Tell that to my therapist. He thinks talking is listening. You know, I talk, you talk, I talk, you talk, I talk, you comment. He does not know he is not listening. Even if I tell him. He does not see what I mean. I did not know the difference until one time in an early therapy when things changed suddenly for me and I knew what listening to someone else was.

But my therapist at the time thought I was crazy. He convinced me (he being the authority) that I did not know what was in my own mind, and that he did, and that what he was doing was "for my own good". He said so. Others backed him up.

A therapist can be a very powerful person in the mind of a patient. Opposing them means going out on a very long limb, where you may find yourself totally alone in the world. Many, many people will tell you that you are wrong and "they" cannot be wrong. And thus the mind (mine, anyway) is thrown into a tailspin from which it may never recover.

After all, maybe they are right. And then it is all due to your own "weakness" anyway -- and we know how unforgivable weakness is.