ABSTRACT

This chapter considers some of the impact of psychosocial thought in education and knowledge building for social work, and focuses on the situation of the ‘social work self’ in relation to the service user. It argues that psychosocial thinking is critical for and in social work, in both the sense of necessary and in the sense of offering a critique of existing theory and practices. Psychosocial studies builds on the tradition, arguing that individuals are both the product of social forces and of their specific psychic worlds, and that these are mutually constitutive. The ongoing project of developing psychosocial theory is largely in opposition to the traditional delimitation of disciplinary silos in the academy and insists on blurring boundaries and distinctions: another area of criticality. Sociological concepts of, for example, social constructionism, power, agency, identity, risk, resilience, emotional labour and cultural capital, are necessary for understanding the social work subject.