lg, you're fortunate never to have been ensnared in this delusional dynamic. I was trapped by it; I've seen offline friends become surrendering infants in therapy relationship and numerous books and blogs where the therapists present themselves as a towering authority on life. One off-line therapist acquaintance reared up to decree Life Lessons to me.
Maybe the most extreme and publicized examples of these mini-cults are Woody Allen and Brian Wilson. Then there's a book by Rosie Alexander called
Folie à Deux. I speculate more common are examples of undue influence like I experienced and apparently alluded to on this board. Deborah Lott chronicles this extensively in
In Session. A handful of therapists themselves explored the problem.
I agree completely with you--there's nothing rational about it. I speculate these events tap into the yearnings of parent-child bonding and unaware therapists who ride too high when their client's idolize them. When it does happen though, it can be hellish to extract oneself. To pull that most ironic of Woody Allen quotes. "The heart wants what the heart wants."
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Originally Posted by lolagrace
I certainly have never thought of them as super human, nor have I had a therapist ever consider himself that way, so I don't really see the double standard.
You are right: therapists are just like everyone else. But I don't see that has dishonest of hypocritical. They are trudging through life just like the rest of us and hopefully, through their training, can help us gain some insight into our own issues and needs, but that certainly doesn't preclude them from having their own issues and needs. I know of no one on Earth, who has life so figured out at some point, that they no longer have their own problems, that includes therapists.
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