Bogdan Lešnik

Tone Brejc treats the syndrome of professional bum-out in employment services which is in view of the increasing burdening upon those services certainly becoming a very pressing problem. Professional bum-out has been thoroughly researched by Anica Kos (whom the author doesn't fail to quote extensively) and, hopefully, we shall soon be able to publish her contribution on this subject in relation to helping services. In the proportion of divorces, Slovenia does not lag behind the most developed world, as it does not in the range of related problems. Among them, the problem of the children who are often only the victims of their parents' conflicts. Franc Udovič in his contribution, suggests the ways of mediation in these conflicts that can be applied by social workers. The next two problems that place Slovenia in the top of the world, and which are dealt with in Franc Hribernik's article, are alcoholism and fatal traffic accidents. We might only add we are facing the deadliest possible combination in traffic security: bad roads, traffic disorder, strong cars and too brave, intoxicated drivers. Janez Drobnič's contribution points out the enormous work yet to be carried out in relation to the weakest citizens of this country. The problem ranges from the protection of rights to the technical standards that include their needs to their vocational and social rehabilitation, when necessary. The article deals with only a segment of this problem, the vocational rehabilitation of the disabled as related to the possibilities opened by the privatisation of this field (albeit it would seem inappropriate to completely drive it out from the state system of education and training), so that we shall certainly return to it again. Let us mention in passing, that (in the Slovenian language) the universally applied term "invalids", though etimologically correct (meaning "weak" or "infirm"), has become so impregnated with pejorative dimensions (probably because of the connotation of "value") that it seems rather in need of a renaming. Further in this issue, there are the final episodes of the two remaining "serials". In the last part of her research on the position of women - psychiatric patients of the Ljubljana Psychiatric Clinic, Darja Zaviršek finds some structural peculiarities of the psychiatric milieu, and then defines "anthropological advocacy", that is, raises the question of what an anthropologist-researcher can do in the micro-situation she observes and in which she is personally engaged (with her points of view, etc.). In the last part of his re-thinking of subcultures and subcultural practices Milko Poštrak argues that these notions are today probably out-timed and should be replaced with the notions of "different cultural practices" and "lifestyles". Though his discussion ends here, the author already prepares new articles on the topic. After his visit at the clinic La Borde, Bogdan Lešnik wrote an article in which he compares some concepts, principles and activities of this famous and quite unique French psychoanalytic clinic for psychoses with the British reform in the field of community mental health. Many concepts developed at La Borde would remain incomprehensible without references to the works of Jacques Lacan, G. Deleuze & F. Guattari, and of course the head of the clinic, Jean Oury. Last but not least, there is another contribution by Srečo Dragoš, classified among "Documents": the first articulation of the code of professional ethics for social workers in Slovenia. Thеге are, to be sure, some formal questions that remain open even after his elaboration - e. g., who is to adopt it (although the association of social workers is an obvious choice) - but it contains solutions that will certainly have to be included into the final version, not to mention the solution to the key problem, namely, that such a code does not yet exist.

Tone Brejc

The problem of "professional burn-out", that is, the particular emotional and attitudinal state jeopardising the efficiency of "helping services", especially when it is overwhelming, has not yet been expertly scrutinised. The same is true for employment services and for their professionals who have become liable to heavy frustrations since the beginning of the economic crisis. The author describes the basic causes and contributing factors of the "professional burn-out", outlines its most characteristic forms, and presents a methodical approach to its prevention and cure. The second part of the article presents the results of a pilot study that has tested, using a questionnaire on the sample of 47 employment service workers, four factors of "professional bum-out". It has been found that with this group, "professional burn-out" is limited to the emotional exhaustion, the consequence of being overloaded with problems. Therefore, measures could be applied to improve the experiential level of professional conduct.

Franc Udovič

Children have a right to be taken care of by both parents. Consequently, the question at divorce should not be: who of the two is more suitable for further care and education of the child, but: how could both be helped to form a new, post-separation relationship with regard to their children. That relationship should enable both parents to actively perform their parental roles and thus participate at their best to the formation and development of their child's personality. Parents at divorce should be offered "help for self-help" to (again) be able to solve their conflicts in consent. Rather than by traditional approaches (administrative or legal arrangements), such help may be offered by the process of mediation. This approach promotes the parents' ability to communicate and co-operate, strengthens their self-confidence and self-esteem. It also qualifies them for responsible and autonomous decision-making in the emergence of a new, post-separation, relationship.

