Psychodynamic Social Work

Abstract

social work practice and education have changed. Mainstream social work practice has shifted toward case management and brief behavioral interventions. Social work education has mirrored this shift and has sought to establish its own body of outcome research by emphasizing evidence-base practice models above psychodynamic models. Psychodynamic models are complex to evaluate , in part because they are concerned with meaning as well as behavior change. As a result, psychodynamic practice has become less well understood and less often practiced. Most MSW programs are generic and include only an overview of psychodynamic theory and practice models. Brandell's book is not a basic overview. It is designed for readers with some background and a serious interest in psychodynamic practice. Brandell is himself a social work educator in a major metropolitan area, (Wayne State University in Detroit), and a trained psychoanalyst in private practice. As such, his grasp of a variety of psychodynamic theories is masterful, and his summary of them is clear, but fairly sophisticated. Likewise, his case examples cover a range with respect to the intensity of treatment and the client's level of functioning, but many clients were seen more than once a week in long-term psychotherapy. These cases may strike the student reader as different from the kind of practice that she or he is likely to be doing. It should be noted, however, that the book does contain superb chapters on brief treatment and case management. These chap-ter's enhance the book's relevance to current, mainstream social work practice. Nevertheless, the book's place in social work education is likely to be as a text for clinically-oriented MSW and doctoral programs, just as texts by Strean