Key concepts and ideas in the work of Mary Ellen Richmond and the currency of her thought

Abstract

This work presents the results of more than ten years of historical/professional research. Its objective is to cast light on concepts and ideas developed by Mary Ellen Richmond, which can be found in the books Social Diagnosis (1917) and What is Social Case Work (1922), and to analyze their current validity. We work from the hypothesis that, since its beginnings, Social Work has raised a series of theoretical concepts that have oriented the ways of «understanding» and of «intervening».

We argue that certain notions widely used in the professional field today are not «new», and that they have constituted the basis of the theoretical and conceptual framework articulated among them in a coherent relationship with a conception of the comprehensive social science, inspired in humanistic democratic values, the philosophical pragmatism and the symbolic interactionism developed mainly by John Dewey and George H. Mead.

The main concepts and ideas to be analyzed here are: individual differences, complexity, diversity and «the wider self». Due to the conceptual framework presented by the author, however, this study will also refer to the relationship between theory and practice, the relationship between individual and society, social equality, and the contribution of Social Work to democracy, among others.