Marsha Linehan tells the story of her journey from suicidal teenager to world-renowned developer of the life-saving behavioral therapy DBT, using her own struggle to develop life skills for others.

Includes index.

Foreword by Dr. Allen Frances -- Part one. Building a life experienced as worth living -- Descent into hell -- I will prove them wrong -- A traumatic invalidating environment -- A stranger in a strange land -- I had to leave Tulsa -- Part two. On my way to Chicago -- Intellectual and spiritual transformations -- The path to thinking like a scientist -- My enlightenment moment in the Cenacle Chapel -- I have proved my point! -- Love that came and went, came and went -- A suicide clinic in Buffalo -- The development of behaviorism and behavior therapy -- Fitting in at last: small fish in a big pond -- What have I done? -- Finding a nurturing community -- Like a fish on a hook -- Finding a therapist, and an ironic twist -- Part three. A thumbnail sketch of DBT -- Finding my feet in Seattle and learning to live an anti-depressant life -- My first research grant for behavior therapy and suicide -- Science and spirituality -- My fight for tenure -- The birth of dialectical behavior therapy -- Dialectics: the tension, or synthesis, between opposites -- Learning acceptance skills -- Not just acceptance-radical acceptance -- Good advice from Willigis: keep going -- Becoming a zen master -- Trying to put zen into clinical practice -- Mindfulness: we all have wise mind -- DBT in clinical trial -- Part four. The circle closes -- A family at last -- Going public with my story: the real origins of DBT.