A case for psychodynamic social work

Abstract

Psychodynamic casework is not as popular in social work theory and practice as it once was. It is considered by some to be impractical, unscientific, and not suitable for those customarily receiving a social work service. Task-centred casework, behavioural approaches, the newer psychotherapies, and family therapy have all taken over as major paradigms of social work method. This is especially so, I think, for the social worker working in a psychiatric setting, where many clients stay only for a short time and where emphasis is placed on assessment and short-term intervention.

In this paper I shall argue that a psychodynamic approach in social work is still relevant; that it is important for its humanizing qualities, for understanding and working with people with severe problems and for, perhaps, helping us to locate the position of social work vis-a-vis other mental health professions. I shall do this by focusing on a particular case I had as a social work student on placement in a psychiatric day hospital.     

Impossible Clients

Abstract

This paper is concerned with a group of clients, whom I have identified in terms of their capacity to evoke strong dislike amongst Social Workers. These clients approach us in a manner which suggests a lack of the most basic social skills. I shall try to describe some of their characteristic attitudes, and the ways these are demonstrated in their contact with the workers they meet, with particular reference to the hostility that typifies their dealings with us, and can paralyse us into an ineffective response. There follow some guidelines I have evolved from my own attempts to work with some of these clients.     

The knowledge,skills and qualities needed for social work in a major paediatric teaching hospital

Abstract

The place of aged care in social work has long been ambiguous, if not marginal. Social work (as do other comparable professions) often displays a reluctance to place practice in this field within the core of the profession that embodies aspects of ageism in contemporary society. Working with older people is frequently characterised as ‘mundane’, ‘routine’ and even ‘not “real” social work’. This paper examines the practice implications of the current policy context. Forms of ‘indirect’ practice are identified as central to social work in aged care, and the implications of this for the standing of aged care social work in the wider profession are discussed. It is argued that ‘indirect’ practices are core to the development of the profession and so should be seen as ‘real’ social work. In conclusion, it is suggested that unless social work affirms practice with older people and their families we will fail to be congruent with our own values.     

Spirituality and Social Care

In this paper I discuss the main theoretical ideas in the book and the way in which the author applies them to social casework. I consider the relevance of these ideas to contemporary social work in terms of their contribution to the knowledge base of social work and social work methods. I argue that Kleinian ideas can make an important contribution to understanding the interpsychic and intrapsychic aspects of human experience with which social workers come into contact. I suggest that the author writes about the casework relationship with little regard to the social and political contexts in which social work is undertaken and that in contemporary social work, there needs to be a relationship between three different elements, namely: the client--as an individual within their social context; the emotional dynamics of the client-worker relationship; and the integration of theory, social policy and the legal framework.     

Making and breaking families: a short essay on loss,hope and staying connected

ABSTRACT

The focus in this paper is on a specific time point in an adoption matching process. Empirical data from interviews, observations and group analytic processes are juxtaposed to hone in on emotional labor of the social work role. The author discusses the use of a ‘many minds’ research method to demonstrate how analytic practices can be enriched by collaborative thinking and group processes. This paper pays tribute to Claire Winnicott’s work by foregrounding the complexity and generative potential of the social work relationship.     

Muriel Dimen: Teacher,Mentor, Psychoanalytic Scholar

ABSTRACT

This essay is split in content and intent. In the first part, I share my reflections from my long personal relationship with Muriel Dimen, who taught, supervised, and mentored me as a young candidate and beginning scholar. In this part, I try convey how staunch and thorough her commitment, how extraordinary her generosity was in supporting the intellectual development of a new generation of emerging psychoanalytic thinkers and theorists.

The second part, written in an entirely different tone, takes on the body of work Dimen produced in the last decade of her life, which focused on sexual boundary violations. This work highlights the hybridity of her thinking and the brilliance of her mind. I flesh out the genealogy of her reflections on this topic and discuss in some depth how her last, posthumously published paper changes the terms of the conversation in this very difficult matter. In this topic, as she had previously done in many others, Dimen’s contribution introduced an entirely novel way to think about the recalcitrant problem of sexual abuses in the consulting room.     

Becoming-care: reframing care work as flesh work not body work

ABSTRACT

This paper highlights the central role of the flesh within care relationships and how this disrupts and progresses existing understandings of care work. It is argued here that care work is a connected and fluid assemblage of diverse and changeable factors and that this relationship is best understood as a form of flesh work. Seeing care work in this way allows the care relationship between the person being cared for and the carer/s to be seen as a process of becoming; framed here as becoming-care. To illustrate this, two examples of a care relationship taken from a previous project are presented and discussed from a deleuzoguattarian standpoint. In this way, care work is assessed and theorised at the ontological level, resulting in the formulation of an alternative way of seeing care work that perhaps better reflects its reality – where the flesh is vital.     

