Walker Final Proof - SAGE Publications Ltd

1 SYSTEMS THEORYINTRODUCTIONOne of the earliest references to social work and systems theory goes as far back as the mid-1970s (Forder, 1976). At that time the theory was being articulated most notably in works seeking to provide social workers with a unitary model of practice (see Goldstein, 1973; Pincus and Minahan, 1974), one that could offer a holistic framework within which to place social work practice. Social work as a new profession was evolving and experimenting with ideas from psychology, sociology and social policy to try to find an identity and set of skills based on solid theories: as a result there was a lot of effort expended into creating a professional identity, value base and intellectual framework that could explain what social work was. This debate has continued ever since, mediated through changes in society, economic upheavals, population trends and legal and educational developments.

mainly medical and pharmacological treatments towards adopting in the 1960s what we now refer to as ‘talking therapies’. One of the important factors that stimulated the embryonic ideas that were to grow into a new form of social work was the need to build upon the traditional psychoanalytic model of individual therapy.

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