ABSTRACT
As the underlying philosophy of DBT, dialectics describes the process by which the development of the therapy and progress within the therapy occurs and by which con¯icts that impede development or progress are resolved. Ancient Greek philosophers ®rst developed dialectics as a method to improve logic, but modern writers, starting with Hegel, have extended it into a philosophy to explain the evolution of many aspects of life, including economics (see Tucker, 1978, for Karl Marx) and science (Kuhn, 1970). Dialectics has been de®ned as: ``. . . the concept of the contradiction of opposites (thesis and antithesis) and their continual resolution (synthesis)'' (Webster's New World Dictionary, 1964, p. 404). Linehan's application of dialectics (1993a; Linehan & Schmidt, 1995) was in¯uenced by work in the areas of evolutionary biology (Levins & Lewontin, 1985), cognitive development (Basseches, 1984) and the development of self (Kegan, 1982). DBT particularly emphasizes three dialectical assumptions regarding the nature of reality, namely that reality is: (1) interrelated or systemic; (2) oppositional or heterogeneous; and (3) continuously changing.
Interrelatedness
