ABSTRACT
I found my way to thinking about otherness unexpectedly. I feel like it found me, actually. In this chapter I will discuss how that occurred and how my work with autistic patients raised my awareness of what it means to be disabled in our culture. I will discuss the main themes in the disability studies literature, suggest reasons for the absence of these ideas in the psychoanalytic literature, and offer a case that illustrates these themes. There is much to be gained when we add a disability studies sensibility to psychoanalytic theory and practice.1
