Seeing anew: drawing on a psychosocial approach to consider vulnerability as a virtue for knowing

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychosocial
• reflexivity
• self-awareness
• social work
• unconscious
• vulnerability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ian Dore

Ian Dore is a Senior Lecturer within the Social Work department at the University of Brighton. He is a registered Social Worker and qualified Practice Educator. His research interests include the notion of ‘knowing’ in social work, evidence informed practice and the influence of emotion in social work.