Publisher's Synopsis
This book propose, from a postmodern and post-postmodern position, an innovative approach on the professional's qualities and conducts, with a great attention paid to the humane and spiritual qualities such as empathy and compathy, spiritual welfare and virtue, happiness and eudemonic-altruistic energy/ motivation, personal development, humane development and humanness. Because, in practice, between the practitioner's personality and the client's personality is established a high psychological-ontological congruence (emotional, empathetic, humane, spiritual) the cultivation of the spiritual, humane and eudemonic-altruistic values and resources of the practitioner's personality, as well the achievement of a consistent specific literature is an important theoretical concern - topic approached, with predilection, in the humanistic social work theory framework. * The book is part of the HUMANISTIC SOCIAL WORK Project, which promote Humanistic Social Work as THE THIRD WAY in theory and practice. The project is designed as a theoretical, axiological and methodological framework, a heuristic laboratory, a philosophical, scientific and professional forum in which it can be set, what might be called, the theory, axiology and methodology of the humanistic social work, starting from the idea that, it is not, however, a distinctive form of social work/welfare but rather an axiology, that generates a reaffirmation/restatement of the fundamental humanistic values of social work, incorporating in the same time, in a (relative) new coherent and unitary theory, all what penetrated in social work in the last decades from humanistic psychology and psychotherapy, microsociology and humanistic sociology, human rights philosophy/movement, and, especially, what was established as humanistic methodology in the contemporary social work practice and literature. * At a first glance, social work, as methodology and theory, is dominated by two, relatively opposed, major ways, forces, orientations, paradigms, namely Traditional/Conventional Social Work and Critical/Radical Social Work. But, major social, political and economic events have strongly shaken the ontological and ideological foundation of Traditional Social Work (economic crisis), and of Critical Social Work (anti-communist revolutions). Such, has been greatly affected the policies /practices of helping the vulnerable groups, individuals, people in need through welfare state mechanisms and social solidarity, within the capitalist society, promoted by Traditional Social Work, and the projects of some radical structural changes, the aspirations to build a better society, without oppression, social injustice, inequality, discrimination and poverty, especially through social and political reforms and progress, promoted by Radical/Critical Social Work. In this context, another orientation, in a subtle manner, gradually, seems to advance, with increasing force. It's about the Humanistic Orientation and its logical expression: Humanistic Social Work - syntagma, philosophy, theory and methodology which are in process of establishing, and remains to be seen whether it will get to sit alongside Traditional Social Work and Radical Social Work, alongside their theories and methods, and especially if it will imposes, in a coherent way, in the current practice of the professionals and agencies. * The conclusion of the book is that, combining, in its own and creative way, the resources from the person level, respectively humane personality, with the resources from the community level, respectively humane relationships, taking thus elements both from traditional social work and critical/ radical social work, humanistic social work justify their attribute as the third way in theory and practice, with the perspective of imposing, even as dominant, in the contemporary, even upcoming, social work.
