Clinical Social Work and Psychoanalysis: Introduction to the Special Issue

As clinical social work developed in America it was highly influenced by the concepts and techniques of psychoanalysis and many of its practitioners became interested in seeking psychoanalytic training. More and more psychoanalysts are now coming from a background in clinical social work due to the development of a network of interdisciplinary training institutes and the opening of the Institutes of the American Psychoanalytic Association to non-medical candidates. This special issue considers how psychoanalysis may be affected as more of its practitioners and contributors come from a background in clinical social work. This introduction reviews the history of the development of clinical social work and outlines the issues related to “lay analysis” in this country.

When Social Work and Psychoanalysis Meet

In this paper I share my personal journey from agency social worker to psychoanalyst. I show how I have brought to my psychoanalytic work the teachings of such well known social workers as Mary Richmond, Bertha Reynolds, Gordon Hamilton, and Florence Hollis as well those of such contemporary social workers as the late Gertrude and Rubin Blanck, Nancy Bridges, and Eda Goldstein, among others. In the presentation, I also consider how social work values, social work ethics and social work attitudes have influenced my approach to the practice of psychoanalysis. The attitudes which I refer to, include flexibility, beginning where the client is; an appreciation of the importance of understanding a patient’s cultural background and a recognition of the importance of the relationship in the therapeutic encounter. These were not standard for psychoanalysts at the time I began to practice. Today however psychoanalysis has largely caught up with social work, and this paper affirms how those of us who have had a social work background are well prepared for psychoanalysis in the 21st century.

The Psychoanalytic Social Worker/The Social Work Psychoanalyst: What Shall Be Our Message?

Many social workers experience a powerful bond with their profession and with the contributions of psychoanalysis. This paper explores these bonds and demonstrates the substantial overlap, and occasional divergence, which exists between these two important fields. It is especially gratifying to see the renewed emphasis on the treatment relationship in contemporary psychoanalytic writings because the relationship has always been central to social work practice. Finally, all psychoanalytic social workers are encouraged to invest themselves in transferring the legacy of their work to beginning social workers, social work students, and the generations of social workers that will follow them.     

Social Work Field Education as Social Development

SUMMARY

This article will discuss social development models and their application to the establishment of social work field education in Lithuania. A model of field education as social development is presented and discussed, with reference to promoting core social work knowledge, values and skills, establishing relationships between educational and social welfare institutions, and identifying the impact of field education programs on community well-being. Examples from the authors' experience in educational program development and implementation are presented, along with implications for international social work education.     

Inter and Intra Professional Social Work Differences: Social Works Challenge

Social work historically has had two overarching domains. One domain is concerned with communities and policy development, the other with direct practice involving individuals, groups and families. Both the macro and micro domains are infused with concerns of social justice and advocacy. Conflict in the profession between social justice and casework began over a century ago, with early social work leaders Mary Richmond and Jane Addams. Controversy within the profession continues today. This paper will present many of the differing viewpoints within the ever-changing kaleidoscope of the profession. The paper will objectively present the issues of debate regarding micro and macro foci and recent debates related to professionalization, licensure, and the education of social workers. It will challenge readers to critically think about their own practices and view points. The synergy of the profession is much more than either people changing or society changing. As a profession we must move beyond the discord to the embodiment of harmony. The problem of AIDS will be discussed in order to demonstrate the challenges of working at both the micro and macro levels. Dorothea Marie Epple, PhD, LCSW, BCD is an Assistant Professor in the MSW program at the University of St. Francis. She received her PhD in 2002 at the Institute of Clinical Social Work Chicago and an MSW from Loyola in 1982. Dorothea has 25 years experience in Clinical Social Work in mental health, hospital and hospice settings.     

The Relationship of Practice Beliefs and Practice Behaviors among Social Workers with Lesbian and Gay Clients

This study explores the levels of beliefs about practice and practice behaviors with lesbian and gay clients among social work practitioners in a medical setting. The Gay Affirmative Practice scale was utilized to measure the levels of gay affirmative practice beliefs and practice behaviors among the sample surveyed. The relationship of practice beliefs and practice behaviors is explored and reveals that practice beliefs are significant to practice behaviors with lesbian and gay individuals. The results identify variables that contribute to practice beliefs and practice behaviors.     

Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Social Work Theory

This paper maintains that much in the contemporary postmodern and relational paradigms in psychoanalysis is a refinding of elements of clinical social work theory. To illustrate that, this paper elucidates the pivotal differences between contemporary psychoanalytic theory and classical ego psychological psychoanalytic theory. I describe my own experiences in training, first as a social worker, then as an ego psychological psychotherapist, and finally as a psychoanalyst to illustrate how I began to realize the homologous nature of clinical social work and contemporary psychoanalysis. The beginnings of social casework theory from Mary Richmond and Charlotte Towle are then described. Like Moliere's bourgeois gentleman who discovered he's been speaking prose for forty years without knowing it, perhaps social work theory has been cutting edge for eighty years without knowing it.     

Sustaining and Strengthening a Macro Identity: The Association of Macro Practice Social Work

Macro practice focuses on community-level interventions, such as management, organizing, research, and policy advocacy. Despite social work's deep roots in this type of work, macro practice and macro practitioners often practice without support or connections with other macro practitioners, and are underrepresented in the profession. In 2006, a group of social workers, including academics and practitioners, formed the Association of Macro Practice Social Work (AMPSW). AMPSW works to strengthen the professional identity of macro practitioners, elevate the status of macro social workers, and address common concerns within the social work profession.     

Scholarly Productivity of Social Work Graduate Programs

Abstract

This research compares the scholarly productivity of ten leading social work graduate programs with 35 randomly selected Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) accredited graduate programs. The data reports that, when comparing group averages, the ten leading social work programs had greater scholarly productivity than the 35 randomly selected programs. These findings were statistically significant. However, when comparing individual programs, a notable number of the randomly selected graduate programs had much higher rates of scholarly productivity than some of the ten leading social work graduate programs. The implications of these findings for social work practice and education are discussed.     

Professional Identity for Clinical Social Workers: Impact of Changes in Health Care Delivery Systems

The recent rapid changes in funding and delivery of mental health services have impacted professional identity for social workers. A study of 127 clinical social workers in 3 different practice settings explored the sense of fit between personal and professional values: How much are they in concert and how much are they in conflict? Social workers described values in their own words. The sense of strain between values varied according to workplace setting. Implications for theory, research, practice, and training are discussed.     

What are Social Work Students’ Perceptions of the Community Practice Method?

Summary. A unique aspect of the social work profession is the combination of intervention on the personal, community, and societal levels and their interaction. The purpose of this research is to determine students’ perceptions of community practice. Qualitative research was conducted among Israeli social work students before gaining any practical experience in community practice. Findings. The results demonstrated a change in students’ perceptions of the importance of community practice to the profession, and the factors that contributed to this change. Applications. Recommendations that may contribute to changing students’ perceptions of community practice are offered to educators.     

Professional Relationship Boundaries: A Social Work Teaching Module

Social workers are often challenged by the complex and ever‐changing dynamics within their relationships with clients, and struggle to find ethical responses within professional boundary grey zones where boundaries with clients can be difficult to identify, yet easy to cross. Social work educators attempt to prepare students for these complex situations, yet in the United States research reveals rates of social work boundary violations that lead one to question the efficacy of social work ethics education. This article describes the educational competencies and instructional strategies that comprise an adaptable course module which was developed in response to this challenge, and intended to increase students' self‐awareness, motivation and professional judgment‐making abilities related to their professional boundaries. The educational competencies for this course include the abilities to: identify boundary violations, apply critical thinking skills to complex professional relationship contexts, increase awareness of self and other, and initiate prevention strategies. In contrast to traditional approaches to education, this article describes instructional strategies that are based on adult‐learning principles, which have the purpose of effectively and creatively teaching topic areas in such a way as to produce behavioural change. These course topic areas include a ‘Professional Relationship Boundaries Continuum’ conceptual framework, boundary violation impacts, personal boundary vulnerabilities, blurring boundary indicators, and risk‐minimizing strategies.     

