Abstract

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. ;Existentialist philosophy has long been recognised as a significant influence on psychotherapy and counselling and there is an established 'school' of existential therapy. However, in social work there is no equivalent and the existentialist influence is far less discernible. Existentialism is conspicuous by its absence from the social work curriculum. ;Existentialism is a philosophy which places human freedom at the forefront of its attempts to understand the various dimensions of existence. But this is no easy freedom, no caprice or idealism. It is a freedom grounded in the myriad constraints, influences and sober lessons of complex social and political interactions. It is a freedom which entails responsibility, ownership of one's actions and their consequences. Such freedom is both a heavy burden and the key to overcoming a range of problems of our own making--self-made barriers to deny freedom and responsibility at both an individual and collective level. ;The existentialist portrayal of humanity is of people seeking to make sense of an absurd existence, located within a broader context of structured inequalities and the oppression and alienation they engender. It is argued that the problems social workers face have a significant existential dimension and it is the crux of this thesis that an approach informed by the tenets of existentialism is necessary to do justice to this complex subject. ;Existentialism is a philosophy of PRAXIS of thinking and doing. As such it offers a basis for social work theory and practice by constructing an overarching framework which seeks to account for the many facets of social work--theoretical, practical, moral, political and of course existential. ;This thesis is therefore an exploration of the issues surrounding the application of existentialism to social work and, flowing from this, the formulation of a set of principles for practice