This paper considers the surprising fact that, despite all we know of how ‘otherness’ causes psychic retreats of various kinds, therapy provides a remarkable instance of ‘other-ness’ being sought out. The patient in distress turns not to a familiar and trusted figure but to an outsider, a stranger. The unique nature of the therapist's perspective from this outsider's vertex is here explored within the context of current analytic debate about objectivity, subjectivity and intersubjectivity, and in the light of analytic tradition as well as historical and cultural antecedents. The aim is to illustrate how the exploration of personal truth is made possible by the therapist's willingness to locate, occupy thoughtfully, and suffer the position of ‘outsider’ in relation to the patient.