Abstract
Rereading can be a welcome experience and a joyous return to an old friend (Staller, 2009), especially when the old friend is ourselves, and we are returning to a particular moment in our own life journey, that we yearn to explore again. Rereading can also be a chance to see if influential texts from the past, even if we have not read them prior, still maintain their relevance to current social work practice and research; or if the ideas are too imbedded in time and place to offer new insights. Seminal works lie at the foundation of each of our research areas, and within the contemporary writings of others it is referenced, whether or not we have ever touched the original source material. But sometimes it is great fun to touch the source! How might we enter into these old texts then and engage with their content, appreciate their contextual influence on the study of social and psychological problems recognized in the past, and enlist that understanding for support of social work skills needed today for the same problems?
The two books reviewed in this issue, The Unadjusted Girl (1923) and Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl (1951) share the use of case-based learning for exploration of profound social and psychological concerns in young women. The case study method is a detailed contextual analysis of a contemporary issue, and we are fortunate to have many studies like the two mentioned here, to explore again and re-analyze in the light of current contexts. Both qualitative and quantitative research prioritize the use of the complex learning within a single case to train new generations of scholars across disciplines—research strategies can overlap in case design and data collection. The research lens for data analyses will always rely on one’s discipline as well as methods training. There are many ways to interpret data.
During this past year, I encountered two social work scholars who were interested in returning to old texts to examine old cases and theories to see what might be revealed. The books mentioned above were written during the first half of the 20th century and focused on young women as subjects. Both books held interest for me, because as a schizophrenia researcher, I own an original copy of Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl, plucked from the shelves of the famous Powell’s Books in Portland, OR; and The Unadjusted Girl, although a new book for me, my social work field experiences and early post-MSW life were spent in residential treatment facilities for delinquent youth in NY and LA, sensitizing me to the content.
The Unadjusted Girl, ably reviewed by Roberta Sands, arose from the sociological heartland of Chicago, epitomized by the well-known researchers of the Chicago School of Sociology, who were interested in many human conditions. The Unadjusted Girl finds its subject matter in an area that is still of research and clinical interest today—delinquency and illegal sexual activity. The subjects of this book are all girls under 21 who are remanded to El Retiro, an experimental school for correctional education in Los Angeles. The “experiment” seemed to be whether these girls once treated would turn to prostitution in their adult lives, or would they have the ability to shift to conventional work of the time. Freud’s theories were the contextual container for viewing the girls at El Retiro, in much the same way that we will see Renée—the schizophrenic girl—through the lens of the psychoanalyst. It was thought that repression of sexual drives was the foundation for many negative behaviors from delinquency to mental illness. What WI Thomas brings to the reader in The Unadjusted Girl is the understanding that we have the research tools in the form of observation, interview, and document review to peel back the layers of even the most challenging social problem. The revelation for the researcher—we can study delinquency!
The early to mid-20th century brought a confluence of events and social movements that began to crack open the door for women. Many women shed traditional expectations in the US and Europe and joined suffragette movements, lobbied for educational opportunities, and found a firm place in the care of the poor and immigrants through the charity and settlement house movements of the era. The girl scouts were formed, not just as a traditional social club, but emphasized education, self-reliance, athleticism, leadership and business skills for girls, and had a strong connection with Jane Addams and Hull House. For girls who did not have a secure childhood or who had mental health concerns, the future was not as optimistic. Work out of the home was still irregular and dangerous—often in a factory or as a domestic. Wages were always lower than men because women’s income was viewed as secondary income. Asylums were created for “fallen women”—where girls were expected to labor without pay, to be subject to physical and emotional abuse, and to sever ties to family and community. There are accounts of many girls in these asylums who were neither prostitutes nor mentally ill, but experienced as a burden to their families, and put away.
Ivette Rodriguez-Santana became intrigued with The Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl because of her training in the model of Jaques Lacan, a French psychoanalyst, who links psychoanalysis and social theories. Her review reminds the reader that reading a good case can not only make the reader uncomfortable with the details of the individual’s story, and cheer for their integrity and courage but can also allow us as social workers a platform to visualize how the person in this historic case might be treated with today’s interventions. As Rodrigues-Santana points out in the review, it is also about how the individual labels themselves—a notion which is strongly present in today’s work with persons with schizophrenia.
I hope that the idea of returning to seminal texts in any area of social work, invites all who read these reviews to grab a foundational text and a notebook, linger with the ideas of a time that has passed us by, and let emerge an appreciation for the practice and research threads that connect us.