This review of the sense of entitlement will be of practical value to therapists. After a brief review of the subject and an illustrative case presentation, the authors relate the concept to Freud's "exceptions." Patients tend to ascribe their being "special" in this way to having been in some way underprivileged, but the authors think the belief often arises earlier than the cause of the underprivileged status, which may be attributed by the patient to such reasons as illness in childhood or deprivation. One origin is a special relation to the parent of the opposite sex. Often the result is the converse of a feeling of deprivation: a sense of entitlement. Other origins are also suggested.