Volumes have been written about the patient's love for the therapist, but there has been relatively little discussion of the therapist's love for the patient. In an attempt to create a theoretical and technical space for discussing the appropriateness and role of love in the therapeutic relationship, a revised concept of the therapeutic alliance is applied to provide technical guidelines and understanding of two kinds of love between patient and therapist, corresponding to two systems of self-esteem regulation: an open, reality-oriented system and a closed, sadomasochistic system organized according to omnipotent beliefs. Examples of the role of love through the phases of treatment illustrate the interrelationship of love and the accomplishment of therapeutic alliance tasks.
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