Franc Hribernik

The author quotes statistic data which show that alcoholic intoxication is the immediate cause of fatal traffic accidents in 6%, and of accidents involving heavy and light injuries in 6.5% (among the drivers of tractors in an even higher percentage). It is also the most frequent cause of the suspension of driving licences (in more than 95%). If, however, alcohol is considered in combination with other factors of traffic accidents (speed, style of driving, etc.), then it is involved in a quarter of all serious traffic accidents. Since these trends remain unchangeable by legal means, the author suggests direct involvement of social workers (and other professionals) in traffic education.

Janez Drobnič

As the starting point to deal with the problem of privatisation in the field of vocational rehabilitation of the disabled, the author takes a structural privatisation model, on the basis of which it is possible to analyse the attained degree of the privatisation activities, or, in accordance with the set goals, to predict the desired one. The author uses the structural model in analysing the existing situation of the privatisation of the vocational rehabilitation, and suggests ways to better solutions in practice.

Darja Zaviršek

The structural characteristics of traditional psychiatry are related to the culture in which the institution exists. Typically, the people who are in the worst state and who, because of their social position, have the least choice, get the worst treatment in it. In Slovenia, the cultural features of the psychiatric institution are: non-specialisation of procedure, empty spaces in the "continuous coverage", familialism, openness on the one hand and closeness on the other. The second part of the paper treats cultural advocacy, in the sense of understanding different languages of the involved, taking sides, mediation, understanding different cultures, forwarding messages between the world of staff and the world of patients, as well as of encouragement and empowerment for self-advocacy.

Milko Poštrak

In the final contribution on the situation in the field of subcultural studies the author briefly summarises some fundamental tendencies of those studies and then raises the question whether there is still any sense in speaking about subcultural studies. He finds it more suitable to set the research on the variety of cultures, or cultural practices (lifestyles). In this context even the research or investigation of the so-called subcultures and their significance would become more wholesome. In the author's view, anthropological knowledge is a valuable contribution to the cultural studies, as it is more and more frequently resumed, referred to, and based upon in further research, by humanistic sciences. Anthropology also contributes to a better understanding of cultures or lifestyles that are different from our own, which is of key importance for the survival of us all.

Bogdan Lešnik

The author resumes some key references used by the (psychoanalytical) clinic for psychoses La Borde (near Blois, France) and compares them with some key concepts of the British reform in the field of (community) mental health. Albeit neither different starting points nor to some extent different goals entail any significant differences in their relationships with patients, the differences observed by the author between the two "models" are nevertheless visible. They are also notable when the patients' organisations and their influence in both "models" are compared - wide, autonomous patients' movement in Britain and hospital-bound Therapeutic Club in France (at La Borde and one or two other hospitals) -, but in this respect the "models" are complementary: what they offer is an opportunity for confrontation (the former), which is a good starting point for analysis (the latter).

Darka Pečnik

Stane Padežnik

Darja Zaviršek

Srečo Dragoš

Since professionals of social work in Slovenia are still without a code of professional ethics, the author presents his draft and offers it for discussion. Initially, he scrutinises his own starting-points in seven items, drawing attention to the anti-discriminatory language, to the suitable terminology that is generally admitted in the profession, to the optimal extent of the code, to the appropriate regard for the professional autonomy, to the problem of protecting personal data, to the practical range of the norms contained in the code, and to the structure of its contents.

