I'd say it has to be a real relationship on some level for therapy to work. In some ways (and I could be dead wrong, but this is just my current gut feeling) I sort of feel as though a lot of the boundaries and things are plausible deniability so a therapist doesn't have to reciprocate.

I mean, if it was really a blank slate (as I understand it, the old Freudian therapists used to sit behind the patient and say absolutely nothing) then yeah, okay, maybe it would all be projection on the client's part.

But if you're looking someone in the eye, and having a meaningful conversation with them, then I think there has to be some kind of real relationship happening there. And it would have to go both ways on some level, otherwise you'd sense closedness in that person.