It requires a whole person for object permanence
I've become emotionally close to my present therapist. First time. I was ok in other therapies that stayed focused on specific problems. This situation now is horrible coming from a childhood of neglect.
In between sessions, there is no "place" for the therapist in my heart and psyche. No defined relationship or person. Good or bad. Vague. Amorphous. How can I keep a person as an internal attachment or comfort when they don't exist?
For everyone else in our lives we only have to deal with their real personality, the good with the bad. We can define them fairly well. The therapist purposely stays mostly unknown with respect to their personality, life, and their actual feelings towards us.
How is this ever supposed to help any of us who suffered from childhood attachment deficits, either more neglect or more overt abuse, or a combination of both?