ABSTRACT

Psychosocial thinking has a long association with social work, guiding practitioners to take account of the individual’s inner world of emotion and feeling, together with the outer world of relationships and events that serve to create it. Straddling these two interconnected spheres, Social Workers find themselves in a unique position as ‘knowers’ as they endeavour to make sense of the lives and experiences of others – in much the same way as many social science researchers. This article explores how a psychosocial approach can help develop a reflexive awareness of the self and others, thereby creating opportunities for new ways of seeing. In doing so, it provides an original analysis of how vulnerability might offer space to enhance knowing, where greater ontological consideration is given to unconscious and structural influences that help shape the subject positions of both knowledge seeker and subject. References to social work practice and psychosocial research also help to re-frame the connections between emic and etic standpoints, showing how it is possible to narrow the epistemological distance between the two. In this novel sense, vulnerability is viewed as a virtue for knowing.

摘要

社会心理思维与社会工作有着长期的联系，它引导从业者考虑到个人的内在情感和感觉世界，以及创造它的外部关系和事件世界。跨越这两个相互关联的领域，社会工作者发现自己处于独特的“知识分子”地位，因为他们努力了解他人的生活和经历——与许多社会科学研究人员的方式大致相同。本文探讨了社会心理方法如何帮助培养对自我和他人的反思意识，从而为新的观察方式创造机会。在这样做时，它提供了关于脆弱性如何提供空间来增强认识的原始分析，对无意识和结构性影响给予更多的本体论考虑，这些影响有助于塑造知识寻求者和主体的主体位置。对社会工作实践和社会心理研究的参考也有助于重新构建主位和主位立场之间的联系，展示如何缩小两者之间的认识论距离。在这种新颖的意义上，脆弱性被视为了解的美德。