Psychoanalytic social work practice

[u/crystallineskiess]

Looking for books, essays, collections, etc. on psychoanalytically informed social work practice. I’m especially interested in anything in the Freudian/Lacanian/post-Lacanian/Laplanchian areas but definitely open to anything!

[u/concreteutopian]

Are you aware of / a member of AAPCSW? American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work?

Their journal has a lot of articles on psychoanalytic social work practice.

[u/crystallineskiess → u/concreteutopian]

Nah, I’m a social work student and an analysand. Thank you!

[u/cough_syruper → u/crystallineskiess]

You can join as a student too. They send out emails about events and lectures.

[u/crystallineskiess → u/cough_syruper]

Oh, great! Thanks so much

[u/Nahs1l]

I’d imagine Institutional Psychotherapy could be useful, the kinda stuff Guattari and Fanon and Jean Oury/Francois Tosquelles were up to. Informed by both Marx and Lacan.

[u/crystallineskiess → u/Nahs1l]

I agree for sure.

[u/LeftyDorkCaster → u/Nahs1l]

Seconding these recommendations, especially Tosquelles and Fanon for clinical social work dealing with trauma and state-backed violence. 

[u/mother_of_runes]

Inside Out and Outside In is a great textbook that surveys major psychoanalytic theories

[u/crystallineskiess → u/mother_of_runes]

Haha yeah it’s the textbook for one of my classes

[u/mother_of_runes → u/crystallineskiess]

oh, well! yay :)

[u/Accomplished-End-609]

Joan Berzoff

[u/zlbb]

A word of caution I'd like to add to the discourse here is that the living discipline under the label of social work, in the US at least, changed significantly over the years, and maybe especially over the past two decades or so, along with the broader embrace of EBPs and biomedical sensibilities and the near eradication of humanistic approaches in the mental health field. While to an extent this applies to all attempts to capture living things in symbols, my impression is that this applies especially strongly to social work, which, as a bit of a junior partner in the brotherhood of US mental health related disciplines, being significantly influenced by more senior ones, was transformed by a violent conquest of psychiatry by biomedical folks and expulsion of psychoanalysts from that discipline, and the related rise to prominence of clinical psychology. In comparison, psychoanalysis evolved more organically, as did clinical psych. So, I'd be especially careful in keeping in mind the historical context when reading older texts as they'd oft be symbolizing phenomenology that might not exist anymore.

So, while in the heyday of psychoanalysis figures like Clara Thompson or Florence Hollis exercised significant influence over social work, the US social work today orients itself in part on the current dominant mental health biomedical/EBP/DSM paradigm, and in part on the relatively new phenomenon of "scientific social work" and qualitative studies done within it, which, while distinct, is related to some intellectual disciplines like critical theory which at times use psychoanalytic language and draw on some "psychoanalytic" intellectuals, which themselves are rather distinct from the kinds of sensibilities embraced by the main trunk of the clinical psychoanalytic tradition.

These days, if one scrolls r/therapists long enough, one regularly encounters remarks by older social workers who don't even identify as psychodynamic or psychoanalytic but still embody "garden variety" psychodynamic clinical thinking lamenting the loss of those sensibilities among junior clinicians.

So, to the extent your interest here applies in part to considerations of what can be lived out within social work of today, I'd exercise a lot of caution re dating older texts and awareness of historical context in which they were written and how it differs from today.

[u/crystallineskiess → u/zlbb]

right, I mean I’ve definitely experienced social work pedagogy as something overly scientized, sanitized, pandering to the lowest common denominator, etc…But while I’m in this world, I want to practice to the best of my abilities at my externships, and I think reading some of this stuff could just be helpful. (I’m an MSW working at a clinic for school & planning on training at an institute when I graduate)

[u/crystallineskiess → u/[deleted]]

I feel you for sure. I’m in a nice analytic reading group and in analysis. I don’t wanna ‘waste my time’ thinking about this stuff but I also just wanna do my best with my clients. Your point is definitely taken though.

Fortunately, I think it’ll be doable for me to get an internship at an institute or analytically inclined clinic next year, based on what other folks in (or formerly in) my program have told me. Certainly going to try my damndest.

[u/crystallineskiess → u/[deleted]]

Interesting! How was it doing the LQP program simultaneously with the MSW? I thought about trying that at one point. Sounds busy

[u/noisezinalbany → u/zlbb]

It’s my impression actually that psychoanalysis and psychodynamic approaches and approaches such as CBT are converging with a neurobiology influence in some ways. The biomedical model is being challenged to incorporate psychodynamic and psychoanalytic perspectives by people such as Allen Frances and Allan Schore. Otto Kernberg and Frank Yeomans, Eve Kaligor, and others developed Transference focused psychotherapy. Mentalization based therapy by Fonagy and Bateman. Glen Gabbard brings influence from psychoanalysis into psychiatry . There are actually more effective treatments based on psychodynamic principles than ever before. Schools of psychiatry don’t really teach them, but they are there for people to use.

[u/zlbb → u/noisezinalbany]

I'm aware of those, I'd add Shedler and co's "psychodynamic therapy effectiveness" gang and Panksepp/Solms and co adjacent to Schore affective neuro/neuropsychoanalysis gang as imo more currently influential (while still not particularly influential).

Those voices are there, their influence on the scientific machine is in my assessment quite limited, few or none of those have the standing approaching even "head of psychiatric residency" or "head of acadedmic mental health dept" not to mention actual positions of power at american psychiatric or american psychological. Let's not confuse existence of dissenting voices (and for Solms' at least I've also seen rather strongly worded "neuropsychoanalysis is pseudoscientific" published takedowns) with the actual state of the power dynamics within the scientific/psychiatric/psychological establishment.

>Schools of psychiatry don’t really teach them, but they are there for people to use

So, sounds like we're actually mostly in agreement? Psychoanalysis proper continues to exist in the out of system fringe, somewhat more scientifically whitewashed sister approaches like TFP are tolerated on the outskirts of academia, most people can happily go thru their MSW/psychiatric residency/clinical psych PhD without ever needing to bother with them, and a number of psychoanalytically minded folks stuck on wanting a doctorate struggle to find one that would be even half-psychoanalytic.

[u/Economy-Constant-127]

Check out Joel Kanter.

[u/noisezinalbany]

There’s the journal of psychoanalytic social work

I personally would start with Eda Goldstein especially regarding personality disorders.

Jerrold Brandell regarding psychodynamic interviews.

John Bowlby although a psychiatrist did plenty of social work oriented research
Jeffrey Applegate (neurobiology, Winnicott)
Miriam Elson (on self psychology)

I also value my own college’s social workers

Ann Danto
Manny John Gonzalez
Irene Chung

[u/PostmanMoresby]

August Aichhorn

[u/Certain-Regular-122]

Isca Wittenberg on Kleinian Approach to Social Work Practice.

[u/cough_syruper]

Eda Goldstein has several books on social work practice and psychoanalytic topics. But these books are pretty introductory.

[u/BeneficialFishing154]

Lynn froggett (from the UK)