Bogdan Lešnik

Our International Editor, Jo Campling, has suggested that for a clearer idea about the papers in this journal, we should present them with some editorial comments, not just by habitual abstracts. The following words should thus be understood as an attempt at presenting the contributions from another angle, e. g., through the circumstances in which they appeared, through what they entail in terms of our current situation in social work, and so on. Since such an editorial is customarily written in Slovenian anyway, what remains to be done is only a translation. We hope you'll find it useful. These notes on the papers are, of course, followed by authors' abstracts. The first article, written by Blaž Mesec, scrutinises the limitations and further possibilities of evaluation of voluntary work. Beside the fact that we in this country are already witness to a burst of voluntary work which in itself sets a demand for some evaluation, it also calls for a critique of the impertinent methods of evaluation, and so many a remark and methodological grasp of the author serve the purpose of a better uriderstanding of evaluation in general. Srečo Dragoš' discussion of (the place of) systems theory in social work, based on the research into the standards of social work that has been carried out by Bernard Stritih & al. from School of Social Work, comes in this issue to an end. Zoja Skušek's study, besides being a thorough review of the most important anthropological research on the behaviour of fathers at childbirth (the couvade), is also a good illustration of how the anthropologist's own signifying patterns dictate interpretations, so that it would not be incorrect to establish, as the author indicates, an anthropology of the "anthropological thought". Such critical (self)-analysis is very much needed in social sciences and practices in general, particularly those involved with any kind of intervention into "the other" (as, for example, social work). Darja Zaviršek's records of her conversations with two psychiatric patients are followed by her sharp analytical comment on their existential situation. It is the fourth part of her anthropological research on women in the Ljubljana Psychiatric Clinic. Milko Poštrak, under the somewhat misleadingly translated title (it should rather be "The place of subcultures today"), this time treats the political dimensions of subcultures, in particular those formed around some particular type of music. A seminar on "social cultural work" that took place in School of Social Work (the publisher of this journal) brought us two articles: Lea S. Bohinc describes some principles and techniques of this work, while Milko Poštrak, to find a suitable context for it, grapples with the extensive topic of distinctions and junctures among psychology, sociology and anthropology. The seminar itself is presented in the "Reports" section of the journal. The other report, on the 27th congress of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), and the review of a noteworthy Slovenian author's sociological- cultural study, are followed by the usual series of self-presentations, based on our questionnary, of new social services in Slovenia.

Blaž Mesec

With reference to some of the concepts of the systems theory the author concludes that for an autopoetic system - that is what a volunteer projects is, or should be - to exist, it does not need evaluation but a reflexive description of what is going on inside the system. Evaluation is requested for the assessment of the functionality of the system from the standpoint of an external observer and his needs. Three approaches to evaluation are described (the experimental model, opinion polling, detailed description of activities and processes), and an original model of complex evaluation of four aspects (effort input, process, goal attaining and unintended effects) on three levels (individual, group, organisation/community) is presented in the form of an "evaluation grid".

Srečo Dragoš

Initially, the author refutes the commonest over-generalised critiques of the systems theory, surveyed in the second part of this discussion (in the previous issue of this journal), according to which it is too abstract and non-verifiable, refers to analogies, and is unsuitable for application in working with people. He points out the basic accents of the systemic approach that are particularly significant in social work: the role of communication as the elementary operation of social systems, the delimitation of (sub)systems, the distinction between "hard" (linear) and "soft" (circular) models of thinking, self-referring as a mode of organising interior and exterior complexity, the use of paradoxes, etc.

Zoja Skušek

The couvade - "father's behaviour related to the birth of a child" - is an exceptionally interesting institution for the research of fatherhood, and anthropology has always been concerned with it; the interpretation of this institution is a sort of signpost for the development of anthropological thought. The author reviews the most important interpretations, starting with Tylor's from 1865, and then in particular two significant influences in anthropological thought: the theory of an Oxonian anthropologist, Peter Riviere, who advocates the thesis of double birth, corporal (mother) and spiritual (father), and the theory of a French anthropologist, Patrick Menget, who relates the couvade with the prohibition of the incest, the former regulating the internal linkage of a social group and the latter constituting its external linkage.

Darja Zaviršek

Relating personal biographies that sum up events in a meaningful continuum of experience is rather neglected in psychiatric hospitals. But it is very important to collect life stories in which women recollect mostly negative events from their lives. The greater part of the article consists of conversations with two women who have the experience of class deprivation and their husbands' violence. Both are under the impact of the patriarchal ideology and both have to fight for their rights while dividing joint property with their husbands. One is also marked with her ethnic origin which reinforces her alienation from the culture where she lives. Psychiatry is for them a "retirement from unbearable conditions" which they enter as a consequence of "disordered nerves" brought about by a variety of deprivations.

