THÉORIES ET MÉTHODES EN TRAVAIL SOCIALE HUMANISTE / HUMANISTIC SOCIAL WORK THEORIES AND METHODS / Petru Stefaroi

Petru Stefaroi

THÉORIES ET MÉTHODES

EN TRAVAIL SOCIALE HUMANISTE

Personnalité – ressource de base de la pratique

Collection électroniqueLA PSYCHOLOGIE ET LE TRAVAIL SOCIAL HUMANISTE

Electronic collection:

Petru Stefaroi - Humanistic Social Work Theories and Methods / Théories et méthodes en travail sociale humaniste Page 3


TABLE DES MATIÈRES

SOMMAIRE / 10

INTRODUCTION / 14

Partie I / 27LE TRAVAIL SOCIAL HUMANISTE

Partie II / 40THÉORIES DU TRAVAIL SOCIAL HUMANISTE

Les théories de la personnalité (developpement) et l' être humain / 41

La théorie de l'attachement / 53

La théorie de l'empathie / 59

La théorie du bonheur / 76



Partie III / 83MÉTHODES DU TRAVAIL SOCIAL HUMANISTE

Les méthodes adoptées/ adapté de la psychothérapie humaniste / 84

Les méthode existentielle-humaniste / 87

La méthode de la balance / 89

Les méthodes appréciative / 92

Partie IV / 94LA PRATIQUE DE TRAVAIL SOCIAL HUMANISTE ET LE PERSONNALITÉ DU PRATICIEN

CONCLUSIONS / 108

BIBLIOGRAPHIE / 111



CONTENTS

SOMMAIRE / 10

INTRODUCTION / 14

Part I / 27

ABOUT THE HUMANISTIC SOCIAL WORK

Part II

THEORIES / 40

Theories of personality (development) and (human) being / 41

Attachment theory / 53

Empathy theory / 59

Happiness theory / 76



Part III

METHODS / 83

Methods adopted/ adapted from the humanistic psychotherapy / 84

Existential-humanistic methods / 87

Balance method / 89

Appreciative methods / 92

Part IV

THE HUMANISTIC SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

AND THE PRACTITIONER PERSONALITY / 94

CONCLUSIONS / 108

BIBLIGRAPHY / 111



SOMMAIRE

e travail sociale humaniste, comme théorie et pratique, est basée sur un ensemble des

théories et méthodes ayant ses origines, en grande partie, dans la psychothérapie humaniste, mais adaptée aux spécificités de l'activité du domaine du travail social, nommément, la résolution des problèmes sociaux-humains et collectifs non seulement des problèmes individuels (Payne, 2012). Indépendamment de la nature et le spécifique du l'objet d'intervention le travail sociale humaniste utilisé cette ressource illimitée et miraculeux: la personnalité (l'être) humaine. C'est la raison pour laquelle sa théorie et sa méthode fonctionne avec des concepts tels que l'être

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humain, l'âme, personne, soi, l'empathie, compathie, développement personnel, spiritualité, et ainsi de suite, même lorsque les objectifs visant sont au niveau de famille, de communauté ou d'organisation. Par conséquent, le fondement épistémologique et méthodologique du travail social humaniste est, en fin de compte, la représentation de clients individuels comme personnalité, âme, etre, et déplacement en arrière-plan la représentation comme organisme, ou par le relations sociales élémentaires, ainsi que la représentation du client collective comme une interaction compatethique entre les personnes avec âme, personnalité, comme êtres humains.

Dans la perspective de la théorie de l'empathie la relation praticien-client est en fait un cadre pour transfert, un culuoar subtile qui est utilisé par le praticien, volontairement et professionnellement, pour la réhabilitation humaine et sociale du client, de résoudre le problème social (Stefaroi, 2012. P. 168).

La théorie de l'attachement théorise l'importance de l'affectivité dans les relations et



la coexistence sociale, en particulier en ce qui concerne le rôle de la relation d'attachement parent-enfant dans la formation de la personnalité cohérente, efficace et adaptatif de l'enfant (Bowlby, 1979).

Dans la perspective de la théorie du bonheur chaque personne, indépendamment de l'âge, le sexe, la nationalité, le statut social, la profession a le droit à une vie digne, au bonheur, l'épanouissement personnel. L'indicateur essentielle de qualité de la vie humaine est la satisfaction interne, le bonheur et la satisfaction de la personne. Le bonheur authentique est une source de développement personnel, l'efficacité sociale/ professionnelle et un facteur pour l'acquisition de la capacité de réinsertion sociale autonome.

Les méthodes adopté/ adapté de la psychothérapie humaniste (la thérapie centrée sur le client, la psychothérapie existentielle, la psychothérapie gestaltiste, la psychothérapie positive, les méthodes et techniques de groupe, et ainsi de suite) promeut les relation equal entre le thérapeute et le client, et accroître le rôle des



processus affectifs dans la relation thérapeutique (Mitrofan, 2001).

Les méthodes existentielle-humaniste ne adresse pas le client comme un cas pathologique, en cette approche n'existe pas de maladie mentale mais seuls les difficultés et les impasses existentielles, ce qui signifie la perte de sens existentiel (Mitrofan et Buzducea, 2005). Par l'existentielle intervention le practitioner peut travailler sur la construction d'un nouveau modus vivendi, une nouvelles réalités sociales, avec des outils existentielle et basé sur un scénario existentielle.

L'accent dans ce document porte sur le rôle

de la personnalité, représenté en perspective ontologique; la théorie et la méthodologie du travail social humaniste donner priorité à cette ressource. Au début, il met en évidence l'importance, dans la préparation et la sélection des professionnels, à la qualités spirituelle, le développement personnel, mais aussi l'importance de la représentation et d'approche du client et problèmes sociaux en termes et paradigmes humanistes.







he humanistic social work, as theory and practice, is based on an ensemble of theories

and methods largely having its origins in humanistic psychotherapy, but adapted to the specific of activity from social work areas, ie the solving of socio-human and collective problems and not only individually problems (Payne, 2012).

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Regardless of the specific and nature of the object of intervention the humanistic social work used this unlimited and miraculous resource: human personality (being). This is the reason why its theory and methodology operates with concepts like human being, soul, person, self, empathy, compathy, personal developement, spirituality etc., even when aimed objectives at the family, organizational or community level.

Therefore, the epistemological and methodological foundation of humanistic social work is, ultimately, the representation of individual client as personality, soul, being, and moving in the background the representation as body or through elementary social relationships, as well as the representation to the collective



client as a compathetic interaction between persons with soul, personality, as human beings.

In this end the practitioners through traits like human, empathetic quality/ capacity, through creativity, aesthetic sensibility, authentic faith, concern for truth, balanced personality will send and stimulate the development of the „human” features at customers too, factually sending positive energy, happiness, aesthetic, intellectual, spiritual, playful qualities; thus contributing to a greater extent on their personal development, increase the self-esteem, social consciousness, the capacity of initiative and social autonomy. Thus fulfilling the true mission of the humanistic social work practice.

So, humanistic social work prioritize the human personality as resource and operates with an empathetic professional personality concept, that combines the "human" personality with pragmatic personality. Therefore, in the staff training process the focus is on humanistic curriculum, the goal is to train and cultivate the empathetic-professional personality, the ability to resonate to the sufferings and problems of customers.



Qualities such as empathy, presence of spirit, the high level of general culture, aesthetic sensibility, faith and respect for the moral/ religious values, playfulness, communicativity should not miss to any social worker or a psychologist, or a caregiver, because it is the concrete person that empathizes with the customer. So, the humanist worker in social welfare practices is not concerned of the customer survival, but aims the human development, rehabilitation in perspective, according to a human "project", building a new modus vivendi and a new architecture of personality. Without vision, without idealization, without projectivity his personality remains contingent, flat, obtuse. The humanistic goals will remain only on the paper. All what aims to build at the client level must exist in his personality, in its onto-ideational/ projective interior universe. The projectivity, vision, hope are both the professional qualities and the main resources and means to acheive the objectives of humanistic social work practice. These are inherent dimensions of personality and human condition, but must be cultivated and educated.



Here, we see, the fundamental role is to the general education system, but also the training of staff from social welfare. When in the welfare system will work mostly people with above characteristics are probable to decline gradually the assisted number and the situation of those from the system becoming better. Yet, the idea that seems to impose is that the solid, lasting, efficiency personal development and client empowerment is also conditioned by the organizational and cultural level of the community where he lives or by the quality of human and interpersonal relationships in group. (Bradford and Burke, 2005).

Further, we give a brief summary reference to the theories and methods of humanistic social work, where we explain in detail the contents of the paper.

În the empathy theory perspective the professional-client relationship is in fact a framework for the transfer, a subtle culuoar that the professionist uses, voluntarily and professionally, for human and social rehabilitation of the client, to solve the social problem (Stefaroi, 2012. P. 168). Crucial is the goal of human rehabilitation and social



integration of the client through its humanization, spiritual development and building the empathetic capacity. Empathy is a mean and a purpose; the profesionist uses or creates the optimal socio-human environment for human rehabilitation and client happiness in order to prevent the appereance of social problems (Rogers, 2008). This uses the proactive, formative, educational and inductive valences of empathy for the ontological-psychological reconstruction of personality and client community, as step in the personal and communitary development and social rehabilitation.

The soul has a crucial role in this process . There is a spiritual background, that incorporates the relational-affective pattern of the human being, the structure of personal background that determines the overall empathetic capacity and the human sensitivity, but also a specialization according to the particular, biological, psychological caracteristics, or of social/ professional environment, which favors the attachment. The soulful’s configuration of an artist is generally different from that of a butcher. As well, the



configuration and soulful/ empathetic quality of a social worker is different from that of an engineer. The mere existence, as the ontological core of personality, of the soul determines the empathy, compassion, love, aesthetic sensitivity, attachment, conception of the world, religious faith, human sensitivity. Concrete form of expression and intensity depending, of course, of the stage of development or many other individual caracteristics. In the process of personality formation, by establishing the soul, it occurs the humanization of the body, animation through the other (generic man, the source), who must be assimilated, so, the body from birth to become a man. In its absence the body would become what cybernetics try to build, with the intention of imitating the human beings, a robot. The formation and establishment of the soul causes the body to become a human and not a robot, so it is important to raise the childrens in families, in environments based on attachment, affection, respect for each other. The other is the source of their development.

