1. The 1991 study that rose Marsha Linehan (and DBT) to fame claimed DBT was effective at reducing symptoms because it showed a reduction in suicidal behavior. However, it did not show a difference in reducing internal suffering (such as depression, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, and identifying reasons for living) when compared to the control group that did not receive DBT.
2. DBT holds many functional similarities to ABA, both rooted in radical behaviorism and use operant conditioning to reinforce desired behaviors and punish undesired behaviors.
3. DBT, as it’s designed, does not accept criticism and pathologizes people who question it. A study by Lawson et al. (2025) reported that, when DBT clients expressed concerns over the treatment modality, their critical thinking was seen by their therapists as symptoms of their mental illness that needed to be treated.
4. DBT meets all four criteria of the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control, coined by cult survivor Dr. Steven Hassan:
- Behavior Control: See #2
- Information Control: Therapist authority over case notes and, in group therapy settings, encouraging reporting deviant behaviors of other clients to the therapist
- Thought Control: See #3, encouragement of only “rational” or “wise mind” thoughts, usage of thought stopping techniques
- Emotional Control: Narrowing the range of emotions (deeming some emotional reactions as irrational or “willful”), any problems that arise in therapy are a result of the patient’s pathology and not the therapist or treatment (see #3 again), instilling fear of being shunned (therapist initiating removal of warmth techniques by acting cold towards the client in an attempt to extinguish “problem behaviors”)
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