Teaching social work is teaching to ask questions: an inter-subjective approach to social work practice

Abstract

This paper sets out to provide examples of how quotations from literature can come to and work on a therapist's mind when engaged with clients. A consideration of Sylvia Plath's poetry and writings provide a number of examples of how some knowledge and understanding of her material has contributed to and enhanced work with distressed and disturbed clients. Work with a woman who had made allegations of Satanist abuse is then discussed with particular reference to the relevance of Hamlet to the work. Examples from a therapeutic group are provided which illustrate how literature can function as a communicator of feeling at an unconscious level. Consideration is then given to the wider social and political relevance of subjective feeling with reference to the work of Franz Kafka. There is also acknowledgement of how recourse to literature could be used as a defence against painful material rather than contributing to an understanding of it. The paper concludes with an attempt to understand why it is that claims are made for the healing value of literature and the arts and how these healing processes can operate in the therapeutic encounter.     

关于米尔斯《社会学的想象力》的三点思考

通过对米尔斯《社会学的形象力》对传统理论的批判的阐述，介绍了米尔斯学术的时代背景，同时对米尔斯对传统批判的 自我反思意识进行了总结，对米尔斯的治学之道进行分析的同时，提出了关于本书的几点看法，希望有一定借鉴价值。