Aaron Copland composed “Fanfare for the Common Man.” This issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is dedicated to an uncommon man. Robert Stoller took an often neglected route to psychoanalytic discovery. To learn about the variations in sexual practices, he eschewed looking to theory to illuminate his path, but turned directly to people instead. He invited people with a wide variety of sexual interests and orientations, many decidedly unusual, to tell him their experiences. Through his dedication to learn, understand, and empathize with them, he evoked their trust and they revealed to him personal information few other professionals have been privileged to hear. He respected their version of their lives, their motives, their need to self-deceive and obfuscate as well as reveal. Then he made his theory. Stoller's open mind to the novel and the puzzling and his direct involvement with people as the informational source for his inquiry allow us to place him solidly in the tradition of Freud.