When strangers encounter one another – as individuals or nations – they cannot escape finding the other’s ways and values unfamiliar and awkward. A frequent result is that they objectify and demonize the “other,” and, if they have the power, seek to “enlighten,” conquer, or destroy them. Does this same dynamic play out between therapists and patients? In this presentation, I conclude that it does, and that a colonizer-colonized relationship is created by – and creates – the essential asymmetry of the therapeutic dialogue. Through examination of two short case vignettes, I will discuss how therapists’ desire to colonize their patients (unfolding in the intersubjective field) organizes and how the colonization is organized by nonrecognition of their own vulnerability, the uncontrollability of their patients, and their primal dependency on their patients.