ABSTRACT
Social workers should not deceive or propel the client into a course of action that runs contrary to his true wishes. Self-determination is seen first as an ethical principle, the breach of which negates the principle of 'respect for persons'. Raymond Plant argues that social work moves away from the principle of 'respect for persons' when it begins to impose limits on, or violates client self-determination, and in so doing moves from a concept of 'negative freedom' to 'positive freedom'. The exercise of self-determination as negative freedom can be curtailed in many ways, most dramatically by imprisonment, but also by the imposition of legal penalties, by threats, and by various forms of psychological pressure and control. Most human beings are capable of self-determination, although their capacity to exercise it rationally or constructively varies from individual to individual, and may also vary from time to time within each individual's life.
