What difference do you see between a psychoanalyst and a psychodynamic T in this sense? I unfortunately had psychoanalyst with a very mediocre (or less) intelligence and pretty poor analytical abilities. He claims a lot of success working with clients "emotionally" and I could see he was better at certain kinds of empathy than analysis. Unfortunately we also had radically different emotional styles, just almost no matching anywhere. My 2nd T, who claims to be eclectic, used psychodynamic approach a lot with me. He was a very smart guy, also empathetic and respectful, we had quite a lot in common. Still not a very successful therapy overall because it mostly lacked the pragmatic elements that my issues would have required and that I found elsewhere (and ultimately in myself).

Do you really think that anyone will just feel what another person feels, when they are not in the same situation? I don't know... I mean, I know some people claim to be empaths in that sort of way. I certainly am not so cannot comment. But I do know that even the people who obviously have good empathic abilities get me wrong frequently when our thinking and emotional styles and preferences are too radically different. And they can be the most academically intelligent and accomplished people - I meet these all the time as I am in academia as well. We can work great together on academic projects but won't be good friends or confidants. Therapy of course is not friendship but requires a more emotional compatibility than mere academic collaboration.