SUMMARY
This paper could be seen as a case study with a follow-up eighteen years on. But it is about a named person and, then and now, is written as co-participant observational narrative. Ferenc Virag is the autistic artist whose work and whose friendship with me are at its centre; we have known each other for two decades now. I describe a process in which we are both learning from each other and caring about each other, building a relationship based on common interests and mutual trust. The hierarchisation entailed in the process of psychological research is incompatible with friendship; so this cannot be a typical ‘case study’ without harming us both. The usual anonymisation is incompatible with Ferenc’s recognition as an artist.