“Thelma, this feeling that the only thing that matters is for Matthew to think well of you—tell me everything you know about it.” “It’s hard to put into words. The idea of him hating me is unbearable. He’s the one person who has ever known everything about me. So the fact that he could still love me, despite everything he knew, meant so much.” This, I thought, is precisely the reason therapists should not become emotionally involved with patients. By virtue of their privileged role, their access to deep feelings and secret information, their reactions always assume larger-than-life meanings.
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