Social Work and Neurosciences: Speeches and Theoretical Contributions

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-186
Author(s):  
M.ª João Cabral Sacadura ◽  
Helena Neves Almeida

Abstract The concept of “neuroscience” sometimes referred to as “the last frontier of biology” (Squire et al., 2008, p. 3) was introduced in the mid-1960s and is now recognized as a multidisciplinary field that analyzes the nervous system to understand the biological basis of human behavior. The ongoing developments and the arising production regarding the deepening of the structure, functions and functioning of the brain and its interaction with the environment enabled the identification of key elements reaching an unprecedented level of knowledge in the history of humankind. The multidisciplinary scientific approach, including non-clinical areas such as music, philosophy, education, mathematics, economics and physics, has also contributed to its further deepening. In the light of this scenario of interdependencies and disciplinary alliances, the discipline of the social and human sciences - social work - whose subject is conceived “from and for the practice” (Parton, 1996) in the day-to-day work with challenging social problems of various types and with different publics. Therefore, the present article aims to analyze what has been done to date since 2001, namely the input and contributions of authors and researchers in the field as well as to understand the input of neuroscience developments in their education and research. Also worth mentioning is the identification and relevance of the links between these domains which have contributed to the enrichment of the profession.

Author(s):  
Nikolas Rose ◽  
Joelle M. Abi-Rached

The brain sciences are influencing our understanding of human behavior as never before, from neuropsychiatry and neuroeconomics to neurotheology and neuroaesthetics. Many now believe that the brain is what makes us human, and it seems that neuroscientists are poised to become the new experts in the management of human conduct. This book describes the key development—theoretical, technological, economic, and biopolitical—that have enabled the neurosciences to gain such traction outside the laboratory. It explores the ways by which neurobiological conceptions of personhood are influencing everything from child rearing to criminal justice, and are transforming the ways we “know ourselves” as human beings. In this emerging neuro-ontology, we are not “determined” by our neurobiology: on the contrary, it appears that we can and should seek to improve ourselves by understanding and acting on our brains. The book examines the implications of this emerging trend, weighing the promises against the perils, and evaluating some widely held concerns about a neurobiological “colonization” of the social and human sciences. Despite identifying many exaggerated claims and premature promises, the book argues that the openness provided by the new styles of thought taking shape in neuroscience, with its contemporary conceptions of the neuromolecular, plastic, and social brain, could make possible a new and productive engagement between the social and brain sciences.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 931-934
Author(s):  
HENRY M. FEDER ◽  
EDWIN L. ZALNERAITIS ◽  
LOUIS REIK

Nervous system involvement in Lyme disease was originally described as meningitis, cranial neuritis, and radiculoneuritis,1-3 but Lyme disease can also involve the brain parenchyma. We describe a child whose first manifestation of Lyme disease was an acute, focal meningoencephalitis with signs and symptoms such as fever, headache, slurred speech, hemiparesis, seizure, and CSF pleocytosis. CASE REPORT A 7-year-old boy was hospitalized Aug 27, 1985, because of hemiparesis. Six weeks prior to admission he had vacationed at Old Lyme, CT. There was no history of rash or tick bite. He had been well until eight hours prior to admission when fever and headache developed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 698-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Burney Nissen

This article will stretch the boundaries of the interdisciplinary lens to consider the history of and current potential for the arts to enhance, advance, and amplify individual, family, and community social change goals of the social work profession. To begin, consider the following questions: What would inspire artists and social workers to intentionally work together to reveal new strengths, energy, and capacity in the areas we care about? What do the arts have to teach the profession of social work and vice versa? How have the arts already played a role in the profession, and what has impaired social work’s ability to make greater use of the strengths associated with the arts? How have other professions (public health, psychology, education, and others) incorporated partnerships with the arts? This article concludes with a call to action to advance the potential of the arts in coordination with social work and related disciplines.


1966 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 82-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Bullough

Prefatory Note.—My interest in Pavia goes back at least to 1951 when I was elected Rome Scholar in Medieval Studies. I began seriously to collect material for the history of the city in the early Middle Ages in the winter and spring of 1953 when I enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Collegio Ghislieri, thanks to the efforts made on my behalf by the late Hugh Last, to whose memory this article is dedicated. The published proceedings of the Reichenau and Spoleto congresses on ‘The early medieval town’ in the 1950s clearly underlined the need for detailed studies of particular towns; but the lack of adequate archaeological evidence discouraged me from attempting such a study of early medieval Pavia. In 1964, however, Dr. A. Peroni, Director of the Museo Civico invited me to read a supplementary paper on this topic to the Convegno di Studio sul Centro Storico di Pavia held in the Università degli Studi at Pavia on July 4th and 5th of that year. The present article is an amplified and corrected version of that paper: I have made no substantial alterations to my account of the ‘urbanistica’ of early medieval Pavia—written for an audience of architects and art-historians as well as of historians—but have dealt more fully with the social history of the city in this period. Professor Richard Krautheimer read a draft of the revised version and made some pointed and helpful comments. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Peroni, not merely for the invitation to present the original paper but also for supplying illustrations and answering queries at a time when he and his staff were engaged in helping to repair the ravages of the Florence floods.