Milko Poštrak

Subcultural practices have always been ascribed political undertones. Yet the question whether a subcultural form involving a specific way of life (spectacular as it may be) has any real political power should be answered in the negative. The political dimensions of a given (sub)cultural practice can be read on the symbolic level, i. e., on the level of sign, attitude, manifestation, and on the level of reality, i. e., how a social group organises itself politically in relation with a pattern of (sub)cultural behaviour. The reverse may also be true: the pattern may represent one (innovative) dimension of the political organisation of a given social group. In any case, the political significance of a cultural practice is real - actually producing effects - only in the context of a social movement, but even as such, without this reference, it is an important dimension of human survival.

Lea Šugman Bohinc

At School of Social Work in Ljubljana the field of "social cultural work" has been developed, using creative cultural activities in the form of "social work with drama, movement-and-dance, art, music and video". The author presents social cultural work from a few selected aspects: why social work with creative cultural activities; the performers and the users in the system of social cultural work; a circular model of planning and performing social cultural activities; a model of social cultural work in groups; the knowledge, competence and qualities needed to perform social work with creative cultural activities.

Milko Poštrak

With consideration of, and assistance by, psychological, sociological and anthropological knowledge about the entities called individual, society and culture, which are roughly covered by the said disciplines, the author offers a multiplex and comprehensive theoretical basis of relating to the multi-layered phenomenon of human existence. To rely on social theorists who always take into consideration the entwinement of these entities or aspects of human existence plays an important part in the theory of social work as well. Thus the article presents one possible general theoretical starting-points for the so-called social cultural work that is being gradually introduced into the curriculum of School of Social Work.

Sonja Čandek, Matej Puhan Vukovič

Darja Zaviršek

Milko Poštrak

Bogdan Lešnik

This issue is introduced by articles from the consultation of the Section for Mental Health Promotion within Alpe-Adria Association on compulsory hospitalisation in three nearby regions. The block was edited by Biljana Dušić. Some of Bruno Norcia's and Lorenzo Toresini's findings in their article are really surprising, emphasizing the unusual legal balance between compulsory and voluntary hospitalization in Slovenia. Another article by the same authors deals with concepts of Italian legislation covering the field of psychiatry, that arise from a rather altered aproach on the issue of "helpless subjects". Those concepcts can be useful information for us. Based on the principles of normalization, Vito Flaker in his article develops a risk analysis of potential harm that might happen to a client/patient of an institution. At the same time, he notices how a "risk" that something bad might happen to a client is often just a pretext of institution of not allowing him anything. Risk analysis is a rational procedure which, on the one hand, should release the caretaker of worried, excessive guardianship (hyper protectism) over the client and, on the other hand, free the client of being subjected to the rigor of an "expert" in the name of some uncertain, all-encompassing jeopardy. The Danilo Sedmak's contribution is set autobiographical. He describes his experience through three operating models of the Trieste psychiatric hospital and emphases the phenomenological approach of rescue from mental distress. The same aproach - through some concepts and distances - is processed by Tanja Lamovec in the following article. The next paper is no longer a part of the previous block, but the theme is strongly related to it: Vesna Švab and Nace Kovač are devising a concrete, very pragmatic model of community care for psychiatric patients, which might well become a role model. Here once again we can see how in Slovenia practice outruns the theory, which some practitioners even knowingly deny, in the sense: we do not have time to philosophize, we have too much work to do. However, it is precisely for this reason that the relations between legal bases, psychiatric doctrine and social work in the field of mental health remain unclear and also conflicting. For example, as long as a distinction between a psychiatric patient and a mental patient as a term in Slovene language is not known and recognized by us, we are unlikely to be able to distinguish between the legal problem concerning the status (and rights) of to the medical assessment subordinated subject, and phenomenological issues concerning the nature of mental suffering (as Danilo Sedmak puts it). But if we do not know how to distinguish them, we'll certainly not understand the link between them. The article by Darja Zaviršek, as we are already used by the author, focuses exclusively on women, which acts as a counterweight to their often neglected position. Milko Poštrak, in his review of the theories on subcultures, also finds ignored position of women. According to their theoretical provenance, the last two papers falls into the scope of sociological-anthropological-ethnological discourse. Lessons from this field (or, more precisely, these fields) are very important for social work, as they highlight the cultural practices, part of which is also social work. This includes the article of Zoja Skušek on how men are giving birth to a child. It seems that the seemingly bizarre indigenous phenomenon has an echo in the everyday life of so-called civilized societies. Learn more about the couvade syndrom in the author's study, to be published in the next issue. Finally, the Srečo Dragoš' article, returns us to the more immediate issues of social work, if we simplify slightly, about its autoreflexion and its status - the key questions for each profession, certainly also for those who "work with people".