The empathetic capacity and behavior is not an alternative but a consubstantial necessity of any profession on the social work field (Zamfir,



1998), particularly in the child welfare, but also in the elderly and disabled. Through empathy their personality becomes sensitive to the sufferings and problems to people in need, and, on behavior level, acquires agreability. Through empathetic qualities, namely, the ability to feel the enjoyment (desire, suffering) of the other, the ability to think and experience what another person thinks and feels, the ability to really put in another place, to see the world as he/she, the personal provision/ motivation to the other, sympathetic projection of the self, emotional-affective fusion, sympathetic intuition, introjection, tranzitivism, intropathy, sympathy, identification with the other, transfer etc. the professional acquires access to the customer personality and an effective method of therapeutic change.

And the social care organization is a network of inter-empathy that, especially in children's institutions, the professional personality can have a vital educational function. The organization/ institution of social care is defined and by the personalities that made up, including the professionals personalities, with the three dimensions: affective, cognitive and spiritual.



The affective phenomena are in fact, relationships, interactions, compathies between the affective spheres of persons, while the cognitive and spiritual phenomena are the processes between its spiritual spheres or projective egos. Of course, the compathetic interactions, processes and phenomena area of these organizations are infinitely large.

The attachment theory theorizes the importance of affectivity in relationships and social coexistence, especially regarding the role of child-parent attachment relationship in the formation of consistent, efficient and adaptive personality of the child (Bowlby, 1979). In the social welfare organizations is interesting to following the role of attachment also in the quality of human relationships between care staffs, betwen the staff and and customers, as well as the management quality and style.

În the happiness theory perspective every person, regardless of age, sex, nationality, social status, profession is entitled to a dignified life, to happiness, to personal fulfillment. The essential indicator of human life quality is the internal satisfaction, subjective felt, the happiness and complacency of the person. The authentic



happiness is a source of personal development, social/ professional efficiency and a factor for the acquisition of the autonomous social reintegration capacity. Man is not only a consumer of services, material and social goods, but is also a cultural, spiritual, aesthetic, playful being – this has therefore emotional, cultural, spiritual, aesthetic, playful needs - endemic entered in the ontological constitution of person, needs that must be unconditionally satisfied.

În the humanistic social work practice there are a number of personal/ personality characteristics such as level of happiness, interior comfort, irony, relaxed attitude towards life hardships and professional difficulties, the soulful welfare and happiness, which is a crucial quality of the social work practice, because they are the source of human/ humanitarian sensitivity, the empathy and agreability - defining features of the profesionists, especially those working directly with children. The relationship with the client is not objectual but "spiritual". The term can help us to understand more deeply, completely and complex the nature and specific of the professionist-customer relationship. Beyond the primary goal of the social



reintegration or economic rehabilitation, the customer expects also related services such as tolerance, understanding, humor, aesthetics sensibility, morality, creativity, "spirituality" .

It is impossible to imagine professional efficiency, in the jobs that involve working with people, without personal efficiency, with the soulful welfare and happiness state which it implies. Literature concludes that the professionalism is strongly conditioned by the degree of happiness and interior comfort of the person. The professionist efficiency is correlated with the positive attitudes, with the degree of internal relaxation, the irony and personal happiness (Bandura, 1986). James (1981) believes that the job happiness/ satisfaction is the relationship between individual aspirations and achievements. At the same time, happiness is an onto-subjective psychological feature and it aprioristic makes the professional to performance.

In the perspective of theories outlined above the assessment methods of humanistic social work are focuses on the identification, analysis and description the concrete customer’s human problem and suffering, through identification the



situations of existential impasse or crisis, identification of personal and collective tragedies, personal, family, organizational or professional failure situations. Through humanistic methods it made the representation of the current compathetic, social, cultural and psychosocial situations, of the concrete situations of depersonalization and dehumanization.

Therefore, the humanistic professional will build the diagnosis mainly by a contextual-humanistic phenomenology. The construction process of intervention plan after humanistic model involves prioritizing the identification of needs and soulful, spiritual, human, subjective, voluntary resources of rehabilitation. The intervention activities not makes excess of formalism and technicism, the professional empathize authentically with the customer, aims to contributing to its social autonomization through the spiritual, personal/ psychological, moral and socio-cultural development (Payne, 2011).

In the intervention process the targets mainly include terms such as authentic happiness, personal development, social



recovery/ integration by spiritual and moral developing, formation of a strong organizational culture, accountability etc. The used methods aim, through the intervention plan, to carry the soul and active personality. The humanistic social worker coordinates the team efforts to optimize the client's personality and the empathetic environment of the organization. Thus, in the humanistic social work practice the professional is interested, besides the material wealth, food, housing, comfort also of the spiritual wellbeing, of the suffering person, of the his dignity and condition of human being, with all rights implied by this existential statute. The quality of human relationships, cultural quality of the community where lives the client, the quality of socio-moral climate are important factors that are part of the same concern for the soul and personality care and for enhance the prospects of the human rehabilitation and social integration.

Methods adopted/ adapted from the humanistic psychotherapy (client-centered therapy, existential psychotherapy, gestalt psychotherapy, positive psychotherapy, group methods and techniques etc.) promotes the equal



relationship between therapist and client and increasing the role of affective processes in the therapeutic relationship (Mitrofan, 2001). These brings in social work the principle of rehabilitation (social integration) through focusing on the customer, human and spiritual development, the intervention on the resource and not on problem (Payne, 2005, pp. 186-187). Throgh client-centered therapy Rogers has crucial merit to have worked at the foundation of the modern social work theory and method through therapeutic-humanist methods and values promoted.

The existential-humanistic methods does not address the client as a pathological case, in this approach does not exist mental illness but only difficulties and existential impasses, which means loss of existential meaning (Mitrofan and Buzducea, 2005). Trough "existential" intervention social worker can work on building a new modus vivendi, a new social realities, with existential tools and based on an existential social scenario.

In the balance method paradigm the humanistic social work practice can operate with the balance of socio-cognitive onto-systems, the



balance of socio-affective onto-systems, the balance of relationships and role-status onto-systems, and the balance of attitudinal, cultural and spiritual onto-systems, while the appreciative methods operates with the conventional instruments of social work, like social inquiry, supervision, intervention project and case management, but are still resized by categories of positive method and takes crucial paradigm of the cognition psychology or psychotherapy.

The emphasis in this paper is on the role of personality, represented in ontological perspective; the specific theory and methodology of humanistic social work prioritizing this resource. At first it highlights the importance, in preparation and selection of the professionals, to the spiritual features, personal development, but also the importance, in the client representation and approach, of the categories and values from humanist thought.







ven if the social work as practice is declared, principled and pragmatic, humanistic after

the institutionalization and the "nationalization" tended to be a mega-system – bureaucratic, impersonal, depersonalized, considering that the global socio-political and socio-economic regulation can to solve, automatically, the particular problems. But reality has shown that many so-called social/ societal or socio-economic issues are in fact human or socio-human, and many causes and their resources for resolution are in the culture, in the particular socio-human context and in the personality of the vulnerable people, in their capacity to self-determination; problem solving require actions type "man man" and "face to face," to strengthen (force) (Anderson-Carter and Wiggins, 2004, p. 21) and not only the social benefits or social services - universal, impersonal.

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The humanistic paradigm of social work, which, to a point, is identical with the traditional social work/ welfare, highlights, according to the most important guidelines of humanistic thought, respectively ontological-spiritual, positivist-



psychological, and ethical-philosophical positivism, the following fundamental types of values and concepts:

Promotion the concrete and complex human being, the individuality and personal happiness, its fundamental interests, feelings and values; spiritual well-being of the person (Stefaroi, 2012, p.163);

Personal development and self-determination;

Human dignity, social justice, equality, solidarity, human community.

The humanistic social work is, as theory, somehow, opposite to the theories such as universal, international or sistemic social work; humanistic theories are an ideothetic and humanist-contextualist theory, a theory of concret customer (individual or collective), in suffering and existential deadlock, a theory of his personality and his ontological-human micro-context (Payne, 2011). The main problem-solving resource is the human micro-comunity and actors personalities involved in the process of intervention and social reintegration - the client



and practitioner form an human-existential unity in this process.

Humanistic values prioritizes the point of view and interest of those involved in the social phenomenon, increasing the role of the individual and customer personality în the process of social adjustment.

Decrease the pain of unhappy customer, growth the spiritual well-being, personal development and gaining independence, moral developement and social-human integration are among the most important goals of social work services practice in the humanistic approach. Promote social justice, personal development of customers and professional, complexity of the human being, methodological flexibility, capitalization the creativity of the clients and professional, development of the Self and capitalization the spiritual potential of human personality, promoting security and development of individual resilience are, according Payne (2011), the crucial principles and values of humanistic social work practice.

In the complex and unitary methodological context the humanist professional will focus on



the spiritual, psychological and socio-human sphere. The goal is the ontological harmonization of internal and external relationships within the group/ community, with effects on growth of personality’s ontological consistency and diminishing the risk of entry in the risk situation.

In humanistic social work and the human suffering, unhappiness, personal failure, loss, dehumanization of the individual, emotional drama and great collective tragedies, disasters with significant human impact, personal/ community undevelopement are among the central phenomena and categories to, what might be called, the object of humanistic social work.

Human suffering is often associated to a social problems, to a difficult situation and often the normalization can not be achieved without elimination of suffering.

Object of the humanistic social work is and lack of personal fulfillment, existential issues, personal and collective tragedies. The professionals, in their daily professional activity, currently interact with unmet, professional or personal, individuals, who have failed or have



deviated from the optimal way to achieve the professional and social goals, who daily lives chronic dissatisfaction and personal dramas.

The loss, separation, uprooting, loneliness, poverty, promiscuity, discrimination, marginalization are issues with great personal and social impact, but are also ontological or human problems. Each of these can be considered part of what, we might call, the phenomenon or process of dehumanization and human degradation of individuals and communities. The communities where predominate the undeveloped (human/ personal/ moral) individuals, selfish, individualistic, concerned only for the personal benefit are aproric prone to problems.

