Developed by Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, at the University of Washington, DBT is the derivation of standard cognitive-behavioral therapy that has furnished the most controlled studies demonstrating its efficacy. The dialectic of the treatment refers to the goal of resolving the inherent “opposites” faced by BPD patients; that is, the need to negotiate the borderline’s contradictory feeling states, such as loving, then hating the same person or situation. A