Bruno Norcio, Lorenzo Toresini

The authors present their analysis of a joint research on the epidemiology of compulsory hospitalisation in the three Alpe-Adria regions (Trieste, Gorizia and Pordenone in Italy, Klagenfurt in Austria, and Ljubljana with surroundings in Slovenia) in 1992. The origin and the purpose of the Section for enhancing mental health of the Alpe-Adria Association and the historical development of psychiatric approaches in the three regions are briefly noted, before the description of methods, employed in the research, and the results are presented and discussed. It seems that in the region with an ongoing process of deinstitutionalisation there is a consistent decrease in the number of compulsory hospitalisations. The dynamics of these figures depend also on the legislation in an individual region. The research shows an international tendency to reform legislation as a conséquence of the crisis of the traditional psychiatric paradigm.

Bruno Norcio, Lorenzo Toresini

The authors first describe the socio-political background of the legal changes from 1978 and then present in detail the part of legislation related to psychiatry. They consider the key theoretical is.sues redefined by the new law, i.e.: the question of danger, the relationship between the protection of society and patients' rights, and the relationship between a patient's cure and his/her social integration. Finally, the authors briefly compare legal measures in the field of psychiatry among the three Alpe-Adria regions, and conclude that the social development (reflected in the legal attitude of society to psychiatric patients as weak subjects), rather homogenous in the first half of this century, took rather different paths in the second.

Vito Flaker

The author presents the procedure of risk analysis that has been developed to measure the probability of danger in cases of compulsory hospitalisation, as well as of community care. The procedure distinguishes between threat and danger as the components of risk. This distinction is important not only because it allows a more realistic assessment of the degree of risk, but also because it allows a better understanding of both the situation of risk and decision-making in such situations. The procedure may lead to less paternalism and to the considerations of the tactics of reducing risk. Paradigmatically, this procedure, introduced in particular by social work, is a significant step forward from the traditional quasi causal models of medicine and law.

Danilo Sedmak

The author describes his professional experience as a clinical psychologist in Trieste. The period of thirty years includes the three characteristic stages in the development of the Triestan psychiatry: the traditional stage, the stage of transformation, and the stage of territorial psychiatry. The author summarizes the specific features of these periods through an experiential approach and in describing the third, present stage, he considers some current projects of the Mental Health Centre in Nabrežina. He emphasises the so-called objectivation of psychiatric service users as a peril which in spite of conscious efforts on the part of psychiatric workers remains inherent in the professional and institutional confrontation with mental illness.

Tanja Lamovec

The author presents the phenomenological approach to a deeper understanding of the acute mental distress and a more efficent help. First, she describes the historical development of phenomenological ideas and mentions a few key authors. Next, she explains the phenomenological views on the significance, place and value of immediate experiential communication among people, which the author offers as an instrument in the process of learning about the person in mental distress. Some dimensions of phenomenological research are illustrated by way of the cases of typical phenomena at depression, mania and schizophrenia, and the article is concluded with a list of possibilities offered by the phenomenological view.

Vesna Švab, Nace Kovač

The authors describe the established forms of care for mentally ill in Slovenia and assess their efficacy and developmental capacities. They present a model of community care for persons with psychoses, suitable to the circumstances and possibilities, and review the necessary elements of community care. The basis of community care is the link among various institutions, professionals, users and their relatives. The authors argue for the sectorisation of care. They describe the established coordinations and their efficacy in providing greater authonomy and normalisation of psychiatric patients.

