Books / Lived experience, memoir & fiction
Building a Life Worth Living: A Memoir
Marsha M. Linehan’s memoir describes her experiences of psychiatric treatment and the development of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT).
Book details
Author of listed edition: Marsha M. Linehan
Edition: 2020 Random House hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Edition year: 2020
Language and origin: English (United States)
Form and genre: Memoir, Fiction & Lived Experience
Level: Introductory
Historical era: 2010–Present · Contextual, Pluralistic & Liberation Era
Covers: Linehan’s experience of psychiatric treatment; Her account of the development of dialectical behaviour therapy; The relationship between acceptance, change, and mindfulness in DBT
APA 7th reference: Linehan, M. M. (2020). Building a life worth living: A memoir. Random House.
What it is
A memoir by psychologist Marsha M. Linehan, published by Random House in 2020. The publisher describes her account of psychiatric treatment and her work developing dialectical behaviour therapy.
What it covers
The publisher’s description connects Linehan’s personal experience with her work on DBT, an approach it describes as combining acceptance, change, and mindfulness.
Testimony and research
The paired 1987 paper is a separate scholarly publication on DBT for borderline personality disorder. Its bibliographic record was checked, but the paper itself was not reviewed for this entry.
Limits of this entry
The publisher’s description and a library catalogue were consulted; the full memoir and paired article were not reviewed. The book discusses psychiatric hospitalisation and suicidal distress. A personal account does not establish which treatment is appropriate for another person.
Paired academic and clinical scholarship
Paired work: Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: Theory and Method (Marsha M. Linehan, 1987)
Reference: Linehan, M. M. (1987). Dialectical behavior therapy for borderline personality disorder: Theory and method. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 51(3), 261–276.
A 1987 paper on the theory and method of dialectical behaviour therapy; only its bibliographic record was checked.
Source-mapped claims and evidence notes
Claim 1: The memoir was published by Random House in 2020. (The library catalogue identifies a 2020 first edition.) [Source 2: Arlington Heights Memorial Library. Building a life worth living: A memoir, catalogue record.]
Claim 2: The publisher describes the memoir as an account of Linehan’s psychiatric treatment and the development of DBT. (The description is for a later paperback edition; the full memoir was not reviewed.) [Source 1: Penguin Random House. Building a Life Worth Living: A Memoir, paperback edition.]
Sources and inspection notes
Penguin Random House. Building a Life Worth Living: A Memoir, paperback edition.
Supports: Publisher description of the memoir and DBT; the page describes the 2021 paperback, not the 2020 hardcover.
Arlington Heights Memorial Library. Building a life worth living: A memoir, catalogue record.
Supports: Author, title, publisher, year, and first-edition hardcover bibliographic details.
Supports: Bibliographic details of the paired article; PubMed provides no abstract for this record.