In the humanistic paradigm of social work the vulnerability, difficult situation of the person is associated, mainly, with delays and disorders of personal and human development, with ontological inconsistency and poor quality of interpersonal relations, with degradation of the values system (moral, cultural etc.) to the community and organizations.



In accordance with the principles of humanistic psychology each healthy person has the individual potential capacity to fulfill in terms of human, social and spiritual, but everything depends of its internal activism, of willingness to self-change or accomplishment, but also and of the identification and use these resources with the professional aid (Rogers, 2008).

The humanistic theories represent the client as being itself, as soul, subject of silent suffering and happiness, and not only as a neutral individual of a social system, or humble beneficiaries of the community services. Humanistic theories convert the client in person, in human being, in I, in subject, in soul.

The humanist-spiritual perspective on customer promotes taking into account of its aesthetic, playful, epistemological and mystical needs. Namely, the spiritual needs. Meeting and development the spiritual needs, the development of spiritual personality is one of the most effective methods/ ways for the personal development of customer, and enhance the perspective to personal/ social autonomisation, regardless of education level, origin, age or types



of social/ human problems. (Stefaroi, 2009a, p.23-25).

The constitution of humanistic social work, as theories and practice, is made on the basis of the general theory of social welfare/ work, the critique of traditional social work, humanist and existentialist philosophy, and by adopting the theory and methodology of humanistic psychology/ psychotherapy, humanistic sociology and microsociology (Payne, 2011).



Fig. 1. Philosophical and scientific sources of Humanistic Social Work (Payne, 2011. Taken from Social Work Review, Stefaroi, 2012, 165)

General theory of social welfare/ work is based, as a theory of social practice, on the reality and social theory, on the social welfare system and practice of the professionals but also attract and the major socio-human philosophical or scientific debates about the human condition, individual rights, the relationship between individual and community/ society, the social/ human solidarity. The diversity of perspectives and approaches are found also in the specific theories of the social work. The main theories is the attacement theory, care theory, theory of participation, social action theory, identity theory, etc.. Most of them are such humanist orientation.

The critique of traditional social work are recorded, mainly the concerns of balancing the approach prospects and displacement the emphasis from universalistic paradigm to the existential-contextualist or humanist approach (Krill, 1978). Client's personality, situation of difficulty, the risk situation are realities much more complex than we can shape with the



classical paradigms of general systems theory. Most radical change, both for theory and for social work practice, seems to be given on how the client and social issue are represented and discussed, which becomes human problem.

Humanistic psychology and psychotherapy brings to the forefront of knowledge the human phenomenon concepts and ideas such as personality, hope, creativity, existential impasse, happiness, individual uniqueness, self-determination, focus on particular aspects of human existence - creativity, tolerance, love (Payne, 2011), "human development in accordance with its characteristics and choices, respect for the person intrinsic values" (Mitrofan, 2001, p 390). Every healthy individual has the capacity to fulfill individual potential in terms of human, social and spiritual, all depends but of its internal activism and of the willingness for change or accomplishment, self-fulfillment (Plotnik and Kouyoumdjian, 2007). These are the main resources of humanistic psychotherapies.

In humanistic sociology and microsociology among the concerns are the observation of how people specifically live, love, suffering and interact, what attachment relationships are



established between them in relationships of kinship, friendship, enmity, interest, collegiality, power relationships, the resilience and coping, how they solve the problems, how adapt to the changes or reaction to crises or major events, how adjusts, interactive, their behaviors and symbolizes, mutualy, the social existence (the laws, values, customs, rituals, behaviors, institutions, ideologies) (Znaniecki, 1969).

The microsociology also, branch of sociology that examines with priority the laws of micro-group and particular socio-human context, focus on subjective/ human processes, on interpersonal relationships and phenomena - empathetics, of attachment, of solidarity (Garfinkel, 2006) - crucial resources and categories of humanistic social work practice.

The humanistic social work, as concept, theory or practice, is, especially in the West, in a obviously offensive, especially after appearance of the book "Humanistic Social Work. Core Principles in Practice" by Malcolm Payne (2011), wich linking the concept of humanistic social work by fundamental human rights, personal and spiritual development, creativity, responsibility



and social justice. A key term of humanistic social work concept is so the human being.

In an interesting review made by Ann M. Callahan in Religion & Spirituality in Journal of Social Work: Social Thought, the author notes that:

“This book is an excellent contribution to the advancement of social work theory and practice. The humanistic perspective provides room for the application of various theories (e.g., Social Systems Theory) and interventions (e.g., narrative approach). This perspective further reflects social work core values (e.g., dignity and worth of the person) and can be used in a variety of social work roles (e.g., counselor, advocate). However, this book is challenging to read. Portions of the text are so dense that it requires previous knowledge of humanistic social work to understand. This is unfortunate, because the ideas proposed are extremely important and innovative. The author is clearly a thought leader in the field of social work. Nevertheless, this text is best suited to doctoral students and advanced practitioners until the

second edition of this book comes out.” (Callahan, 2011, 184)



In the romanian literature, Elena Zamfir (1998, 2009) identifies a number of themes and values of humanistic thought in the theory and contemporary social welfare system, George Neamtu (2011) and Maria Roth-Szamosközi (2003) considers the system of universal human values and responsibilities the essential dimensions of the profession of social worker, while, after Doru Buzducea (2009), the social welfare system is based on a set of principles and humanistic values, in particular those relating to the fundamental human rights.

We, in the article "Humanistic perspective on customer in social work" (Social Work Review, no. 1-2, 2009, Polirom Publishing House), have summarized the concept of humanistic social work putting in the foreground the humanistic representation/ approach of the customers and the professionals. We emphasized that the core aspect of practice and theory of humanistic social work is represented of the way (humanistic) how is defining the client and professional, considering the human quality/ resources of customer and professional the critical epistemological and methodological value of the new type of social work. We developed the



concept and theory in the article "Humanistic paradigm of social work or brief introductionin humanistic social work", appeared in the 1 no. 2012, the same review.

The establishment of humanistic social work theory and practice is justified by the offensive of humanistic values and categories in the areas from which the social work takes theory and value - philosophy, psychology, pedagogy and sociology - but also some "dehumanization" evolutions of the society, like the globalization, cybernetization, crisis of culture, social injustice, oppression, the emergence of social problems wich can not be understood or addressed by other methods.

Also, the necessity of the humanistic theory and method, is reveals by the complexity of social systems and contemporary society, the welfare system itself, as a subsystem. Some problems can be solved with the systemic-global approach, universal, or structural-functional, and others with an existentialist approach, contextualist or humanist. Even the system of social welfare through the national welfare policy is conceived as an organization with two poles, national system (national organization, regional,



etc., legislation, institutions, programs, policies) and the client (vulnerability, difficult situation, personality, social and human context, local resource, etc.).





Theories of personality

(developement) and (human)

being

Humanistic social work considers the

personal, spiritual and moral

development one of the fundamental

objectives of practice. Also, according to

Rogers, Maslaw, Allport and other

representatives of humanistic

psychology and psycho-therapy, Payne

considers the need to achieve personal

fulfillment a crucial way for social and

human rehabilitation of the client in

social work.



The humanistic representation of personality is imposed, after our observation, by two main current. One is more exploited, it is the "positive-psychological" current, which focuses on personal development through the use of the psycho-volitional and adaptative resources of personality, the other is the "ontological-spiritual" current, that values the content of the self, soul and the inner/ ontological personality, the spiritual, aesthetic, playful, moral or religious resources.

The humanistic-ontological perspective on personality given, as is natural, to ontological sphere, the primary etiological and structural role. After Rogers and Allport the key and structural concept of humanistic-ontological theory of personality is the self. He says that the



self is an important part of human experience and the goal of the personality training and development of each individual is to become truly himself by developing their potential, their own self (Rogers, 1980).

We, in the volume “Happiness theory in social work” (Stefaroi, 2009b), Lumen House, occurred in 2009, but also through a series of scientific articles, particularly in the “Social Work Review”, which seems at Polirom House (Romania), have presented elements of a humanistic-ontological theory of personality, in which the soul is the fundamental ontological entity. Some aspects of this theory will be presented here, considering the soul and spiritual qualities of the professional the key entities, concepts and resources of theory and methodology in humanistic social work.

Paradoxically maybe, the process of soul construction has not, as "pivot", the self, how we are tempted to say, but the other. This, is not necessarily a other-person but a other perceived as all out of the intrinsic (unconscious) order of the endemic subject. The other will be, however, and the self and ideal ego, desirable ego, the



body, the social ego, the social representations of ourselves.

In this interpretation the most important other is the ego, but follows the people who are imposed in the subject experiences by presence and importance (they provide food, security, prestige, self-esteem etc.).

The soul established as an autonomous onto-formation, this became being in itself, ontological core, person's being, primarily through the internalization of the representation and of the empathize enjoyment of the other. The other is a constitutional part of the person's existance and, inevitably, the other is assimilated and internalized by subject’s activism and her internal enjoyment. The other person, object, habitat, situation, value, community is not regardless to the subject. Other (environment) is means of existence and vital, material and spiritual, resources, source of good, satisfaction, fulfillment and happiness, or is hostile, aggressive, a source of stress and negative emotions.

The formation of soul comply the structure and existence of the other. Emotional



internalization of the self experience leads to the formation and the established of the endemic or primitive soul. Interaction with the other real person, dear, close person, significant group, with the near physical environment led to the formation of the secondary, affective soul and to attachment. Reflects the personal contingent interaction, and appurtenance of person to the group or to the particular social context.

The interaction with the symbolic, concept other, with the “status” other, by mental facilities of generalization, idealization and simbolisation conducts to the formation of the tertiary or spiritualy soul and to the empathy, empathetic capacity. Reflects the concret personal interaction and affiliation of the person to the society and the human condition. Tertiary, spiritual soul is therefore the product of enlightenment and to projection capacity of the subject. Determines personal qualities such as kindness and humanity, human solidarity, morality, faith, aesthetic sensitivity, and human sensitivity. Reflects the cultural, moral, spiritual, creative and ancestral quality of the individual.

