Marsha M. Linehan 1943 – 2026

Biography

Marsha M. Linehan was an American psychologist who developed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), the treatment that became the gold standard for borderline personality disorder and suicidal behavior. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 5, 1943, she spent more than two years as a teenager at the Institute of Living in Hartford, an experience she later spoke about publicly. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology at Loyola University Chicago in 1971 and joined the University of Washington in 1977, where she directed the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics until her retirement in 2019. Her 1991 clinical trial showed DBT could help people others had called untreatable, and her 1993 treatment manuals spread it worldwide; she later founded Behavioral Tech and the Linehan Institute, and told her own story in the 2020 memoir Building a Life Worth Living. She died in Seattle on November 10, 2026, aged 83, surrounded by her daughter Geri.