M. Linehan developed "dialectical behavioral therapy" specifically to treat 
chronically suicidal borderline patients. It rests on a biosocial model that 
assumes a disorder in the regulation of emotions and in tolerance of stress. The 
numerous dysfunctional patterns of behavior such as self-destructive behavior, 
inability to govern impulses or severe dissociative phenomena are regarded as 
attempts at problem-solving. This concept of therapy focuses on the continuing 
balance between the necessity of accepting maladaptive behavior patterns in both 
an intrapsychic and an interactional context while still working to change them. 
A comprehensive manual outlines the clearly structured therapy and integrates a 
wide choice of therapeutic strategies. Parallel to development of the therapy 
itself, a method also was developed for testing therapist adherence to the 
manual's guidelines, thus providing a basis for empirical evaluation. An initial 
controlled, randomized study demonstrated the significant superiority of this 
method to methods of unspecific psychotherapy at various levels. In the current 
endeavor to develop disorder-specific approaches to the treatment of personality 
disorders, "dialectical behavioral therapy" is a noteworthy model.