| Abstract: | Summary Attention is drawn to experience that much social work has beenundertaken on a base of common sense, personal intuition andfeelings that the client's situation has been 'understood'.Medical, sociological and psychological sources for theory whichhave given status to objectivity and implicitly deterministicways of thinking are criticized as sometimes contrary to usefulunderstanding and not supportive to constructive change. Itis claimed that a goal of social work theory should be to disciplinethe 'understanding' which exists in the practice and it is suggestedthat this might be based upon the investigation of the meaningwhich people give to the world in which they live and to theirself within that world. This phenomenologkal approach placessubjectivity and the role of the self-concept at the focus ofattention. As a working philosophy it incorporates the formativeinfluences of past experiences whilst also asserting the primacyof the person who may impose a new significance upon both thosepast events and his immediate situation. It is claimed thatsuch an approach might be the source of a discipline which couldrelate more intimately than hitherto the theory and good practiceof all concerned with social welfare and social change. |
