ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the dominant practice models of social work, that is, the theories generally assumed to be applied to social work. The unconscious has no place in existentialism and so much of the thinking in social work based on ideas such as unconscious motives, desires and fears will need to be reconsidered in terms of the existential project and bad faith. The determinism of the behaviourists is markedly different from the traditional determinism of 'human nature' to which existentialism opposes itself so vigorously. Behaviourism is a psychological theory and so it makes little contribution to the question of social organisation. An approach to social work which is grounded in systems theory is the 'Unitary Approach' which seeks to combine casework, groupwork and community work within an integrated framework. Radical social work uses marxism as a counterbalance to the traditional psychologism of social work.