A Conceptual Framework for the Professional Socialization of Social Workers

With the Council on Social Work Education revised Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, professional socialization has become a matter of policy. The social work literature is characterized by a dearth of conceptual models and systematic research regarding professional socialization. The conceptual framework for the professional socialization of social workers presented herein provides a discrete definition and clarifies what was formerly an ambiguous understanding of the elements of professional socialization. Potential applications of this framework include its use as a foundation for systematic research and a bridge between competencies and signature pedagogy and in informing field instructor training and the integration of theory and practice for students and practitioners.     

Social Workers and Social Justice During a Period of Intensive Neoliberalization: A Preliminary Investigation From the Republic of Ireland

Despite the championing of social justice within the discourse of social work, some express concern that there has been a dilution in the profession’s practical commitment to seeking a more just society. The article begins by defining social justice and then refers to a number of studies that have endeavored to identify whether or not social justice is being pursued by practitioners. It is argued that renewing efforts to achieve social justice is particularly relevant in times of intensive neoliberalization. In this context, we discuss the comments of a small number of Irish practitioners. This preliminary study indicates that social workers are struggling to achieve limited social justice gains in organizationally difficult and fraught situations. The findings suggest that some practitioners, located in stultifying working environments, are blunted in their capacities to pursue social justice demands for their clients and for themselves. However, a more wide-ranging research project, composed of a more substantial and diverse sample of respondents, would need to be formulated to further explore this theme.     

Social Work Education and Clinical Learning: Yesterday,Today, and Tomorrow

Social Work Education and Clinical Learning by Simpson, Williams, and Segall is a welcome and timely statement about the nature of clinical social work and its implications for educational curricula. The authors took on an awesome task. Educating students for clinical practice is increasingly more daunting than it has been previously and is in considerable disarray, if not a state of crisis. In addition to amplifying and expanding some of the major points the authors make, this discussion considers where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. It describes the educational landscape today, which the author views as bleak with respect to its preparation of students for clinical social work practice. In keeping with clinical social work’s inclusive definition that encompasses a broad knowledge base, diverse practice roles, and a wide range of interventions, this discussion emphasizes the importance of numerous unifying themes that help to distinguish clinical social work from other approaches or from the use of a fragmented assemblage of techniques. The paper considers the role of evidence-based practice and makes some suggestions about future emphases in clinical social work. It concludes with a call to alter the educational landscape.     

Social Work Students Cope with Terror

This study examines the responses of social work students to the wave of terror of the Second Intifada, focusing on issues of professional identity raised by the terror. The study, based on statements of students who lost meaningful persons in the terror and on class discussions, identifies four key issues involving the formation of the students' professional identity that were accentuated by the terror. These are: (1) the conflict between personal needs and professional needs; (2) doubts about professional competence; (3) the conflict between carving out personal space and meeting professional responsibilities, and (4) the difficulties of doing fieldwork under terror. The study also observes the discomfort of the Arab students in the situation.     

Social Justice in the Social Work Classroom: Applying a Professional Value to Social Work Education

Social justice is a primary value of social work and therefore has a place in discussions of social work education pedagogy. This is especially true for conversations pertaining to students who are underprepared, due to educational inequalities, for successful completion of writing assignments at the undergraduate level. If underprepared students are treated as equals to prepared students, then the social inequalities that contributed to or caused a student to be underprepared are perpetuated rather than challenged. The authors explore responses to underprepared students that are consistent with social work's professional value of social justice.     

Voices From the Field: Social Workers Define and Apply Social Justice

Social justice is embraced as a central mission of social work, yet how the profession defines it lacks clear and common understanding. This qualitative study explored the concept of social justice as perceived and applied by social workers in diverse practice settings. Focus-group participants were asked five primary open-ended questions. Key phrases and terms were identified and grouped into four themes: variation in meaning of social justice, confronting injustices, practice reality, and professional responsibility. The findings suggest that social justice as understood and practiced in the field is compatible with theoretical conceptions in the literature, but a predominant understanding remains lacking.     

Evolutionary Theory and Neuroscience: An Explanatory Theory for Social Work

Evolutionary theory and neuroscience are recommended as a foundational theory for social work. Advantages of evolutionary theory include explanatory power, suggestion of interventions to beginning social work practitioners, and accommodation of more specific theories of human behavior. The explanatory power of neuroscience is also discussed, along with its evidence base and compatibility with the strengths perspective and destigmatization work of the profession. Connections between evolutionary theory, neuroscience, and social work values are also discussed.