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Old Aug 10, 2017, 06:51 PM
BudFox BudFox is offline
Grand Magnate
 
Member Since: Feb 2015
Location: US
Posts: 3,983
People say that therapy and real relationships are basically the same, and that termination is like a break-up and so on. I see fundamental differences. In real-world intimate relationships:

1) There is no direct payment for services.

2) One does not enter into it with the explicit goal of healing or receiving treatment or being re-parented.

3) One is not drawn into attachment or dependency, then prohibited from having proximity to the attachment figure beyond an hour or two per week.

4) The relationship is not rationed into brief, tightly controlled time blocks.

5) The other person has not been granted the power to diagnose.

6) The other person is not relating to you in a scripted or studied way, based on psychological theories and techniques.

7) The other person is not in a socially and professionally codified position of authority and power.

8) There isn't an ever-present threat of being "terminated", which i think carries a very different meaning than the possibility of a real-world relationship ending.

9) One is not coaxed into trusting the other so soon, with so little information, and with so much on the line (likely in a crisis state).

10) There isn't generally such absolute seclusion.

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Therapy betrayal and wounding has its own flavor and its own brutality and that ought to be emphasized, not downplayed. In my opinion. I observe that sometimes when people are told there really is no difference, they begin to question their sanity.
Thanks for this!
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