Marsha Linehan’s development of DBT and overcoming BPD
The treatment in which Marsha Linehan developed from broad arrays of cognitive behavioral therapy strategies became more specific for BPD. This is because the focus Marsha Linehan had was treating those with suicidal behavior (Linehan, 1993). She wanted to help people develop an internal sense of worth by loving them even though they are not loveable people because of their disorder. She saw the patients as the people they had the potential to be, as opposed to the behaviors and actions they displayed as a result of the disorder. Marsha Linehan didn’t only develop the DBT but she suffered from BPD herself. Dr. Marsha Linehan has compared those with BPD to third degree emotional burn victims, meaning that the injuries sustained have a lasting effect on one’s psychological state of mind. When Marsha Linehan was 17 she went to a clinic because she was injuring herself habitually by…show more content… Mentalization-based therapy, schema focused therapy, transference focused therapy are all examples of other therapies that can be used to treat BPD. But, why is DBT the most prominent treatment compared to the other therapies? A DBT clinical trial was conducted in order to evaluate the effectiveness of DBT in comparison to the ‘treatment as usual’, which was the control for the experiment. The treatment was administered for a year and was assessed every four months. For the subjects that received the DBT they had fewer instances of parasuicides, were more likely to stay in therapy, and had fewer inpatient psychiatric days (Linehan et al., 1991). Although there are few sources providing credible research about other therapies, the research done for DBT has shown to be an effective treatment for those with