Of course, the three spheres or levels of soul form, after the establishment, a bio-psycho-



ontological unit, and we not wrong if consider the soul as one fundamental existential entity of person, her ontological-spiritual nature, her being, even if the soul formation process is dependent to the organic-psychic existence and process.

In the humanistic social work practice through soulful qualities, through human, empathetic quality/ capacity, through creativity, aesthetic sensibility, authentic faith, concern for truth, balanced personality the professionals will send and stimulate the development of spiritual features at customers too, factually sending positive energy, happiness, aesthetic, intellectual, spiritual, playful qualities; thus contributing to a greater extent on their personal development, increase the self-esteem, social consciousness, the capacity of initiative and social autonomy. Thus fulfilling the true mission for the humanistic social work practice.

On the one hand, will transmit, through empathy humanism, agreability, happiness and balance to the customers, will help their personal development, enhancing social reintegration perspective, knowing that the personal and



social autonomy is conditionate and of the degree of personal development or happiness.

The objective of practice, focused on person, would be to stimulate the development or formation a personality structure where the spiritual formation is consistent and has high percentage in the structure and economy of personality - the client will have an optimistic but realistic self perception, a relatively high self-esteem, confidence, aspirations, a consistent ego. Also, it will be describe like an active, adaptive person, with functional interpersonal relationships, presence of spirit, eager for social reintegration and regain dignity.

Humanistic social work operates with an empathetic professional personality concept, that combines the "human" personality with pragmatic personality. Therefore, in the professionals training process the focus is on humanistic curriculum, the goal is to training and cultivation of empathetic-professional personality, the ability to resonate to the sufferings and problems of customers.

Qualities such as empathy, presence of spirit, the high level of general culture, aesthetic



sensibility, faith and respect for the moral/ religious values, playfulness, communicativity should not miss to any social worker or a psychologist, or a caregiver, because it is the concrete person wherewith empathize the customer.

How the personality formation is also a process of spiritualization (Zamfir, 2008) the training of professional human personality is primarily a process of spiritualization and humanization.

In the general process of personalisation by the spiritual personality appearance, as onto-formation, to the soul too, is made also a subtle process, sublime and complex of spiritualization, with essential influence, by feed-back, on self-personality, social personality and social life. The effect is that the individual making the jump from the psychological and personality to the person and from animals to humans, in the anthropological and cultural definition. The spiritualisation involves the separation (relative) from the nature, from raw material and anchoring on the magical ideas world, in the playful and aesthetic metaphor. Requires the capitalization of inexhaustible resources offered



by the historical human creation, by culture and religion. Offers to the human, in general, and to the professional personality, in particular, capacities and personal qualities like empathy, altruism, spiritual sensibility, soulfulness, happiness, humanism etc.

In the ontical order of the person the projective ontos gives the defining note of human being through the ontification of the generalized/ idealized other ("pattern" of the human beings), the values, ideas, knowledge, ideals, hopes. In fact, it's a inside ontically universe, which summarizes, through double onto-projection, the subjective and objective, the body and environment, inside and outside, feeling and thinking.

The onto-projective formation not emerge directly from the basic needs and psychological foundations of the person, like the hedonic ontos, phobic formation or the ontically subject, these arising at random from the particular dynamics of the relationship with the cultural environment, reflecting in a transformative/ projective way its features. The objects, people, situations are not asimilation in their physical-sensorial obiectuality but through the social/ cultural



meanings, onto-projective idealized and subjectivated.

After being constituted the onto-proiective formations operates like some mechanisms in the subject's service, through the projection of endemic needs and the individual desires, but and in the service of the individual who its "projected", "injected" the vectors of control in the person’s formations. In this way the individual’s behaviors are doubled, guided, the subject is placed in a position to make difficult choices, compromises.

The onto-proiective formations operates and with the onto-projective referents which are, targets, hedonic-projective ideals, desires, aspirations which are organized into onto-projective formations wich guiding the conscious and unconscious searches/ choices for ontogenetically-personal growth, training and development. They tend to holistically curdle in what we might call the project (print) of the personal training and development, ie the ideal of the good and personal happiness, the idealized image of the good and of the individual happiness.



Operates, experiential and emergent, by complex mechanisms of feed-back and feed-before. The projective personal referents may be the desirable social status, the welfare, the desirable body image, profession, the required level of intelligence and knowledge, the aspirated physical and spiritual pleasures, The aesthetic, moral, axiological aspirations etc. (for the social services, especially those dealing with children, some of them are actually educational and welfare objectives).

The perspectives of it meeting installs positive emotions and states, comforting feelings, happiness. Instead, the low perspectve of identifying with this hypostasis determines uncomfortable neuro-vegetative react and depression.

The predominance of positive onto-projective feelings will lead to the establishment of a strong onto-formation of happiness and a visionary personality, tilting the balance in the positive side. So, throgh fixings the projective-personal balance in a favorable inclination will will orient the personality to the future, will give a positive sense, pleasant, efficient, active, dynamic, adaptable, visionary (Text taken from



the book Happiness Theory in Social Work, Petu Stefaroi, Lumen Publishing House, Iasi, 2009, pp. 180-181).

The projectivity, visionary and idealism are indispensable qualities of the professional in social work, because represents the onto-psychological source of the empathy, but, also, because this profession is teleological by its nature. The humanist professional in social work practice not only make care, not concerned only to the customer survival, but aims the human development, rehabilitation in perspective, according to a human "project". So, building a new modus vivendi and a new architecture of personality. Without vision, without idealization, without projectivity his personality remains contingent, flat, obtuse. The humanistic goals will remain only on paper. All that aims to build at the professional level must to exist in his personality, in its onto-ideational/ projective interior universe.

The rehabilitation, authentic happiness, customer development, self esteem, the intervention can best be addressed and solved by operating on the formations, onto-referents and levers of the onto-projective sphere. But this



must be, primarily, on the professional personality. Therefore, in education and training of the professionals is important to put great emphasis on training the hedonics onto- referents, perceived with roles of anchors, ideals. The process leads to form a vigorous personality, active, positive, autonome, oriented to self-achievement. The process strong develops psychic functions like the will, intrinsic motivation, imagination, intelligence (including emotional).

The projectivity, vision, hope are both the professional qualities and the main resources and means of achieving the objectives of humanistic social work practice. These are inherent dimensions of personality and human condition, but must be cultivated and educated.

Here, the fundamental role is of the general education system, but also of the training of staff from social welfare. When in the welfare system will work mostly people with above characteristics are probabile to decline gradually the assisted number and the situation of those from the system becoming better. A key concept of this process is personality development.



Humanistic social work considers the personal, spiritual and moral development one of the fundamental objectives of practice. Also, according to Rogers, Maslaw, Allport and other representatives of humanistic psychology and psychotherapy, Payne (2011) considers the need to achieve personal fulfillment a crucial way for social and human rehabilitation of the client. Personal development is, so, one of the key tool of rehabilitation and social adaptation of the client in humanistic social work practice..

The values of these theories are part of traditional social work theory and methodology, unfortunately, in social work practice, in many cases, they tend to be overlooked, actions and interventions are often limited to elementary care and material support. But, humanistic social work theory proposes with priority the personal, soulful, spiritual, human development as one of the fundamental objectives and tool, being therefore a inexhaustible resource available to the client and the professional level.



Attachment theory

The humanistic social work attaches a

great importance to affectiv factor, to

the soul, both in theory and practice.

From the perspective of soul, and of the



perspective of balanced and strong

personality, is essential the presence,

security and happiness of the dear other

The theory starts from the finding that many social and human issues, situations of difficulty, sufferings and personal setbacks originate in the precarious quality of the interpersonal, social, affective, attachment relations from the primary groups. The social-affective anomies, abandonments, separations, losses, the inconsistency of attachment relationships tend to exclude persons of secure systems and social coexistence, putting him in situations of social risk, inadaptability, suffering, and may become, so, clients of the social services.



Is the reason why humanistic social work theorizes the importance of affectivity in relationships and social coexistence, especially regarding the role of child-parent attachment relationship in the formation of consistent, efficient and adaptive personality of the child (Bowlby, 1979). In the social welfare organizations is interesting to following and the role of attachment also in the quality of human relationships between the professionals, between the staff and customers, as well as the management quality and style.

After our opinion the instance of personality which has a key rol in this proces is the soul, especialy the affective soul. Because the affective soul, as transmergent amount of persons and social-relationships, significant persons an relationships, is a ontological-subjective formation of the person that reflect the intensity and quality of the social-afectiv relationships from primary groups, especially from family (M.D.S Ainsworth & co, 1978)

În the ontogenetical process of soul formation the other, mother, environment, home represents, thus, the fundamental sources. Primary shaping of the formativ framework



which prefigure the formation of affective soul is anticipates by establishment of the affective micro-formations, centred, mainly, on significant people, others. Once established, they operate as relatively autonomous formations, but they are conditioned by determinate relationships. Persist as long as these people or objects will be imposed by the presence or importance to the subject.

Some of them, especially persons, becomes a crucial existential meaning, as the mother, or, where appropriate, other person from child’s genuin micro-environment. These individuals act as "pivot" in the process of building the soul. Internal sources of onto-personal formation is the feelings and subjective experiences in relation with humans.

Once established, the soul works like the all other formations, but will need affective experiences, mainly socio-affective, as the source of existence and development.

The establishment of the soul as an autonomous ontological-psychological formation and personality structure is an important step because involves installing in the ontological-



psychological system of individual and increasing the autonomy of onto-formation. At this level begins the process of accentuated release from references, the process of accelerated autonomisation.

The person (child) begins to become receptive to the values and critical in report of the behaviors and attitudes of close people. The soul begins to contribute essentially, hence, to the formation and of other formations, integrative, like the personality.

The transition to the phase where prevailing the other purposes is achieved at this stage too, is the moment where the other is represented as a desirant subject and less as desirable object.

The other as desirable subject, with needs, concerns, goals it anchored deep into ontological structuare of person, they can controls, by mechanisms and strategies, often involuntary, personality and even the consciousness. The person accepts this situation, not necessarily intentionally or knowingly, because the other provide content to the inner life, feelings and even emotional security.



