II. Patients of the department of psychological medicine,guy's hospital,london 1 |
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Authors: | Dorothy Hardcastle |
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Institution: | Professor at the School of Social Work and Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research , Rutgers‐The State University of New Jersey , |
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Abstract: | Abstract Harvey Dean (1998) rejects my (Wakefield, 1988a; 1988b) argument that minimal distributive justice is the essential mission of social work and that treatment of mental disorder is not part of the profession's essential mission but rather a derived task. He argues that social work has broader ethical aims that encompass both pursuit of justice and treatment of mental disorder. In this article, 1 review my earlier position and respond to Dean's objections. I argue that Dean's narrativist account of the profession's ethical aims is overly broad and that he confuses non‐disordered psychological problems with mental disorders. I conclude that neither my “minimal distributive justice” view of social work's mission nor my exclusion of treatment of mental disorder from the profession's essential mission are disconfirmed by Dean's arguments. |
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