A good casework relationship and Buddhist philosophy

Thus far, casework practice has been based solely on reason. In this article, we propose that, to form a good casework relationship between worker and client, it is important to adopt a mental state that goes beyond reason. This refers to a state of mind wherein the workers themselves abandon their attachment to the ‘self’ (obsession with the self). To explain the importance of this state, we develop an argument based on the seven principles of conduct proposed by Biestek (1957), which continue to have a significant impact on casework practice and education to this day.

Biestek (1957) stated that a good casework relationship is the essence of casework practice and introduced seven principles of conduct for social workers to develop positive relationships. He derived these principles from the seven common client needs and the interactions between the worker and the client related to those needs. Biestek (1957) identified the following seven needs of the client: to be treated as individuals, not as cases; to be able to express their feelings; receive empathy; be recognized as a valuable human being with dignity; not be criticized; to make decisions about their lives without being told what to do; and have their confidentiality protected. He advocates the seven principles of conduct for social workers in response to the aforementioned clients’ seven needs. Principle 1: Treat the client as an individual. Principle 2: Recognize the client’s need to express their feelings. Principle 3: Have a controlled emotional involvement with the client. Principle 4: Accept the client as they are. Principle 5: Do not one-sidedly blame the client. Principle 6: Respect the client’s self-determination. Principle 7: Preserve confidentiality concerning the client. Biestek states that none of the above principles is independent from the other (Biestek, 1957), and thus, an overall view of the principles shows that the cornerstone of the seven principles is Principle 4. If the worker can accept the client as they are, as described in Principle 4, the worker can meet the client’s needs. That is, the worker can (1) welcome and respond to the client as an individual, (2) be receptive to the client’s expression of feelings, (3) empathize with the client’s emotions, (5) stop blaming the client, (6) wait for the client to make decisions themselves, and (7) protect the client’s confidentiality.

Biestek (1957) argues that a lack of self-awareness is what prevents the worker from accepting the client as they are (Principle 4). Here ‘self-awareness’ refers to the worker’s awareness of their attitudes and feelings toward the client. Biestek (1957) says that this self-awareness helps the worker develop self-acceptance, which ultimately leads to the acceptance of others. In other words, he seems to regard a good casework relationship as a process that develops from the worker’s self-awareness, as shown in Figure 1. That is, when the worker deepens their self-awareness, they can accept and control themself with reason, enabling them to accept the client as they really are. Developing self-awareness is indeed a process of reason. Nonetheless, acceptance is an intuitive experience that transcends reason; understanding and acceptance are different mental acts. Additionally, as Biestek states that self-awareness promotes self-acceptance and ultimately leads to the acceptance of others (Biestek, 1957), he assumes that it is a long process to accept the client as they really are – that is, the development of the acceptance of the self that consequently promotes the acceptance of others.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 1.

The process of developing a good casework relationship from the worker’s self-awareness.

The present article proposes a way the worker can accept the client as they are without going through a long process by understanding how the ‘self’ – the subject of acceptance – exists based on Buddhist philosophy. The article starts by introducing an old Indian fairy tale (Takakura, 1929) regarding the way the self exists from the perspective of Buddhist philosophy. As a traveler was staying in a lonely and abandoned house overnight, a demon came in carrying a human corpse on his back. Another demon arrived soon afterward and they began to quarrel over who the corpse belonged to. So, the two demons asked the traveler; when the traveler told them that the corpse belonged to the demon that arrived first, the second demon angrily pulled the traveler’s arm out of his body. The first demon pulled out one of the arms from the corpse and attached it to the traveler, having seen what happened. The demon that had arrived later got even angrier and pulled out the other arm of the traveler, but the other demon pulled out the arm of the corpse and attached it to the traveler again. When the second demon pulled out all the traveler’s body parts, the legs, head, and torso, the first demon pulled out the legs, head, and torso of the corpse and attached them to the traveler. Thus, the traveler and the corpse had their bodies completely switched. The two demons then stopped arguing, ate half of the corpse each, and left the house. As the demons had eaten all of his body, the traveler was no longer sure whether he, who was living as the body of the corpse of an unknown person, was really him or not. Hence, he asked a Buddhist monk if he had his body. The monk said,

It’s nothing new that your body has disappeared. This ‘self’ of a human being has been temporarily formed in this world and made of various elements put together; the foolish person suffers in different ways as they become preoccupied with it. However, once you have realized what the ‘self’ really is, such suffering will disappear once and for all.

As described in this tale, Buddhism states that the ‘self’ is a temporary form of existence made up of various interrelated elements and tells us not to get caught up with such things. The theory that a phenomenon is a temporary form of being is derived from 縁起/engi (‘dependent arising’), the fundamental idea of Buddhism. 縁起/Engi is the idea that all phenomena arise from the interrelationship of numerous causes and conditions (Nakamura, 2010). In other words, everything maintains its existence through other things and nothing exists autonomously. Since the causes and conditions for 縁起/engi are constantly changing (Nara, 1989), everything we see in this world is in flux and does not stay the same even for a moment (Nakamura et al., 2002). It is also evident when we consider 生老病死/sho-ro-byo-shi (birth, aging, sickness, death) (Nakamura et al., 2002), referred to as the ‘four kinds of suffering’ in Buddhism. Our bodies and minds (intellect, emotion, and volition) are entirely different from those when we are children. Everything is 無常/mujo (in flux/transient). When a Japanese person hears the word 無常/mujo, they think of the following opening passage of Hōjōki by Kamo no Chomei (1155–1216), one of the three major Japanese classical essays (Matthew, 2020). ‘The flow of the river never ceases and the water never stays the same. Bubbles float on the surface of pools, bursting, re-forming, never lingering. They’re like the people in this world and their dwellings.’ The flow of a river never ceases to flow, yet the water that flows through it is not the same. Even though everything changes, we believe that there is the same constant ‘self’ and become obsessed with it. When we are obsessed with this idea of ‘self’, a conflict arises between us and things other than the self, and we cannot truly accept others. The worker must be released from their obsession with the self to accept the client as they are – that is, the worker must abandon their attachment to the self – which can lead the worker to accept the client as they are and form a good casework relationship.