The affective soul is a transmergent/ emergent amount of persons, therefore each person is also a experiential amount of other persons and entities. Only by the communication, mind, language, community coexistence facilitating, and by the mediator contribution of the soul is defined, more or less, as a unified entity. The unification is made by means of intelligence, consciousness, ego and personality, but how these no pass, usually, the state of constitution remains to conclude that the key note of internal persons’s individual existence is the emotional interaction between the subject and the other, despite the established labels such as "Man is a rational being."

It is the reason why the humanistic social work attaches a great importance to affectiv factor, to the soul, both in theory and practice. From the perspective of soul, and of the perspective of balanced and strong personality, is essential the presence, security and happiness of the dear other. Is not a totally disinterested altruism. Person defined as a virtually assimilation of the another's enjoyment is enriched itself, becouse without the other lose the opportunity to be humanized an socialized.



At the birth, "the being" is in the other, the body itself is not enough for personalisation. This is the way that humans access to the social experience, culture, history, assimilated all community experience, by contact with each other, with the environment, with values.

The process determines the capacity of attachment, empathy, altruism, inner well-being, social adjustment. It is extremly complex because is made on many levels - physical, cognitive, emotional, voluntary, axiological, behavioral etc. If this process is positiv, the affective soul and personalty takes place smoothly and completely are likely that person to become social integrate and be happy, if this process is vicious, in conditions of social-emotional anomy or maltreatment the person can reach in high risk of inadaptation, unhappiness and to become client of social services.



Empathy theory

In humanistic social work practice the

empathetic capacity and behavior is not

an alternative but a consubstantial

necessity of any profession on the social

work field, particularly in the child

welfare, but and in the elderly and

disabled. Through empathy their

personality becomes sensitive to the



sufferings and problems to people in

need, and, on the behavior level, acquires

agreeability.

It is a contitutional theory in humanistic social work because empathy is the capacity of the person to understanding and feeling each other, to think and feel what another person’s thinks and feels, ability to really sit in the other’s place, to seeing the world as he sees it - crucial qualities of the professional in the activity of evaluation and intervention. Through this capacity the practitioner can think and feel the client’s distress, really sit in the client’s place, and from this position to identify the better solution.



In literature, empathy is described like a cognitive and affective relationship of inter-knowledge and social communion, therefore, in social work is and a formative instrument used by the professional in the achievement of the specific purposes, mainly in human rehabilitation and social autonomisation of the client. The professional-client proactive empathetic relationship is in fact a framework for the transfer, a subtle culuoar that the professional uses, voluntarily and professionally, for human and social rehabilitation of the client, to solve the social problem (Stefaroi, 2012. P. 168).

Crucial is the goal of human rehabilitation and social integration of the client through its humanization, through spiritual development, through empathetic processes.

Empathy is so a means and an purpose; the professional using or creates the optimal socio-human environment for human rehabilitation and client happiness in order to prevent social problem occurred (Rogers, 2008). The practitioner uses proactive, formative, educational and inductive valences of empathy for the ontological-psychological reconstruction of the client’s personality, as step in the personal



and communitary development and social rehabilitation.

Empathy is, without doubt, one of the underused therapeutic resources in the social science and practices (Rogers, 1959), including social work. But the humanistic social work give its a crucial role. It is a phenomena and processes of great complexity, depth and finesse, that involve concurrent the subject and the other, the person and the group, the individual and the society, the group and the society, feelings and representations, values and beliefs, feelings and ideas, the material and spiritual existence. The unilateral, psychologistic, voluntarist approaches, on the one hand, trough the individualistic psychologies, and the sociologistic, on the other hand, by the structural-functionalist and universalist approaches tend to not capture these phenomena or processes.

The study of the empathetic phenomena and processes, the empathy as object of scientific knowledge is not only a epistemological necessity but also a necessity of higher social and human importance in the globalization perspective, the effects of cybernetisation and



"virtualization" of social life, moral and cultural degradation, degradation of the family values, growth of the economic-technical factor role in society and in daily life of the man.

About the psychosocial concept and phenomenon that is empathy have dealt great thinkers like Lipps (to feel himself in something), Allport (understanding and feeling each other), Titchener (ability to think and feel what another person thinks and feels ), Rogers (the fourth stage in the emotional-personal development; ability to really sit in the other’s place, of seeing the world as he sees it), Batson (disposition/ motivation oriented to the other). In Romania the concept of empathy and empathetic phenomenon was experimentally studied, among others, by Stroe Marcus (1971).

Hoffman (2000) interprets the empathic disposition of the person as effect of cognitive-affective action of the other, resulting so an emotional response closer to the other interests than the self, while Pavelcu (1972) gives the following meanings to the concept of empathy: sympathetic projection of the self, emotional fusion, sympathetic intuition, affective union, knowledge by interweaving, introjection,



tranzitivism, intropathy, sympathy, transposition into the current other's state, identification with another, transfer, sympathetic projection.

Empathy is so a form of knowledge of the environment, so is a cognitive process, is a form of feeling and emotional experience to the other, therefore is an emotional process, is an interpersonal process, so is a social process and, not least, a spiritual process/ phenomenon, trough the human capacity to resonate to culture, science, philosophy, religion etc.. All these phenomena and processes contribute to the establishment of what might call the human sensitivity.

The onto-personal formation which perform this function is spiritual soul. This onto-personal formation, critical part of the architecture of human personality, is built and set as effect of the internalization and organization of the noetic-subjective, self-projective or spiritual (mystical, playful, epistemic, aesthetic, moral etc.) experiences.

In this sphere it installs what could be called the projective-spiritual being of the person. It builts on the biopsychological personality,



affective soul and mind foundation, and in the context of formation of the other personal onto-formations, (the endemic ontos, the affective ontos), that, chronologically, it succeeds (although the formation and institution process and simultaneous or interactive). Depending on the type of experiences, on subjective experiences, will forms the (ideal) self, the happiness and depression formations, as well as the spiritual ontos with the formations: mystical soul, playful soul, aesthetic soul, gnostic soul, ethical soul etc.

The formation process and its existence is conditioned by the existence/ building of a formation of mental sphere: the noetic ontos.

The spiritual-projectiv ontos, build by the noetic ontos, is, undoubtedly, a version of the world, an existence, a being with a special nature. The special nature of this ontic world is given by the great diversity, complexity and depth, on the hand, and (perhaps especially) of its ideational, semantics and projective content, on the other hand.

The most obvious subjective-projective or onto-projective feature is, however, that the



human individual is born biologically, but must be born, socio-human, once more, which requires a project. Therefore, it must assimilates symbols, meanings, values.

But, the man is not a computer wich stores information. He lives, grows, is existentially built, that is why, so-called assimilation, is in fact a projection. The objects, people, situations are not assimilated in their physical-sensorial objectuality, but by the social/ cultural semnification, onto-projective sujectivated.

So, the subject is inserted în a noetic, axiological, cultural world, where can not survive as whole man unless it is part of a field, the world of relationships, structures, assemblies, socio-cultural formations with very high complexity. Only their projection in onto-personal formation and building of the whole personality ensure the survival. The individuals unable to makes this process are excluded or excludes himself. There are some processes that are interested in understanding the process of building the projective ontos.

One of them is the idealization. This is a logical process of essentialisation,



abstractisation and selection of some features. It is and a projection guide of the process.

The construction of projective ontos is done on two levels. The first is the comassation of the primary and secondary formations, some of them, of course, another concerns the whole, unitary organization, as a unique formation, as a being, as a function.

The “synthesis" of pre-formation is not done accidentaly, is the expression to some trends and force actions of a existential vectors, homologous of the endemic formations: hedonic ontos, phobic formation, endemic/ ontic subject etc.

It can’t know exactly how many formations will remain and will establish, autonomous, in the projective ontos framework. Their number can be unlimited, however, impossible to control. We believe, with certainty, that, it can speak of the following: spiritual soul, happiness formation, depression formation and the ego (onto-projective).

Mystical soul is constitutes in closely related with the phobic and malsentic (depressed) formation, the hypothesis of death, with non-being, with the supernatural, the love, inlove,



with the saint as model and aspiration, with the heaven, with the fantastic happiness etc. Through sublimation generates the need for sacred.

The mystic is not an option, is a foundation of the personal constitution, and is materialized in the setting of certain specific onto-formations (Stefaroi, 2009a, p.22).

The mystical soul is set on the opposite side of the endemic. Both poles are still beings, these have autonomous existences, needs and produce desires. The mystical desires requires mystical experiences, the need of sacred, trances, revelations, sublime feelings, asceticism, faith, love, heroism. The mystical soul formations are far from the contingent processes of consciousness, reason and behavior. Are deep ancestral "implants" in unconscious, landmarks of individual beliefs and convictions, but and sources of the emotional instability, fanaticism and paranoia (in pathologically view).

In fact, mystical (spiritual) soul unites, by sacred, the body, mind, the self, environment, culture and projectiv/ transmergent/ telegent capacity of onto-personality, inevitable for



personal genesis/ development. The focalisation of these energies and processes is creative of "spirit". Its content is the higher/ sublim emotion (sentiment) - profound, almost revealed, impossible analyzed and described scientifically.

The establishment of the spiritual soul generates and aesthetic, playful and gnostic needs. They are the expression of certain onto-projective formations like the gnostic soul, playful soul, esthetic soul etc.

The gnostic soul has many similarities and connections with the noetic onto-formation. What differentiates them is that the noetic onto-formation is an organization of ideas in itself, an itself objective world, logical, intrinsic, cognitive, self-sufficient, while the gnostic soul is subjective and emotional impregnated, and determines the higher need of the subject to search gnosis that produce satisfaction. While for the noetic onto-formation the fundamental need is for the truth, for the gnostic soul prevailing the subject’s spiritual need for the knowledge itself.

Between the two poles, mystic and gnostic soul, is located playful and aesthetic soul. The playful soul is expression of the ontological-



ancestral need of the person of liberty, entertainment, of irony against the limits of existence. The personality will reflected, in its own dimension, this spirit - requirement of social, cultural, moral action, but and of creativity. The environment and source of the playful soul is a different world than the real one, is set with its elements and laws, but placed in an ontological order inherently questionable. The playfulness soul illuminates and streamline the internal communication channels and with the environment, gives to the individual comfort and authentic existence, spirituality.