Darja Zaviršek

Characteristic for the social situation of female psychiatric patients is that they have a meagre and scarce social network. Most of their social contacts are linked to the institution, yet these institution-linked contacts are ordinarily not extended to "private" contacts, that is, the patients do not habitually associate out of the hospital. Some results of a questionnaire applied by the author to a group of female patients are presented. They show, for instance, that almost half of the group have experienced physical violence from their relatives. In particular, the problem of isolation is scrutinized. The author finds discrimination in institution to manifest itself in the length of time spent on a patient by the staff, and concludes by linking her experience at research to Goffman's analysis of the psychiatric institution.

Milko Poštrak

In the third part of his notes on subcultures the author attempts to place the notion of subculture within a wider framework of culture or even of everyday life. Before embarking upon an integral analysis, he makes a brief survey of the evolvement of research of, and ideas about, the juvenile, from - especially American - the theories of deviance since the first decades of this century and the related theories of youth culture, to the origins of, and later, to developed theories of subculture, to multilevel investigations of subcultures and youth cultures in the framework of modern culturological studies, based on anthropological and ethnological knowledge. The author also indicates some criticism to the recent approaches.

Zoja Skušek

The author finds that most traditional cultures ritually regulate fathers' behaviour at the time of child expectancy. Our culture has suppressed the father's part in pregnancy and early childhood; there is no expression in the Slovenian for the man who expects a baby, and other languages coin just as awkward expressions, such as expecting father, le devenir-pere etc. However, the suppressed strikes back. The studies on the subject reveal that fathers in so-called modern societies react to child expectancy with different ways of behaviour. Some have been labelled "pathological" by psychiatry, and they have not yet been included by medicine among the "normal" signs of child expectancy.

Srečo Dragoš

Attention is paid mainly to three questions: the significance of the global social change for the profession of social work, the (in)significance of eclecticism in the theory of social work, and the (in)applicability of the systemic approach. Dealing with the first question, the author points out those influential global movements which concern the transformation of the dominant forms of power in a society, the mode of social integration, and the character of the state. He argues in favour of the other two questions, finding the eclectic approach useful (and necessary) and the system theory applicable in social work. Relating to some important distinctions introduced into social work by the system approach, the research Normatives and standards in social work by Bernard Stritih (published by School for Social Work, 1993) is reviewed.

Milko Poštrak

Vesna Leskošek

Darja Zaviršek

Bogdan Lešnik

This issue introduces two articles that deal with the general position of social work and its training. Vesna Leskošek emphasizes so far, perhaps too vague, self-evident or evocative difference between control and assistance functions. Srečo Dragoš is tackling the model of mastering the growing complexity of the profession in the light of system theory. In the second part of her article, Darja Zaviršek tackles the symbolic structures of a psychiatric institution; in particular, we draw attention to the excellent contribution to an object that could be called an "anthropology of time". Otherwise, the article launches a wider block of papers on groups of people with special needs and their "institutions". Tanja Lamovec again draws attention to the needs of psychiatric patients, with the aim of advocacy being established as normal service. Louis Šprohar from his personal experience describes the institution for the blind, and notes that, despite the fact that it should not be a penal nor correctional institution, disciplining remains its important function. If we compare it with the "disciplinary center" for adolescents, described by Ida Bulatovič, we can see that for the latter ones may even be easier: because, specifically for the penitentiary institution, it is possible to soften the reeducation methods, which is not possible in the previous case, since it should not be about this ... Thematic block is concluded by Franc Hribernik's article on the elderly peasant population, of whom "social institution" is mostly their own household - as long as there is solidarity in it. The articles section in this issue ends with the second part of the Milko Poštrak's discussion on subcultures, which can be considered as a contribution to increasingly important anthropology of everyday life. In the following we are publishing a somewhat older interview of Dare Božič with Franco Trautman, who will present us the official position towards drugs and action in relation to them in the Netherlands, and two reports: (again) the Dutch model of social and cultural planning described by Nina Rode, and Biljana Dušic's report from the section for promotion mental health of the Alps-Adriatic Society on forced hospitalization. In the following we are publishing a somewhat older interview of Dare Božič with with Franco Trautman, who will present us the official position towards drugs and action in relation to them in the Netherlands, and two reports - (again) the Dutch model of social and cultural planning described by Nino Rode, and Biljana Dušić's report from the section for mental health promotion of the Alps-Adriatic Society on involuntary hospitalization. Author of the report is editing a block of papers from this consultation, which will be presumably published in the next issue, as well as a block of papers from the consultation on social cultural work, edited by Milko Poštrak.

