Sociological and Psychological Discourses in Social Casework during the 1920s

Social Casework has been criticized for its exaggerated reliance on psychological theory during the 1920s — it has been especially said that the Freudian theory has had a tremendous influence on the development of casework (Dore, 1990, pp. 359-360; Jiminez, 1990, p. 6; Courtney, 1992, pp. 201-202; Levy Simon, 1994, pp. 123-124). The idea of the psychoanalytical turnabout has been so strong that hardly any attention has been paid to opposing or clarifying views (see Alexander, 1972), at the same time only scant attention has been paid to the traditions of sociological casework. I shall try to show that there were both sociological and psychological discourses during that time.