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The therapeutic relationship entered the field of experimental science towards the end of the 18th century, with Mesmer's animal magnetism.
It subsequently recurs under a variety of names. In particular it appears in the form of suggestion, whose operational force is essentially affective.
Freud was wary of suggestion and thought that it could be dealt with by cognitive means (interpretation, insight, and so on). But there is a growing realization, today, that the bond implied in suggestion develops at an archaic, preverbal, psycho-biological level, irreducible in terms of the intellectual methods employed to date. Hence the elusive element encountered in all psychotherapies.
It is my feeling that investigators would do well to overcome their ancient and still persistent prejudices and seek to elucidate this mysterious, though fundamental, concept.