Therapy seems to me structured like the cruelest of relationships: intense attention in short-burst parceled-out doses, completely determined by their rules. In every one of of my therapy relationships, the therapist presented himself as superior and life expert, just as the therapist I know non-professionally does. They believed their own hype.

I don't think the doctor's palpation comparison applies because the intrusion in that case is only means to an end, the diagnosis. The intrusion isn't the treatment itself.