Author(s):  
Avindra Nath

It has been nearly three decades since the first descriptions of the neurological comploications of HIV infection. During this period of time there has been tremendous progress in defining the clinical syndromes, modes of diagnosis, detailed pathophysiology and modes of treatment. Many of the dreaded complications are now manageable particularly if diagnosed early. However, neurocognitive impairment associated with HIV infection still remains a significant cause of morbidity and much is needed to control; the effects of the virus on the brain and for the eventual eradication of the virus from the brain reservoir.


Author(s):  
Matthew Wilson Smith

How did we come to think of ourselves not as souls and minds but as nerves and brains? The answer this book gives is a history of the neural subject—that is, a history of a subject understood as primarily and essentially a nervous system. The earliest formation of the neural subject lies at least as far back as Thomas Willis’s Pathology of the Brain, published in 1667, but it is above all during the nineteenth century that the discourse of nerves became foundational for myriad and not always compatible institutions and practices. One of the central institutions in the nineteenth-century rise of the neural subject was the theater, which, because of its peculiarly embodied and social nature, was one of the central sites for the staging and the formation of this subject.


1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Wilson Martin
Keyword(s):  

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Quartly

Relatively little work on adoption focuses on the role of social workers. This article gives an account of the conflict between social workers and prospective adoptive parents which developed in Australia in the 1970s, taking as a case study the conflicting roles of adoptive parent advocates and professional social workers within the Standing Committee on Adoption in the Australian state of Victoria. Its overarching concern lies with the historical attitudes of the social work profession towards adoption, both domestic and intercountry, as these have changed from an embrace of both adoption and adoptive parents to mutual alienation. It concludes that the inclusive practice of radical social work could only briefly contain contesting client groups.


1968 ◽  
Vol 171 (1024) ◽  
pp. 335-352 ◽  

I am afraid that I find a title such as 'The logical analysis of cerebral functions’ irresistible. With what can it be contrasted except ‘The illogical analysis of cerebral functions’ ? Logic is a set of rules that allows one to deduce certain conclusions from certain assumptions. It is best carried out while sitting in an armchair or, nowadays, in a swivel chair in front of a computer console. But, of course, everything depends on the assumptions, and given any set of assumptions it is only a matter of time before, in principle, all possible conclusions can be listed exhaustively. Then, one can compare some of the conclusions with actual empirical results, provided one has the necessary connecting assumptions. This is a classical strategy. But given the peculiar past history and present state of our knowledge about cerebral functions, I am afraid that I am driven to embrace a contrasting approach of an ‘illogical analysis of cerebral functions’. Or, perhaps I should say I prefer an analysis of cerebral function that depends on inference rather than deduction. Deduction is an all-or none affair. It either leads to the brilliant break-through or to the scrap heap, or at least to the repair shop for patching or remoulding. In the history of our subject the scrap merchants have grown rich. I prefer a state of affairs where the assumptions stem from the conclusions rather than the conclusions from the assumptions. The problem of the analysis of cerebral function, as I see it, is that an organism both behaves, with all that can be elaborated by that word, and it also possesses a brain. But the two universes of discourse are quite different—there is nothing that we can say in making an assertion about the possession of a cranium that overlaps with descriptions about behaviour, except that without such a possession no behaviour is displayed for long. That is not a remarkable statement nor even one restricted to possession of an intact cranium: it applies equally forcefully to other vital organs. But somehow we have reached the point where we have more than a shrewd suspicion that the two are not independent—and it is by no means immediately obvious that they are not, as evidenced by the Greek hypothesis that the brain was a device merely for cooling the blood. But how do we study the mutual interaction? I suspect that one rather good way is by following the same steps that have already led us, over the centuries, to the firm view that there is some connexion between brain and behaviour. But progress has been painfully slow, and we are impatient.


10.18060/142 ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 208-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhrubodhi Mukherjee

This paper critically examines the influence of the structural elements of human behavior that are often neglected in social work literature (Robbins et al., 1998). It incorporates a new multi-theoretical framework that critically examines the significance of a network approach in analyzing social, ideological, and economic structures and their influence on individual actors. This paper discusses two interrelated theories: social network theory and social capital theory, and critiques their relevance in explaining human behavior for social work educators and professionals in an increasingly information-driven and electronically-interconnected global society. The author hopes that an expanded theory base will provide a holistic view of individual problems stemming out of inequitable social structure.


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