skills, and we thank you, Marsha, for being Marsha.

I have been diagnosed with BPD and I have been looking for a group which offers the DBT therapy. I decided to read Dr. Linehan's book to understand the foundations of the DBT therapy. It is a very interesting story of her life and how she came to dedicate her life to helping people come out of their personal hell(s). I am convinced now that DBT therapy would help me so I will continue looking for a therapist who follows Dr. Marsha's process. I see a lot of DBT therapy books out on the market, but I want one that specifically follows the process she uses. I find it interesting too that her research was specifically for suicidal individuals, but it encompasses the BPD clients also. Anyone who has trouble regulating emotions might want to look into DBT. But start with this book first.

I have read a lot of BPD books but they are often either written solely from the perspective or partner, therapist or patient.As the person who created DBT therapy and as a BPD patient herself, this offers more of a perspective on living with the condition, how she overcame it and also the clinical side of things.And it’s just really well written.

It's the story of how Marsha development DBT - which is the only thing that has saved my 22 year old son.

As a sufferer of BPD, I felt inspired reading this memoir, especially knowing that someone as renowned as Marsha Linehan in the field of psychiatry and behavioural psychology had similar experiences to the clients she has rescued.

Lots of information if you are newly diagnosed

I like psychology and medicine but i think if some metaphysical things or religion is kept out of psychology and the medical professions that ALL metaphysical philosophies should be kept out. Book was recommended to me but its hard to read.