Caring by Silence: How (Un)documented Brazilian Migrants Enact Silence as a Care Practice for Aging Parents

ABSTRACT

While existing work on transnational aging and care has largely focused on the substance of transnational communication and what is being said, this article examines what is being ‘silenced’ during transnational exchange. I argue that to better understand aging and intergenerational caregiving we need to pay careful attention to what is not being said during transnational contacts, suggesting that silence and ‘communication voids’ are often formulated and enacted as a care practice. Drawing on ethnographic research with Brazilian migrants in the United States whose aging parents live in Brazil, I illustrate how migrants curate their lives abroad and sieve their lived experiences as an act of care for their aging parents back home. In so doing, I reveal the significance of faith as a coping strategy in the process of silencing and concealing emotions and as a means to fight loneliness, cope with adversity, and protect family exchanges.     

Vital Connections: Using Literature to Illustrate Social Work Issues

Abstract

This paper introduces a four stage teaching model which encourages students to use fiction as a source of mental imagery and insight into social work issues. Teachers can use the stages flexibly for different courses and levels of student expertise. The model has been developed by the authors during three years of formally implementing it in a range of undergraduate and graduate syllabi. The authors present this approach following detailed observation of the quality of written assignments, classroom interaction and student feedback. This is an exciting way of teaching traditional courses which generates a lively atmosphere for learning.

“We shall not cease from exploration And the end of our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.”

T.S. Eliot

(“Little Gidding,” The Four Quartets)     

Power at work: reflections on the research process

Reflecting on a research project on workplace learning amongst low-grade staff in the public sector, this paper identifies a number of key issues arising from the research process. The theme which runs throughout the paper is a concern with the nature of power, both in the workplace and in the research process. The research itself focused on a relatively powerless section of the workforce. The process of securing access contributed to the research team's understanding of power relations in the work place and to consideration of the nature of the relationship between the researcher and the researched. The paper identifies a range of sources of power and concludes that researchers must use an understanding of the research process as a part of the findings, not merely a route to findings.     

Between Money,Morality and Masculinity

Abstract

This paper focuses on the supply-side of Chiang Mai's gay bars, that is, the male sex workers called dek bar or “bar boys”¹ in Thai. I formulate some explanations why these young men -more than half of whom do not consider themselves to be “homosexual” -take on a job as a male sex worker. In this analysis I focus on certain notions in traditional Thai society, trends in contemporary urban Thai society, the economics of work in a gay bar, as well as the sexual behaviour of male sex workers and the concepts they use to describe their work.     

Extending and Broadening Blumer's Conceptualization of Fashion: Adding Notions of Generic Social Process and Semiotic Transformation

Abstract

Herbert Blumer's critics and followers have, for the most part, neglected the significance of his theory of fashion. In this paper I revisit Blumer's thesis on fashion by identifying the fashion process as an instance of the generic social process of semiotic transformation. The concept of semiotic transformation refers to the change in meanings of symbolic objects over time. By identifying six elements of the generic social process of semiotic transformation (systemic permeability, systemic freedom, logonomic fluidity, logonomic openness, indeterminacy, and logonomic hegemony) and by viewing semiotic transformation as a joint act grounded in emergence, I argue that the meaning of change over time is a process structuring both the definition of the situation and symbolic objects. I conclude the paper with a set of reflections on the significance of Blumer's work on fashion for the development of a research agenda of semiotic transformation and for the legacy and reception of Blumerian theory.     

Psychodynamics and empowerment in community mental health

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between empowerment philosophy and psychodynamic principles and practices, as it applies to community mental health work. It suggests that as empowerment philosophy is more a system of values than a model of mental health and illness, it cannot in itself act as a framework for understanding and working with disturbed people. I suggest ways of disentangling the often fraught relationship between the two frameworks by identifying the contribution I see each as able to make to the task of providing services which sustain people in the community, and attempt to articulate the elements of a practice model consistent with both sets of principles.     

The concept of confiding ties: Implicatons for social work research and practice

Abstract

Recent research into the effects of life event stress and other areas has begun to accumulate evidence of the apparently protective effect which an informal confiding relationship can have in everyday life. This paper first looks briefly at the results of this research and at ways in which measures which have been used so far could be developed and refined. Some determinants of confiding ties are then discussed as a guide to social work practice, and types of relevant assessment and intervention are considered.     

Pharmaceutical Intimacy: Sex,Death, and Methamphetamine

ABSTRACT

In this article, I draw from ethnographic work conducted among residents of an “in-house” drug and alcohol treatment center in Baltimore, Maryland, to discuss the relationships born of pharmaceutical (ab)use. By looking in close detail at the autobiographical accounts of one man in treatment for addiction to methamphetamine, I attempt to chart the way life and death are at times brought into close proximity, and at others wedged firmly apart, by such things as love and avoidance. My concern is with the ethics of care that emerge through the so-called “small events” in everyday relations; that so often define a life or a relationship as falling under the category “normal” or “pathological.” I ask how such things as the known demands placed on the body by the need to maintain or avoid relations, whether pharmaceutically mediated or not, come to bear on the decision to “let die” or the resurgence of moral worlds. I end by discussing the different aspects of relatedness revealed by the dependencies and alliances formed by the kinship between pharmaceuticals and humans.

