Building a Life Worth Living: A Memoir
Also known as Building a Life Worth Living
Marsha Linehan's memoir: from suicidal teenager to the creator of DBT
At a glance
What it argues
Act first, Acceptance plus change
See all 2Key ideas
The vow, From Zen to skills, Trial and error
See all 3Examples from the book
"Are you one of us?", Act yourself into thinking, Hell
See all 3Read next
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder, DBT Skills Training Manual
See all 2Connections
Marsha Linehan, Dialectical behavior therapy and 2 others
See all 4
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Linehan kept her own past hidden until a patient asked whether she was 'one of us'.
- At 18 she spiralled into suicidal despair and spent more than two years in a psychiatric institute.
- She vowed to get out of hell and then help others out.
- The memoir follows night school, a PhD, the long search for a treatment, and the Zen practice that shaped DBT.
Why it matters
- For anyone learning DBT who wants to understand where acceptance and mindfulness in it came from, and for readers who have struggled with suicidal feelings.
- It shows the treatment's principles through one life.
Key facts
- Author
- Marsha M. Linehan1
- Published
- January 2020 (ebook and audiobook); paperback January 20211
- Publisher
- Random House1
- Pages
- 3841
- ISBN
- 9780812984996 (paperback)1
- Audience
- General readers, people who have struggled, and clinicians1
- Foreword
- Allen Frances, who calls Linehan one of the two most influential clinical innovators in mental health, with Aaron Beck2
What it argues
Key ideas
-
The vow2
In the institute she vowed to get out of hell and then go back and get others out; it guided her life.
-
From Zen to skills2
Time at a Buddhist monastery and with Zen teacher Willigis Jäger fed DBT's focus on acceptance.
-
Trial and error2
DBT came from watching sessions and keeping what worked, then a controlled trial published in 1991.
Examples from the book
-
"Are you one of us?"1
A patient's question, "Because if you were, it would give all of us so much hope," made her decide to tell her story.
-
Act yourself into thinking1
"You can't think yourself into new ways of acting; you can only act yourself into new ways of thinking."
-
Hell2
"I know what hell feels like, but even now I can't find words to describe it."
Read next
-
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder
The clinical book behind the story.
-
The skills she describes building, in full.
Connections
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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