From the playful soul it feeds also the process of formation the aesthetic soul. In fact is very difficult to achieve a clear distinction between the two onto-formations. However, the aesthetic soul is reported at established historical-cultural values, imposed by society, subjectively assimilated of the person. Is more important, beyond the social, cultural, historical matters, the ontological-individual organization as soul to these values. It can be said that by imposing the values, as social commandment, the aesthetic soul it more regularizes, leading to an



higher organization in structures of personality and socio-human behaviors.

The mere existence, as the ontological core of personality, of the soul as a whole determines the empathy, compassion, love, aesthetic sensitivity, attachment, conception of the world, religious faith, human sensitivity. Concrete form of expression and intensity depending, of course, of the stage of development or many others individual caracteristics.

In the process of personality formation, by establishment the soul, it occurs the humanization of the body, animation through the other (generic man, the source), the who must be assimilated, so, the body from birth to become a man. In its absence the body would become what cybernetics try to build, with the intention of imitating the human beings, a robot.

The formation and establishment of the soul causes the body to become a human and not a robot, so it is important to raising the children in families, in environments based on attachment, affection, respect for each other. The other is the source of their development.



Is there a common spiritual background, which incorporate the relational-affective pattern of the human being, the structure of personal background that determines the overall empathetic capacity and the human sensitivity, but and a specialization according to the particular, biological, psychological caracteristics, or of social/ professional environment, which favors the attachment. The soulful’s configuration of an artist is generally different from that of a butcher. As well, the configuration and soulful/ empathetic quality of a social worker is different from that of an engineer.

Empathetic capacity and human sensitivity of the persons in relationships and groups generates the formation of empathetic community and compathy.

Any social group, community or organization is so and an empathetic community. Many human suffering, tragedy or social problems are rooted in its underdevelopment, in weaknesses or serious compathetic problems. Knowledge of this aspect by the social workers is a necessity and, moreover, the compathy, empathetic community, the system of sympathies and empathies can be



very effective tools for change, improvement, normalization.

The empathetic community and compathy are built and specifically define trough the common circumstances, characteristics and behaviors of individuals who compose it. Consists mainly of three types of processes or phenomena: emotional, cognitive and spiritual.

In this perspective each member of a community is a product of a unique interaction, depending on the personality of the others (Golu, 1997, p 136), place, time, cultural niche, hazard. Each person is actually part of a particular compathetic system. It is, in turn, part of an comprehensive system. The most common compathetic system and most consistent is the family.

The compathetic consistency is given by the fact that the individual personalities are composed of common experiences, by the fact that in each individual personality exists, trough empathy and projection, the others. It establish a mutual existential dependence.

This empathetic community works, trough the organizational culture, and as a system of



symbols or values that are rooted in individual’s personality or activism. These symbols and values it imposes as link and unity resort between the two parties. Their existence and operation gives the sense of belonging, familiar, known, give comfort, safety and happiness.

Between the empathetic community and individuals which it constitute it establish a ontological balance, an existential and functional optimum, in which is satisfy, in principle, an a harmonious and non-confrontational way, both personal and collective necessities.

The empathetic community and compathy can also have and negative influences, may be an area of non-value, of conflict, hostility or social exclusion. The empathetic community can have a coherent organization and functioning but founded on non-value, on antisocial attitudes, or may be poorly organized, dysfunctional, immature. In both cases, members are exposed to personal underdevelopment, marginalization and social/ moral maladjustment.

In humanistic social work practice the empathetic capacity and behavior is not an alternative but a consubstantial necessity of any



profession on the social work field (Zamfir, 1998), particularly in the child welfare, but and in the elderly and disabled. Through empathy their personality becomes sensitive to the sufferings and problems to people in need, and, on the behavior level, acquires agreeability.

Through empathetic qualities, namely, the ability to feel the enjoyment (desire, suffering) of the other, the ability to think and experience what another person thinks and feels, the ability to really put in another place, to see the world as he/she, the personal provision/ motivation to the other, sympathetic projection of the self, emotional-affective fusion, sympathetic intuition, introjection, tranzitivism, intropathy, sympathy, identification with the other, transfer etc. the professional acquires access to the customer personality and an effective method of therapeutic change.

The empathy of professional operates through its defining functions: cognitive, of communication and foresight, of emotional contagion and performance, of solidarity, prosocial etc. It is a fundamental way of knowing the customer and the environment in which it lives, so a cognitive process, is a form of feeling



and emotional reflection of the client/ environment, therefore, is an emotional process; being and a interpersonal process is and a social process, and, not least, a spiritual process/ phenomenon through the capacity of the professional personality to resonate al the customer culture and spiritual sensitivity.

The empathetic qualities of the worker in a centre for residential care are a great importance in the goal of organizational’s congruence, consistency, unity and functionality. In these institutions, the empathy must have a very important role. The professional-client inter-empathy has a undeniable curative function (Rogers, 1959).

The social care organization is a network of inter-empathy that, especially in children's institutions, the professional personality can have a vital educational function. The professional personality interacts with all its physical, psychological, social, cultural, moral level and features:

personal characteristics - age, appearance, personality etc.;

language;



specific sensory-cognitive and affective qualities;

system of values, sensibilities, tastes, habits, rules, customs, etc.;

behaviors, gestures, activities, etc.;

The organization/ institution of social care is defined and by the personalities that made up, including the professionals personalities, with the three dimensions: affective, cognitive and spiritual. The affective phenomena are in fact, relationships, interactions, compathies between the affective spheres of persons, while the cognitive and spiritual phenomena are the processes between its spiritual spheres or projective egos. Of course, the compathetic interactions, processes and phenomena area of these organizations is infinitely large.

Through the spiritual and social valences of the empathetic personality a professional from a residential institution for children can help to create a magical psychosocial and cultural "universe" for the satisfaction of intimate, deep, empathetic personal needs, of spiritual growth and education, emotional and moral development of the children.



The institution is for the child the place where is built the ontological foundations of its personality. Is the environment in which the child is feed with spiritual and moral energy. Is the existential magic framework of training, existence and manifestation of his personality, of its happiness and soulfull/ personal fulfillment. To this end, the role of the empathetic qualities of professionals is crucial.



Happiness theory

The relationship with the client is not

objectual but "spiritual". The term can

help us to understand more deeply,

completely and complex the nature and

specific of the professional-customer

relationship. Beyond the primary goal of

the social reintegration or economic

rehabilitation, the customer expect also

some related services such as tolerance,

understanding, humor, aesthetics

sensibility, morality, creativity,

spirituality, in a word - happiness



The happiness theory in humanistic social work is based on the assumption that efficiency and the personal/ professional/ social adaptation is closely related to the degree of happiness of individuals and communities, psychological-spiritual well-being is a factor of energy and self-developent/ autonomy (Haidt, 2008), so reducing the degree of social vulnerability and the likelihood of becoming a client of social services (Ştefăroi, 2009b). It is based on established scientific theories, the fundamental human rights and is based on the following principles:

Every person, regardless of age, sex, nationality, social status, profession is entitled to a dignified life, to happiness, to personal fulfillment;

The essential indicator of human life quality is the internal satisfaction, subjective felt, the happiness and complacency of the person;



The authentic happiness is a source of personal development, social/ professional efficiency and factor for the acquisition of the autonomous social reintegration capacity;

Man is not only a consumer of services, material and social goods, but is also a cultural, spiritual, aesthetic, playful being – this has therefore emotional, cultural, spiritual, aesthetic, playful needs - endemic entered in the ontological constitution of person, needs that must be unconditionally satisfied.

In literature the happiness theme is approached from all possible perspectives: philosophical, psychological, religious, anthropological, aesthetic, sociological etc. The dominant idea, which seems to be clear, is that the happiness is not directly determined by the current, libidinal, sensorial pleasure and satisfaction, but rather of a deep, constitutional personality structure, which predisposing the person to personal development, social efficiency, positive emotions and feelings.

This is also the basic assumption of the book "Authentic Happiness" by Martin Seligman



(2002. After Seligman the authentic happiness is conditioned on the optimal development at the all motivation levels of the personality, hedonic, of the desires, of the ego and of the objectives. Another author, Jonathan Haidt, addressing the theme of happiness in the book "Theory of happiness"(2008), through the concept of metaphor.

We believe that a true, deep, sustainable happiness is conditionate on the creation of a specific onto-psychological device (the prosentic/ happiness onto-formation) and of the soul as the support ontological formation. These are the sources of empathy and to the capacity of the workers to "give" happy the customers.

The happiness is usually perceived as being related to achieving personal fulfillment, so they are at the higher level of the motivational pyramid and structure of personality. Is identified also with positive, euphoric feelings, with the satisfaction or pleasure, states that can be related to the needs from the lower levels. No doubt, elements and dimensions of the happiness (the need for happiness) can be found at all levels of the human personality.



For the social welfare system we believe that the most appropriate sense of happiness would be her description in terms of unitary structure and functioning of the personality, with the states of equilibrium and efficiency that they generates.

In this context we say that the happiness need is in fact the need of psychological balance, of balanced personal structure, adaptable personality, personal development in the physical, psychological and social plan.

In the happiness theory in social work's perspective (Stefaroi, 2009b) a person is or becomes a client of social services not only because of social or economic circumstances, as is often stated, but because his personality is socio-maladaptive structured, and an esential role in this process it has the unmet or vicious meet to the need of happiness, of positive mental states, of satisfaction, of supply to ego, self-esteem. In vain is intervene on the individual client system with economic or social measures if the problem has, in fact, an important psychological, emotional, or psychological-spiritual component, the human personality of professionals having here a crucial role.



There are a number of personal/ personality characteristics such as level of happiness, interior comfort, irony, relaxed attitude towards life hardships and professional difficulties, ie the soulful welfare and happiness, which is crucial quality of the social work practice, because they are the source of human/ humanitarian sensitivity, the empathy and agreability - defining features of the professionals, especially those working directly with children.

