Paradoxes, contradictions, and dilemmas: Reflections on the contours of a pandemic and its implications for social work education

Summary

This is a reflective and theoretical article that discusses the impact of COVID-19 on social work practice. The pandemic, which made its presence felt globally from early 2020, continues to have ongoing and significant consequences for lives, livelihoods, public health, and personal freedoms. We argue that, while its specific contours are yet to be comprehensively researched, let alone the final outcomes understood, the pandemic has presented opportunities to develop new ways of thinking about social work and social work education.

Findings

Through a discussion of relevant literature, including a recent work of fiction, we contend that social workers have been able to adapt, to some extent, to the pandemic but in reactive rather than proactive ways. The biopsychosocial and person-in-environment perspectives that characterize social work education, theory, and practice might be greatly enhanced by the introduction of complexity theory in terms of developing new thinking about the theoretical basis of social work, enabling new questions and new strategies to emerge to strengthen social work responses to the challenges posed by COVID-19.

Applications

Arising from this theoretical article, there are many implications for introducing complexity theory within social work education programs. Complexity theory can provide a conceptual frame fit-for-purpose for social work pandemic and post-pandemic theory and practice.

Conceptual issues in mood disorder: An update

The concept of mood disorders dates back to eternity. This long history of the emotions and their disorders has a fascinating journey. As with any history concerned with disease concepts, the conceptual history of mood disorders must be scrutinized through close attention to nosological texts in tracing how categories were created how they evolved over the time. This article covers the evolution of the concept of mood disorders and its journey from the Hippocratic era to the Kraepelin's dichotomization between dementia praecox (schizophrenia) and manic-depressive insanity (bipolar and unipolar disorders) and its culmination into the contemporary classifications of mood disorders. It also addresses the problem of boundaries between the different mood disorders in terms of their conceptualization and classification. The shortcomings of the classificatory systems and the current progress in the nosology have also been discussed.