This paper is the story of the 12-year treatment of a very bright and very impaired adolescent male encapsulated in autistic retreat. It is also the story of the author’s discovery of the work of Frances Tustin and the light that this shed on the author’s understanding of her patient. The author explains how Tustin’s ideas about autistic processes helped her to understand her patient’s sensory distress and his debilitating withdrawal from all human contact. She also explains her efforts to maintain contact with him and gradually to draw him back into a relationship with his family and members of his community. His willingness to forge a relationship with the author and his own desire to understand himself were great aids in his healing.