The relationship with the client is not objectual but "spiritual". The term can help us to understand more deeply, completely and complex the nature and specific of the professional-customer relationship. Beyond the primary goal of the social reintegration or economic rehabilitation, the customer expects also related services such as tolerance, understanding, humor, aesthetics sensibility, morality, creativity, "spirituality", in a word - happiness (Stefaroi, 2009b, p.174).

The recruitment activity of the proffesionals is intended so the future employees to have the qualities that enable it to offer and such "services", that often depends the success of the intervention. They are key determinants of the



professional efficiency in social work. Authentic source of these qualities is the soul and the established happiness state, the existence of an well developed onto-formations of happiness and a positive hedonic-affective onto-balance.

It is impossible to imagine professional efficiency, in the jobs that involve working with people, without personal efficiency, with the soulful welfare and happiness state which it implies. Literature concludes that the professionalism is strongly conditioned by the degree of happiness and interior comfort of the person. The professional efficiency is correlated with the positive attitudes, with the degree of internal relaxation, the irony and personal happiness (Bandura, 1986). James (1981) believes that the job happiness/ satisfaction is the relationship between individual aspirations and achievements. At the same time, happiness is an onto-subjective psychological feature and it aprioristic makes the professional to performance.

We believe that the following psychological-soulful predispositions promote the efficiency of professional on social work practice in the effort to adapt and achieve specific professional tasks:



soulful welfare, state of happiness, self-esteem, functional flexibility, agreability, extraversion, democratic spirit, tolerance, openness to new ideas, epistemological and methodological flexibility, mature personality, emotional stability, self-control, detachment etc.



Methods adopted/ adapted from the humanistic psychotherapy

The humanistic psychotherapy bring

in humanistic social work practice the

principle of rehabilitation (social

integration) through focusing on the

customer, human and spiritual

development, focus the intervention

on the resource and not on problem.



The humanistic psychotherapy is undoubtedly the main source of the humanistic social work methodology and practice. Both promotes the equal relationship between therapist and client and increasing the role of personality and affective processes in the therapeutic relationship (Mitrofan, 2001). The humanistic psychotherapy bring in humanistic social work practice the principle of rehabilitation (social integration) through focusing on the customer, human and spiritual development, focus the intervention on the resource and not on problem (Payne, 2005, pp. 186-187).

Throgh client-centered therapy Rogers has the crucial merit to worked at the foundation of the modern social work theory and method through therapeutic-humanist methods and values promoted.

Existential psychotherapy is based on a series of existential theses, proposing



identification to existential anxieties/ crisis and internal ontological rebalancing through personal/ human growth.

Gestalt psychotherapy proposes achievement the convergence between consciousness/ behavior and experience, "between the figure and background" (Wheeler, 1991, 65), while positive psychotherapy is based on the belief that all people are fundamentally good and they have the constitutional capacity to be happy (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, Seligman, 2002).

Also, Group methods and techniques are increasingly used in social work.

Especially in the clinical social work it is, also, used transactional analysis, the psychotherapy focused on emotions, existential analysis, dramatherapy, dance therapy and movement therapy, art therapy, focusing, psychodrama etc (Stefaroi, 2012, p171-172).



Existential-humanistic methods

The existential-humanistic methods

does not address the client as a

pathological case, in this approach

not exist mental illness but only



difficulties and existential impasses,

which means loss the existential

meaning.

The fundamental assumption of this method is that through "existential" intervention social worker can work on building a new modus vivendi, a new social realities, with existential tools and based on an existential social scenario. Have as the source what imposed in psychotherapy like existential analysis. As theory and method is linked to a number of names such as Rollo May, Ludwig Biswanger, Max Scheler and Viktor Frankl. Operates with terms/ categories such as existential impasse, existential crisis, existential meaning, existential anxiety, axiological system, existential dialogue, existential scenario etc.



Existential analysis/ inquiry does not address the client as a pathological case, in this approach not exist mental illness but only difficulties and existential impasses, which means loss of existential meaning (Mitrofan and Buzducea, 2005).

Their use in the humanistic social worker activity must be made in close relation with other aspects of the situation of difficulty, with the client system, and by correlation with established methods, practices and laws from the social welfare system.

Balance method



The humanistic social worker seeks to

represents the human problems as

socio-human onto-systems with

unbalanced elements and seeks to

achive the human-ontological

equilibrium contributing to the

solving of problem.

The sense of the word balance is both, of system consists of two opposed interrelated elements and that of equilibrium. In humanistic social work the both are relavant and necessary.



Social worker seeks to represents the human problems as socio-human onto-systems with unbalanced elements and seeks to achive the human-ontological equilibrium contributing to solving the problem. Balance method is, also, a humanistic method of intervention.

In the humanistic social work practice it can operate with the following onto- balances:

The balance of socio-cognitive onto-systems. Deals the assessment by contraposition of socio-cognitive representations of person and community.

The balance of socio-affective onto-systems. It is a tool that can be used by professionals in the integration process on an alterative environment, to the child, for exemple. Deals the counterweight analysis of attachment relationships that had the person in the origin group and in the new group.

The balance of relationships and role-status onto-systems can be done quite easily, also



by the equilibrium. It is useful to evaluate, the child, for example, a time after the placement, his position in the new group and how perceives it through reporting at the situation that had in the origin group.

The balance of attitudinal, cultural and spiritual onto-systems. In the case management and placement decision has a very high importance. We do not refer to the cultural or moral standard/ level of the two groups but at problems of sensitivity, tastes, guidance, or social aesthetic, for example. Seems small details but in the soul of the child from the substitutive group may have a special significance.



Appreciative methods

In humanistic social work practice the

appreciative methods promotes, as

objective but and the main strategy, the

approach of social/ human issues

through appreciation, knowledge and

increasing of the optimistic, positive

expectations of the client (individual or

collective).



The appreciative methods are being increasingly adopted and successfully applied in social work. Humanistic social work prioritize them because bringing positive thinking, orientation to the future, adoption the appreciative, developmental model, and abandoning the deficiency model. Promotes, as objective but and the main strategy, the approach of social/ human issues through appreciation, knowledge and increasing of the optimistic, positive expectations of the client (individual or collective).

Operates with the conventional instruments of social work, like social inquiry, supervision, intervention project and case management, but are still resized by categories of positive method and takes crucial paradigm of the cognition psychology or psychotherapy. A fundamental role in these techniques it has the potentiality of language (Sandu, 2009).



Appreciative social inquiry respects some principles like the constructionist principle, of simultaneity, poetic principle, positive principle or of anticipation (Cojocaru, 2005).





iminishing the customer's suffering, distress and unhappy, increasing the spiritual well-

being, personal development and obtaining the autonomy, moral development and socio-human integration are among the most importants objectives of the humanistic social work practice. Accountability, achieving personal and social equality, flexibility in human life and professional practice, complexity in human life and professional practice, achieving caring and creativity, developing self and spirituality, developing security and resilience, developments in researchare, are after Payne (2011), the most importants principles and values of this inovativ practice in contemporary social work. The main role of the humanistic social work is to enables clients to realize their potential within the therapeutic relationship ans human-context, by enhancing client potential to achieve self-actualization in the social environment, also to create just social conditions to promote general well-being, to promote “human and social well-being by developing human capacities; personal growth, and social relationships of equality,

D



freedom, and mutual responsibility through shared social expe rience (Payne, 2011, p. 31).

Accountability principles involves both the social worker and agency’s responsability and the client’s responsability. The client has, the first, accountability for his situation and his reabilitation, but the social worker, as agent of community and humanity, has the profesional accountability for correct and scientific procedures, based on evidences, and to fulfill the mission given by these. The practitioner has too a personal accountability, in relation of the humanitarian mission that he has, and of the specific of profession which he has chosen. Also, procedures that allow for informed consent and advanced care planning communicate respect for clients to make their own decisions upon full disclosure of information. This allows for client responsibility to express personal power or social agency. Accountability in the helping relationship further entails working together to create a social environment that is responsive to and supportive of client change. Here social worker involves helping clients exercise political power when conditions are most receptive to social change. An environment most conducive to



change is partially characterized by the presence of social policies that protect basic human rights.

Others core principles are flexibility and complexity. Both suggest an almost limitless human and professional opening to a wide variety possibilities of manifestation of the customer and to the multiple therapeutic options.The flexibility principles concerns specially the current practitioner activity, involves promotes and a professional image that gives authority to engage the client in a open and flexible helping therapeutic relationship that consists of an improvisation that occurs between the client and worker and is articulated through the convention of therapeutic rapport. While the complexity principle concerns the way of representation to the client, the social context and the difficult situation, especially in the way of approach and assessment activity. Promotes the complex and multidimensional representation of the client systems, situations of difficulty and therapeutic contexts in which operate the practitioner. Reactions to change may not be accurately predicted given the variety of factors involved in a system. So, the author warns against oversimplification of



relational patterns that may come with problem solving, and encourages fuller consideration of a variety of perspectives to better respond to the multifaceted nature of client concerns (from Callahan, 2012).

For Payne the “spirituality” principles is one o the most important. After this spirituality is one of unlimited resources that are available to both at the client and the practitioner and involves the process of making meaning out of life events. Through spirituality the intervention process can help the clients to establish a sense of congruence with self and the world, with culture, wholeness in life and happiness.

The (human) evidence-based practices propose, in the specific activity of practitioner, of assessment and intervention, focusing on the complex, phenomenological reality of the client. The construction of evaluative picture starts with what is identified as existing, real, verifiable and sensitive. Is achieved mainly through fieldwork and through direct, empathetic contact with the client and his socio-human context (Payne, 2011: 76). The practitioner work is based and on the evidence of researches and studies's concluzions on that tipe



of case, this having the task to realize modeling of the identified difficult situations in report of these research's findings.

Payne (2011) consider caring more important than helping. But he states that it is about of a holistic caring, that includes and the personality and spirituality not only the physical sphere.

“Humanistic social work focuses more than many models of social work practice on holistic caring processes rather than helping for two reasons. One is that many social work and similar services are involved in helping people with long-term-care needs; children whose parents cannot care for them; people with mental illnesses, intellectual, and physical disabilities; and older people. Therefore, social work requires more than a quick problem-solving intervention or social change and then standing aside; it requires developing the client’s personal capacities to resolve difficulties and live an improved quality of life over a long-term involvement. Second, social work aims at psychological efficacy, as humanistic psychotherapies envisage, but it also involves a focus on empowering the social agency of social networks in the client’s environment.” (Payne, p. 139).

