Power, Pathological Worldviews, and the Strengths Perspective in Social Work

This article takes up Blundo’s (2001) assertion in this journal that in order to practice from the strengths perspective, social workers need to alter their “frames.” Expanding on this assertion, we specify a particular frame that requires change: a pathological worldview. Examining the strengths perspective with regard to a Foucauldian analysis of power, we argue that to thoroughly implement the strengths perspective, we need to consider the dividing practices that allow us to maintain power and that reflect a pathological worldview. This article provides considerations for social work practice that will be of interest to practicing social workers and social work educators interested in continuing to develop their strengths-based practice

Original 1989 Article: ‘A Strengths Perspective for Social Work Practice’

This is a reprint of an article that was published in the journal Social Work in July, 1989.Dichotomies pervade human life. In trying to cope with complex realities, human so- cieties have created stark divisions between the good and the bad, the safe and the unsafe, the friend and the enemy. It is a curious fact that greater attention invariably is paid to the negative poles of the dichotomy: to the bad, the unsafe, the enemy. This pull toward the negative aspects of life has given a peculiar shape to human en- deavors and has, in the case of social work and other helping professions, created a profound tilt toward the pathological. Because of the subtle ways in which this bias is expressed, its contours and consequences must be examined to set the stage for a different perspective. The strengths perspective is an alternative to a preoccupation with negative aspects of peoples and society and a more apt expression of some of the deepest values of social work

Back to basics : a critique of the strengths perspective in social work

This article takes an in-depth look at the strengths perspective, examining its philosophical roots, its core characteristics (according to its key proponents), and its limitations. It suggests that the strengths perspective is underpinned by a mix of Aristotelianism, humanistic individualism, and communitarianism. The article highlights the synergies between the strengths perspective and contemporary neoliberalism and suggests the need to go back to basics to achieve some distance from the harsher aspects of welfare reform policy, which affect most domains of social work practice. It ends with some suggestions as to how the limitations of the strengths perspective might be addressed, in order to devise a more complete theory for social work practice