The book shows the contribution which psychoanalysis can offer to the debate on severe handicap and its treatment. The author, Angelo Villa, relies on a solid theoretical basis, consisting in phenomenological psychiatry, Lacanian psychoanalysis, a reinterpretation of Hegel's philosophy as elaborated by Kojeve and his own vast clinical experience, introduced in the form of snapshots of the world of handicap.<i>Psychoanalysis and Severe Handicap</i> introduces a Lacanian look on handicap, a look aimed at capturing the subjectivity, no matter how weak or uncertain it may be, of the ill Other. In this light the work of operators can become an invaluable support to the creation of the self, a crucial help to self-narration, and a valid contribution to making one's way through the entangled intricacies of language.