Vesna Leskošek

The author deals with the sensitive topic of the conflict between the roles of control and counselling in social work. To explain the conflict, she applies the concepts of deviance, welfare and social control. Due to the concept of welfare state and the welfare concept of deviance, classical institutions are more in the role of controlling than of offering help. Since main social functions have been taken over by the state, the information on the people's interests and needs is spreading among the institutions rather than coming from the people themselves. The institutions deal with the information on the deviation from the "normal" rather than on the actual needs. Consequently, the response of the institutions is mainly directed towards the correction of individuals and not towards a suitable social action that would satisfy the actual interests and needs of individuals and the community.

Srečo Dragoš

Since the development of the profession of social work as well as its circumstances feature growing complexity, the system approach is becoming more and more important. Therefore, it is essential to introduce and use the distinctions by which a (professional) system facilitates its own outward and inward orientation. To differentiate outward (i. e., towards the surroundings) is necessary for overcoming the functional interdependence by the interpénétration of the systems, which is particularly relevant in the Slovenian circumstances. To differentiate inward, however, is necessary for a self-orientation or an organisation of the internal complexity of the system that enables its reproduction. The author demonstrates the first with an example of the integration of the profession of social work into European currents, while the criteria of the British association for social work serve as an instance of the second.

Darja Zaviršek

The second part of the study is an analysis of the symbolic structures of the institution. A psychiatric hospital is a limited place charged with stigma, in which different spaces determine the mode of communication and encode social situations. The space with the strongest symbolic significance is the one designed for isolation, being the space of punishment and therapeutic intervention at once. There the process of ego mortification is the most powerful. A particular culture of time governs the institution and transforms users into a waiting group whose time has a lesser value than the time of the staff. In the psychiatric institution, a waiting culture is produced. The symbolic organisation of the institution is linked to unconscious mechanisms of overcoming anxiety.

Tanja Lamovec

The article describes the psychic injuries that originate from psychiatric hospitalisation as well as how an advocate can help relieving them. These injuries are: drug dependence, life-long stigmatisation, low self-esteem and self-confidence, reinforcement of a "false ego", repeated suppression of a "felt ego", altered relationships with family, friends and at workplace, and loss of goals in life. The article stresses on the counselling work of the advocate, but his range of action is much wider, including legal and psychosocial interventions into the user's surroundings. The basic goal of advocacy is to redirect power towards the user, so that he may gain as much control as possible over his own life.

Luj Šprohar

The article deals with the ways of control and punishment in the second half of the sixties in the Establishment for blind and weak-sighted youth in Ljubljana. The Establishment had all the attributes of a mild prison, even though the inmates were there only on account of their disability. They experienced their selection and segregation as a major injustice and mistake on the part of the society, but also as self-understood. This situation has not met any essential changes. The blind people are still educated in institutions established and organised specially for them, they are still separated from their natural domestic environment, they are still alienated from their peers; the consequences are the inferiority complex and the absence of a social immune system.

Ida Bulatovič

The Juvenile Disciplinary Centre was established in Maribor in 1967 as a special service of the Social Work Centre. The activities are basically preventive, aiming to solve the juveniles' developmental problems that often result in criminal actions. Using suitable methods and techniques, they include: finding and encouraging, together with the juvenile, his/her strong points; work on re-establishing dialogue within the family, verbalising their current problems and conflicts; and finally, helping the juvenile to realize his or her expectations and the expectations of others.

Franc Hribernik

The number of aged peasants who need various forms of social care has increased rapidly along the process of demographic ageing. The care for the aged peasants is in most cases left to the traditional intergenerational solidarity within the individual household on the farm. When aged peasants are left to themselves on their farms, unable to take care of themselves, general social institutions and in some cases social asylums take them in. In the period between 1980-1992, among 9,704 persons institutionalised in general social institutions 8.5% were peasants by profession, while in special social asylums, the share was 7,1% of 992. The number of persons institutionalised in the general social institutions is rapidly growing, and among all the peasants, there are more women (56%). However, the number of persons institutionalized in special social asylums remains fairly constant; among all the peasants, men are more numerous (62%).

