The Social Worker as ‘Bad Object’

Abstract

SUMMARY A 'bad object' has been defined as an 'object whom the subject hates or fears, who is experienced as malevolent. A bad object may be either an internal or an external object' (Rycroft, 1988, p. 100). This paper explores the circumstances in which public fears and anxieties over child abuse become projected into the social worker. It discusses how social workers introject these feelings, become a 'bad object', and how social services departments have developed a number of strategies which defend against feelings of blame and responsibility. The exploration is derived from my own experi ences and observations, and applies Kleinian psychoanalytic theory to studies of institutional defences. Twelve years ago I qualified as a social worker. At the time I was idealistic and thought that social workers helped people, people who were temporarily down on their luck. Though I had a certain ambival ence towards the public sector, and the large bureaucracies of social services departments, I was not aware then, as I am now, of how such organizations reproduce the nature of the social work task, and how, on a day-to-day level, social workers are obliged to contend not only with the anxiety, anger and hostility of the 'client' but also with that of the public, informed by the media's criticism of social work practice within the child abuse field.