SUMMARY.The defining criteria for autism form a complex network, of impairments by virtue of their impingement on each other. To be effective, treatment and education must address this complexity. Some major problem areas that exercise anyone involved with autistic children are discussed from this standpoint, and the need to humanise a behavioural approach with lessons learned from research on intersubjectivity is stressed, A version of this paper was first given for the Netherlands Organisation for Post‐Academic Education in the Social Sciences, Amsterdam, 1986, and will be published in the relevant conference pape