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Marsha Linehan challenged the belief that BPD was untreatable by developing and testing DBT.

She helped clinicians understand the function of challenging behaviors rather than blaming patients.

Her legacy lives on through the people she helped and the generations of clinicians she inspired.

The field of clinical psychology lost a giant this week with the passing of Marsha Linehan, the psychologist who developed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and fundamentally changed how we understand and treat borderline personality disorder (BPD).

For decades, people with BPD were considered among the most difficult patients to treat. In fact, many clinicians believed that these patients were untreatable. Linehan proved them wrong by developing a better treatment. Since its publication in 1993, DBT has saved countless lives and inspired generations of clinicians and researchers.

As a clinical psychologist whose own career has been shaped by her work, I've been reflecting on what made Linehan such an extraordinary figure. Here are five reasons her legacy will endure.

1. She Went Where Angels Feared to Tread

When Marsha began her work, people experiencing chronic suicidality and severe emotional dysregulation were often viewed as too difficult or too risky to treat. Rather than accepting that these patients couldn't be helped, she set out to develop a treatment that could get the job done.

The result was dialectical behavior therapy, a structured........

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