In compliance with current ethical research standards, the names of all informants have been changed to assure their anonymity.     

Transformational leadership and job satisfaction of police officers (carabineros) in Chile: the mediating effects of group identification and work engagement / Liderazgo transformacional y satisfacción laboral en carabineros de Chile: los efectos mediadores de la identificación con el grupo y el work engagement

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership and work satisfaction, as well as to analyse the mediating role of group identification and work engagement in a police training process at a Chilean professional military institution. The sample was made up of 985 candidates representing all the candidates that joined the units of the country in the different locations. Officers and non-commissioned officers acting as instructors were considered ‘leaders’, while their ‘followers’ were the young candidates in the training period. It was found that all the relevant variables were positively and significantly interrelated, and a model of structural equations revealed that both work engagement and group identification played a mediating role in the relationship between transformational leadership and work satisfaction.     

Exploring the professor and student relationship after a life-threatening trauma

ABSTRACT

A professor shares his account of recovering from a near fatal bicycle accident in this article. The authors explore the professor/student relationship after this life-threatening accident. Using qualitative research methods, a purpose sample of students from a mid-size undergraduate social work program described their experiences of interacting with the professor after he returned to work. All the students in the sample took a course from the professor before the accident. All the students in the sample also knew about the severity of his injuries after the accident. Important themes of trauma emerged interwoven in the relationship between students and the professor. There are also important concepts mentioned in the article that look at the healing process that occurs between the students and the professor, where significant trauma has occurred in the life of a professor. Existing studies examine the professional/student relationship when the student experienced trauma. Administrators need to consider these important themes of trauma when a professor returns to work after a life-threatening accident.     

Facilitating the Welfare-to-Work Transition for Women with a Mental Health Work Barrier

SUMMARY

Since the 1996 PRWORA welfare reform act requiring workforce participation in order to receive services, evidence has emerged that many welfare recipients experience mental health work barriers. Yet, little is known about effective approaches for assisting women with a mental health work barrier in the welfare-to-work transition. This paper addresses this gap by first surveying the empirical research on mental health work barriers among welfare recipients. Second, I propose a comprehensive service provision model to identify and assist welfare recipients with a mental health barrier. Third, I review outcome data from several promising intervention strategies.     

Rethinking about Civilizations: The Politics of Migration in a New Climate

Abstract

In this paper, I will lay out some useful conceptual/theoretical markets that will help us to understand, and resolve, significant political challenges to ‘action’ on climate change migration. Thus, while this paper is concerned with climate change and migration responses, it is also concerned with understanding how we understand migration in the context of climate change, and how climate change forces a radical shift in such understandings. To do so, I pick up on the work of Robert W. Cox and push it in a different direction. In particular, I am interested in his work on civilizations, and how this civilizational account of world politics opens up space for thinking about climate change broadly, and climate change migration specifically. I argue that Cox’s account of ‘inter-civilizational’ politics helps us to solve a pressing analytical problem: how to rethink the coordinates of contemporary cosmopolitics in the ‘Anthropocene’, and reconsider the frames of analysis that we adopt to understand and respond to climate change migration. I demonstrate this by considering two distinctly different ‘civilizational’ accounts of migration and mobility in the Asia-Pacific/Oceania region (one territorial and the other maritime), and consider how these might reveal an important source of future change. By sketching out this approach, my intention is to mobilize the resources offered by Cox in order to further his project of envisaging alternative world orders, and post-hegemonic political relations therein.     

A mediating institution?: Using an historical study of advertising practice to rethink culture and economy

Abstract

This paper sets out to review the role accorded to advertising in recent critical work. This work, I suggest, has been underscored by an ‘epochalist’ concern to map distinctions in the form of the culture/ economy relationship between the contemporary era and earlier periods. Significance has been accorded to the particular transformative potential of advertising and this is often related to research which emphasises the increasingly symbolic, persuasive and pervasive nature of advertising. In what follows, I make three central propositions. Firstly, I argue that writers on advertising share a number of concerns particularly about the effect the evolving nature of advertising has on the relationship between people and objects and between culture and economy. Secondly I suggest that these writers share with certain other critical theorists a very particular approach to the definition of key entities like meaning, culture and economy. These very particular definitions are pivotal to the epochalist explanation of advertising's role in the transformation of the culture/ economy relation. Finally, I attempt to show, through a brief look at historical uses of persuasion in advertising, that the problem with epochalist theory lies in a tendency to overgeneralise a wide range of specific forces.