In an editorial entitled Words Create Worlds, Hartman (1991) introduced postmodernism to the field of social work and suggested that this philosophy has important implications for social workers. Her focus was primarily social work education. The aim of this article is to expand her discussion of postmodernism. Postmodernism is a linguistic theory that proposes that the social world cannot be treated as an objective system. As a result, the traditional focus of intervention must be rethought. Specifically, practitioners should become aware of the way in which reality is linguistically constructed by individuals or groups. Postmodern Culture As noted by Hartman (1991), a specific theory of is central to postmodernism. This theory was pioneered by Wittgenstein (1963) and later advanced by Lyotard (1984); all knowledge is understood to be derived from language games. Language is no longer thought merely to convey information but is believed to thoroughly mediate everything that is known. What is recognized as social reality, therefore, is a matter of definition and conceptualization. This reality is not obtrusively objective but is fully interpretive. Lacan (1977) captured this sentiment nicely when he wrote that truth is a product of use rather than something that is objective and universal. Because of this inability to avoid the influence of interpretation, the traditional concept of culture as an all-encompassing system is defunct. Often culture is assumed to consist of rules, laws, mores, and expectations that are not subject to much interpretation. In fact, order is preserved by discouraging interpretation. The work of social philosopher Emile Durkheim (Alpert, 1961) epitomized this viewpoint, especially when he claimed that morality can be preserved only by norms that exist sui generis. There may be various cultures, but according to this outlook each one consists of objective indices that form a unified whole. Clearly postmodernists reject this notion of culture. Rather than being understood to revolve around traditionally objective standards, culture should be viewed as invented or created. Human values, beliefs, and commitments, taken together to form praxis, are the core of social existence. Some critics of postmodernism have argued that culture is destroyed because of this theoretical demarche. As a result of the persuasiveness of interpretation, culture is not substantial and is thus insignificant as a means for ensuring social cohesiveness. Postmodernists, on the other hand, claim that just the opposite is true. Given the interpretive character of social existence, values, commitments, and expectations become valuable for substantiating reality. Accordingly, understanding the interpretive cement that sustains certain norms holds the key to explaining behavior. Intervention does not escape postmodernism unscathed. Knowledge, social imagery, and conceptions of the client, which are all vital to social work practice, are changed as a consequence of this philosophy. Their usual status as empirical entities must be rethought, given the adherence of postmodernists to the thesis that reality is interpretively constructed. Knowledge Usually social phenomena such as health, illness, and normalcy are identified strictly in empirical terms. Demographic, physiological, or other so-called objective indicators are used for this purpose. But from a postmodern perspective, facts are not simply objective. Something as complex as mental illness or criminality, for example, cannot be explained with respect to biological, psychological, or social markers (Murphy & Pilotta, 1987). What is overlooked by these approaches, according to postmodernists, is how people or communities construct the dimensions of normalcy through the use of language. Through the exercise of discursive practices, writes Foucault (1989), a distinction is made between fact and fiction, truth and error, and normalcy and abnormality. …