In this article an old question with relation to disability history is dragged up and looked at from a rather new perspective. By referring to Foucault's notion of problematisation a new insight is presented into the way in which disability at the turn of the eighteenth century became a problem for contemporary politics and how a particular kind of education offered itself as an appropriate means to solve it. In order to enlighten this crucial part of the history of Western societies the author will turn to a rather under-exposed part of European culture: solitude. This focus on solitude will not only open an unexpected door on the history of disability but also will enable the formulation of a critique on both the dominant discourse of inclusion and contemporary models of education which aim at teaching people how to behave while being solitary. (Contains 1 figure and 91 footnotes.)