I read an interesting article the other day in which a therapist talked about how he kind of hated one of his patients, and the feeling was returned (it was an article from the 50's, the T was American Jewish while the patient was the son of an unapologetic German National Socialist). But, they both acknowledged their disdain of the other and talked about it explicitly. (Nor did they ever really get past it—the T was able to help the client regain functionality but they never really overcame their personal dislike for the other, at least not fully).

This got me to thinking—how important is it to *like* your T? I know studies show that if you do, it increases the chances of "success", but is it absolutely necessary? Is this something other people think about? (I think the reason it's an issue for me is that I realized I spend energy looking for approval and/or some kind of personal reaction from the T—but now I'm wondering if this is poor choice of things to be focused on.)