Adversarial Allies: Care, Harm, and Resistance in the Helping Professions

Professional encounters bestow moral esteem upon professional helpers while denigrating those who access services. Yet society is arranged in such a way that professional services are indispensable for many to survive, and service users can experience them as simultaneously helpful and oppressive. We explore the ambivalent figure of the professional “adversarial ally” working within these systems through accounts from two research studies that straddle or resist the common-sense line that separates care from harm. Professionals need to acknowledge how we are experienced as adversaries in order to better forge relationships of solidarity or “alliance” with those using social and medical services.