All Things to all People
| DOI | 10.1177/026455057502200205 |
| Date | 01 June 1975 |
| Author | Herschel A. Prins |
| Published date | 01 June 1975 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
45
intensified
my
relationships
with
supervisors
and
friendship
relationships
have
developed
from
them,
but
the
friendship
only
became
really
clear
when
the
placements
were
over.
The
more
I
try
to
analyse
the
relationships
I
had
with
my
supervisors
the
more
I
admire
them
for
not
allowing
me
to
manipulate
them
by
claiming
that
we
were
friends,
but
supervisors
as
well
as
students
manipulate
to
their
own
ends.
I
would
imagine
that
supervision
can
be
an
ego-boosting
experience
as
can
be
a
relationship
with
a
client,
and
student
supervision
is
a
useful
footing
on
the
promotional
ladder.
As
a
student
I
was
asked,
albeit
subtly,
to
examine
my
motivations
and
methods.
This
examination
does
not
end
at
qualification
but
goes
on
throughout
one’s
career
in
analysing
our
relationships
with
clients.
Do
supervisors
examine
their
relationships
with
students
in
a
similar
way?
Is
it
warranted?
This,
I
suppose,
depends
largely
upon
the
demands
made
by
the
student
on
the
supervisor.
I
don’t
know
to
what
degree
supervisors
set
out
to
change
me
but
I
was
heavily
influenced
by
them
both
as
social
workers
and
as
individuals
in
their
own
right,
and
I
continue
to
draw
upon
my
experiences
in
my
work.
My
work
involves
my
personality
and
I
think
my
experiences
with
supervisors
modified
my
personality
in
some
ways.
This,
of
course,
happens
in
all
relationships
but
not
perhaps
in
such
a
contrived
way.
Do
supervisors
see
thins
modification
of
personality
as
part
of
their
task
or
not?
I
think
it
is
a
challenging
question
and
will
leave
it
with
you.
All
Things
to
all
People
HERSCHEL
A.
PRINS
University
of
Leicester
THis
article
is
divided
into
two
broad
themes,
which
for
the
most
part
overlap:
first,
the
nature
of
the
changes
that
have
taken
place
in
the
social
work
task,
and
secondly,
the
role
of
the
educational
establish-
ment
in
preparing
for
them
(in
this
case,
a
university).
Space
permits
only
the barest
sketch
to
be
drawn;
hopefully
this
will
provide
material
for
discussion.
The
notion
of
&dquo;boundary&dquo;
as
applied
to
social
work
The
following
quotation
from
Tillich
seems
to
me
to
offer
much
to
our
consideration
of
the
nature
and
performance
of
the
social
work
task
and
to
the
measures
we
adopt
in
trying
to
educate
for
it.
&dquo;The
boundary
is
the
best
place
for
acquiring
knowledge....&dquo;
He
also
writes
of
having
&dquo;to
stand
between
alternative
possibilities
of
existence,
to
be
completely
in
neither ...
this
position
(he
says)
is
fruitful
for
thought,
but
it
is
difhcult
and
dangerous
in
life,
which
again
and
again,
demands
decisions,
and
thus
the
exclusion
of
altematives....&dquo;i
For
me,
this
says
much
about
the
practice
situations
of
social
workers
and
the
dilemmas
of
thought
and
action
that
frequently
face
them.
It
strikes
chords
too
about
that
diffcult
boundary
area
between
objectivity
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