Davies and Harre's positioning theory and Foucauldian ideas of power and resistance are used to describe a range of positions that post-structuralist informed practitioners might take up in relation to narrative knowledges and practices, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) knowledges and practices. These positions are considered through the metaphor of dancing with DSM discourse. Different possible subject positions are defined by changes in dance style, dance lead and dance partner. Examples from narrative informed psychiatric practice are offered for each of these positions. An exploration of the intersectional space(s) between these professional knowledges as a means to create new dances is offered as both a means to reconcile DSM and make new discoveries on how to work with people who would traditionally become subject to DSM knowledge and practice.

The recently revived academic interest in and controversy over the subject of Asperger's syndrome is briefly discussed. Gillberg & Gillberg's operational criteria for its definition are used to isolate three cases of the syndrome presenting over a single year to a mental handicap service. The cases are described in detail. Common themes and associations with the available literature are discussed. In all three cases, the struggle for clarity in the syndrome's nature or specificity in the literature is also reflected in aspects of their clinical management.