Psychotherapy, Distributive Justice, and Social Work: Part 1: Distributive Justice as a Conceptual Framework for Social Work

This is the first part of a two-part article analyzing the relation between psychotherapy and social work. This part provides a new account of the nature of social work. It is first argued that each profession is defined by an "organizing value" that it aims to promote. Then, using John Rawls's theory of justice as a framework, it is argued that the organizing value of social work is distributive justice; that is, social work strives to ensure that no person is deprived of a fair minimum level of those basic social goods to which everyone is entitled. Rawls's theory implies that the social goods relevant to justice include certain psychological traits, such as self-respect, but not mental health. This allows for a distinction between clinical social work, which uses psychological intervention to pursue justice, and other forms of therapy, which pursue mental health. Part 2, to appear in the next issue of this journal, will use this framework to explore the nature of clinical social work.