The humanistic social work practice promotes so an innovative approach, also proposes and a new vision and approach to the professional and his personality. It is a prioritize



of the human and spiritual qualities, certainly not disregard other types of qualities. Features such as patience, human sensitivity, emotional well-being and personal happiness, empathy, agreebility, spiritual sensitivity, vocation for working with the suffering person, balanced personality, vision and proiectivity, tolerance, anti-discrimination, idealism, altruism are increasingly required by employers from social work areas, and are increasingly considered in the activity of training the staff. Because the humanistic social work practice require from the professional attention and for the soulful problems/ manifestations of the client.

Through the humanities knowledge and spiritual qualities in the assessment activity the humanistic professional it focuses on the identification, analysis and description the concrete customer’s human problem and suffering, through identification the situations of existential impasse or crisis, identification of personal and collective tragedies, personal, family, organizational or professional failure situations. Through humanistic methods it made the representation of the current compathetic, social, cultural and psychosocial situations, of



the concrete situations of depersonalization and dehumanization.

Therefore, the humanistic professional will build the diagnosis mainly by a contextual-humanistic phenomenology. The construction process of intervention plan after humanistic model involves prioritizing the identification of needs and soulful, spiritual, human, subjective, voluntary resources of rehabilitation.

The intervention activities not makes excess of formalism and technicism, the professional empathize authentically with the customer, aims to contributing to its social autonomization through the spiritual, personal/ psychological, moral and socio-cultural development (Payne, 2011).

Through empathetic-projectiv behavior the professional working on construction of a new interior/ soulful and exterior/ relational realities and behaviors of the clients, with humanities tools. The behavior in the intervention process require increasing the role of affective processes in the therapeutic relationship (Mitrofan, 2001), focusing on the customer, human and spiritual development, focus intervention to resource and



not to problem (Payne, 2011b), identifying the soulful anxieties/ crisis and internal-ontological re-equilibration through spiritual and moral development.

In the intervention process the targets mainly include terms such as authentic happiness, personal development, social recovery/ integration by spiritual and moral developing, formation of a strong organizational culture, accountability etc.

The used methods aims, through the intervention plan, caring the soul and active personality. The humanistic social worker coordinating the team efforts to optimize the client's personality and the empathetic environment of the organization.

On the view of humanistic values, principles and theories the training, recruitment and appraisal of the staff is a unitary phenomenon and seeks, ultimately, the workers in this field to not be some mere servants who simply deliver some "services" but a complex human beings, with souls, with empathetic personality, with a deep knowledge of what is the man as being extremely complex.



The social worker of the Millennium III is able to contribute effectively both to reducing the client's suffering and increase their ability to adapt and autonomous integrate in community (Gill, 2011).

The formative-educational objectives are achieved mainly by promoting the humanistic values and model of the professional in social care areas through the specific literature or through the educational system, by increasing the number of humanistic courses, of humanistic psychology, pedagogy and sociology, of philosophy, culture and spirituality.

This is because the humanistic social worker or psychologist is focused, with priority, on the soul, on the spiritual, empathetic, subjective, emotional issuea of the client, on the existential bottlenecks, on group and personal dramas, on the moral and spiritual aspects of the problem. For this, the real problems are of human, emotional, spiritual nature.

The humanistic counseling is a systematic approach, developed by professional tools and methodes, in which an accredited counselor,



providing assistance and support for spiritual/ human rehabilitation and social adaptation.

And the manager or the worker from residential institution, in the view of humanistic social work values, is a "man with a big heart." Human/ soulful qualities, the positive, compathetic, visionary personality prints the manager’s behavior flexibility, adaptability, sociability, communication, agreeability, tolerance, it focuses on the human goals of the care institution, help to prevent and resolve serious conflicts at all levels - intrapersonal, interpersonal, of group or institutional, enhances the complacency degree of customers and staff, of satisfaction (happiness), enhances the positive feeling of belonging to the organization.

It is essential that everyone who working in the residential institutions to meet a minimum conditions of human, educational, vocational, psychological or moral order. The organizations where they work must be themselves a source of stability, efficiency and humanism for the customers (Stefaroi, 2007). That becouse the empathetic ability, emotional wellbeing, happiness, personal development, altruism, agreeability, intelligence, culture, idealism,



visionary orients the workers through the achievement of the human goals of care institution. The positive effects are felt over time particularly by shifting focus from the care of body to the care of soul and personality.

Thus, in the humanistic social work practice the practitioner is interested, besides the material wealth, food, housing, comfort and of the spiritual wellbeing of the suffering person, of the his dignity and condition of human being, with all rights implied by this existential statute. The quality of human relationships, cultural quality of the community where lives the client, the quality of socio-moral climate are important factors that are part of the same concern for the soul and personality care and for enhance the prospects of the human rehabilitation and social integration.

There are a number of personal/ personality characteristics such as level of happiness, interior comfort, irony, relaxed attitude towards life hardships and professional difficulties, which means the soulful welfare and happiness, which is crucial quality of the social work practice, because they are the source of human/ humanitarian sensitivity, the empathy and



agreability - defining features of the professionals, especially those working directly with children.

The relationship with the client is not objectual but "spiritual". The term can help us to understand more deeply, completely and complex the nature and specific of the professional-customer relationship. Beyond the primary goal of the social reintegration or economic rehabilitation, the customer expects also related services such as tolerance, understanding, humor, aesthetics sensibility, morality, creativity, "spirituality" (Stefaroi, 2009b, p.174).

The recruitment activity of the proffesionals is intended so the future employees to have the qualities that enable it to offer and such "services", that often depends the success of the intervention. They are key determinants of the professional efficiency in social work. Authentic source of these qualities is the soul and the established happiness state, the existence of an well developed onto-formations of happiness and a positive hedonic-affective onto-balance.



It is impossible to imagine professional efficiency, in the jobs that involve working with people, without personal efficiency, with the soulful welfare and happiness state which it implies. Literature concludes that the professionalism is strongly conditioned by the degree of happiness and interior comfort of the person. The professional efficiency is correlated with the positive attitudes, with the degree of internal relaxation, the irony and personal happiness (Bandura, 1986). James (1981) believes that the job happiness/ satisfaction is the relationship between individual aspirations and achievements. At the same time, happiness is an onto-subjective psychological feature and it aprioristic makes the professional to performance.

We believe that the following psychological-soulful predispositions promote the efficiency of practitioner on humanistic social work practice in the effort to adapt and achieve specific professional tasks: soulful welfare, state of happiness, self-esteem, functional flexibility, agreability, extraversion, democratic spirit, tolerance, openness to new ideas, epistemological and methodological flexibility,



mature personality, emotional stability, self-control, detachment etc..

Is the reason why the assessment of humanistic personality traits and not just strictly professional skills and knowledge is increasingly common practice in the recruitment and evaluation of staff in the social care system. The reason is very simple - to work with people, especially the suffering, difficulties and personal failure calls for these qualities.

In the assessment process, therefore, are followed and personality traits such as the playful spirit, cheerfulness, good general appearance, sociability, human (humanitarian) sensitivity, agreability, vocation for working with the person in distress, balanced personality, interior comfort, irony, flexibility, extroversion, tolerance, nondiscrimination, adaptability, respect for life, happiness and other personal values, idealism, confidence in the capabilities of the person/ client self-actualization and self-determination, emotional stability, self-control, presence of spirit, resistance to frustration, openness to new ideas and values etc.



Conversely, the following devices, disposition and personality factors limit, hinders the worker efficiency in the effort of adjustment and achievement of professional duties, we mean to chronically psychological distress, lack of tolerance for irony, depression background, resistance to change, tendency to conserve a system of values and norms, opposition to new, conformism - obedience, lack of flexibility and suppleness of thought, dogmatism, reduced adaptability, stubbornness, misconceptions, unfounded ideas, attitudinal rigidity, resistance to information and change, to correction, inflexible attitudes to food, dress, political preference, sexual orientation, minorities, discrimination, emotional lability, immature personality, increased irritability, selfishness, lack of presence of spirit etc.

The humanistic practitioner not only provide compensatory aid, care, or merely offers "services", does not work only for the customers's survive, even if are crucial objectives, but seeks and to relieve the client suffering by his agreeable presence, trough its personality’s altruism and optimism.







s it was probably observed from the text, the humanistic social work theories, methods

and practices are not much different than those established in the literature and practice of social work, as they stated and imposed over time. The reason is very simple, social work is inherently, through nature and mission, humanistic, and therefore the specific theories and methods may not be much different.

A

However, the fact that, increasingly more, this sistem-concept and practice of social work it imposes, means that it can speak, at least, of a specific to the theories and practices in humanistic social work, if not of new theories and practices. No doubt, this specific is given, as often is noted in the paper, of the importance given to the representation of the client and practitioner as human beings with personality and soul, situated in complex and compathetic socio-human contexts, and exceeding the administrative-institutional or classical sociological model, where, at least the client, is



represented as dysfunctional element in an institutional and social/ societal gear, the goal of the welfare services being to eliminate dysfunction through systemic change, restoring so the normality and social functioning.

In contrast, in the humanistic social work these objectives are not a priority, because the values and objectives are focuses on the customer subjectivity, the purpose being and the relieving sufferings in addition to change, and if it is a change, it must occur first in the actors’s personality, soul and conscience, same time with human changes in the social and compathetic context.

From these values and objectives derive their theses the empathy theory, attachment theory, personal development theory and happiness theory. These return out and rebuild all the social work process, from the fundamental values to principles, methods and techniques of practice, inducing to the entire social welfare system a explicitly humanistic valence.



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46. Zlate, M. (2002) Eul şi personalitatea (The self and personality). Bucureşti: Editura Trei.



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Documents

THÉORIES ET MÉTHODES EN TRAVAIL SOCIALE HUMANISTE / HUMANISTIC SOCIAL WORK THEORIES AND METHODS / Petru Stefaroi