Critique of Articles
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The development of social work has provided society with a better way to look at people with needs and also the individual that do not seem to tow the lines. In recent years social work has been focused more on trying to bridge the gap between the extreme cases of those that are seen as rejects and the normal society. In trying to look at these issues, several scholars have focused on the diverse area. Bouchard et al. (2020) put more emphasis on the need to look at social from a religious perspective. Based on Christian teaching, one should be the neighbour’s keeper. That is, we should all take responsibility for helping the people that are needed in our societies. Such people might include the poor, the sick and even the widowed—this quite a good starting point when we think about social work. Foucault (2013) goes further and looks at social work from the disciplinary work perspective. The basis of the confinement was to take away the individual that are asocial. The focuses are to ensure that this individual that is not willing to live in peace with others are expelled. However, as these people are expelled most are left to their destruction. He seems to argue that confinement facilities should not be structured in such away. The focus should not take away these individuals but rather to rehabilitate them and bring them back to society. Further analysis of Nordberg (2016), a professor at the University of Texas highlights the need to look at the criminal justice system concerning the issue of mental health. When people are behind bars, they are often faced with a myriad of matter that can eventually lead to them to desperation and thus suffer from mental health problems. As it has been argued before, by Foucault, (2013), these people are not rejected in society but are only undergoing a process of realignment. Therefore, the need to deal with the mental health issue within this facility is of great concern. The focus must be no pointing out these cases early enough and seeking to have mitigated measures within the correctional system. Lastly, Foucault (2008) offers an insight to be the birth of the penitentiary system. The reason that the system was first designed was to keep away individuals that had contracted the plague. Therefore, the idea of the correctional system was wrong from conception. Over the years, there has not been much change in the way to look at penal systems.
From a social work perspective, people in the correctional system are just any other normal beings and thus need help. Therefore, a social worker should be involved in providing assessment interventions services for prisoners they should conduct individual counselling, provide treatment assessment of the appropriate program and facilitate groups programs. It is such approaches that can help to make prison life more habitable for these people even as they serve their time.
Synopsis
This chapter looks at the power struggle in a society based on the experience that Cassandra and Sera went through. Through Foucault theory, the author provides insight into why this power structure exists. In trying to explain the basis of the idea of the power he argues that the major problem lies in the way management is defined. Those that feel have administration thinks that they can wilt it on their subjects without any limits. He thus suggests that power should be less prohibitive and repressive. Power should be something that produces discourse, forms of knowledge, and induces pleasure. After defining what powers is, he goes ahead to offer insight on what it means to think with power. From his perspective individual with power are those that are knowledgeable, and thus when thinking, they are more informed by reason. Therefore such individuals can decide more informed ways. It is such thinking that can be termed as thinking with power.
References
Bouchard, L. M., Kye Price, S., & Swan, L. E. (2020). The Role of the Contemporary Christian Church in the Rural American South: Philosophical Approaches to Operationalizing Religion in Research. Social Work & Christianity, 47(2).
Foucault, M. (2013). History of madness. Routledge.
Nordberg, A. (2016). Therapeutic governmentality and biopower in a Canadian mental health court. BioSocieties, 11(2), 240-261.
Foucault, M. (2008). Panopticism” from” Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 2(1), 1-12.
Jackson, A. Y., & Mazzei, L. (2011). Thinking with theory in qualitative research: Viewing data across multiple perspectives. Routledge.