ABSTRACT
This article is concerned to shed some light on a commonly observed phenomenon: the absence of conviction displayed by social workers that the work they do has any real value. This lack of conviction displays itself in many ways. Amongst the most notable is a tendency to give apologetic accounts of social work practice, to concep tualise the theoretical base of social work at a level of generality which makes valid virtually any favourable in terpretation of what the theorist means, and to visualise the development of social work in terms of acquiring more ability to cope with the world as it is and more resources relevant to such modes of coping. Critics of social work - and this includes those who are well disposed - fre quently protest that they cannot grasp what social workers are aiming to do: they can neither get a sense of the in tended destination, nor can they tell when the destination has been reached.
