ABSTRACT
Of the many contributions Schwartz has made to the group work field, none has been as important as his conceptualization of social work groups as enterprises in mutual aid. 1 Mutual aid had been an element in our early group work literature, however, it was not as clearly defined as central to social work groups until Schwartz gave it an important place in his early work on the mediating (now called interactionist) model. In developing social group work models, theorists and practioners drew from a wide range of professional approaches (e.g., group therapy, social goals orientation, behavioral, educational). 2 For Schwartz, however, the unique role of the social work profession, with its beliefs in self-determination, starting where the client is, reaching for clients strengths, etc., lent itself nicely to a conceptualization of groups in which we helped people to help each other.