Milko Poštrak

In this sequel of his considerations of subcultures, the author attempts to place them within a wider concept of culture. He cites, briefly, the historical survey of the origin and development of the more contemporary struggle with cultural variety. In particular, he considers the notion of cultural segmentation as related to the conflict and contrast between the so-called "ehte" and "popular" culture. In this framework, the author endeavours, by citing the views of other theorists, to show the complexity and controversy of such dualist distinctions, as well as the difficulties of defining the phenomenon of subculture or popular culture as such. In conclusion, he introduces rock and roll as the starting point for the next sequel.

Dare Božič

Nino Rode

Biljana Dušić

Bogdan Lešnik

Here is the first Issue of the Volume 33 (1994). Six Issues will be published this year. The last will be an international, in English, with selected articles by domestic and foreign authors on new psychosocial activities of East and West. It will be consisted not only of translated articles, but also of first published original scientific articles by some foreign authors. Since this Issue has to financially cover itself, it is slightly more expensive. However we do hope that we'll soon get the approved funds for 1994 so the following ones can be cheaper. In this Issue a wide variety of papers is presented. We sincerely hope in the future Journal there is even more diversity, by lots of interviews, an extra reader's letter perhaps, or even some professional polemic, etc. Of course, the articles on the theory and practice of social work and the related fields remain the skeleton of our Journal. In the current year the Journal Socialno Delo is about to settle the debts that were inherited from the times when the Journal wasn't published regularly and papers, ready for publication, began to accumulate. Many of them is still actual; for others authors have decided to rewrite them. In his paper Blaž Mesec deals with interesting aspects of action research showing us how the action research with a more rigorous conceptual and methodological limitation - after cleansing it of ideological coats - can be a very useful research tool. Sonja Borštnar gives us a good overview of contemporary evaluation efforts. The topic is associated with a wide range of issues, which also appear further in the Journal. Nada Stropnik points out that voluntary work can not be easily defended from the economic aspect, since the calculation is not really that simple. For the good definition of its other qualities yet we are waiting. Lučka Lorber, Ivan Lorencic and Majda Wozniak shared with us their experience, which is, as it seems, positive, but not yet satisfactorily evaluated. However this is related to the fact that their methodology and the conceptualisation of evaluation are still in work. Milko Poštrak in his paper presents an introduction to his research of (especially youth) subcultures. The knowledge of concrete subcultures and a general understanding of their role and function in the social structure are necessary for anyone working in the field of social work and any related fields - only this way he can comprehend that he doesn't operate within a mentally and valuably homogeneous world. Darja Zaviršek continues her anthropological research from the perspective of "women's studies"; this time she presents to us a department in a psychiatric hospital and a life story related to it as a habitus or as a determinant of the patient's life. Of all the other contributions, we would draw your attention to the project Srečo Dragoš has been working on within the Journal - processing of questionnaires, which we sent to the providers of contemporary psychosocial activities. We are publishing questionnaires for the public for informative purposes only, since they are usually not easy accessible and also for the overview of activities that actually exist in our country.

Blaž Mesec

Action research is neither a general methodological approach in the sense of an "emancipation research" or a "new paradigm research" nor, strictly speaking, a research method. It is a way of organizing research for practical use, and its basic characteristic is that the time-space and social distances between researcher and practitioner are much reduced. Thus it is a functional relationship, a kind of developmental research and organizational counselling, open to various epistemological and methodological approaches. A model of AR is presented with a conceptualization of the functions of the approach, of the relationship between researcher and practitioner, of the principles of research and counselling, and of the processes of the production of knowledge, problem-solving and learning.

Sonja Borštnar

The author describes the general development of evaluation research and explains its success despite criticism it was exposed to by its applicability, not merely as experimental research. She defines evaluation particularly as related to the expectations from it, to its purpose and the position of the evaluator. Evaluation of social programmes is studied in detail, stressing the notion of self-evaluation.

Nada Stropnik

Comparisons between costs for social services offered by different sectors are not reliable, if they do not take into account quantitative and qualitative features of the services as well as the whole expenditure they produce. The difference between the costs may be ascribed to different efficacy only if the same services are compared. The voluntary sector seems to be cheaper, if the value or the opportunitative costs of voluntary work are not considered. As data confirm, cost elements that are not related to personnel, hardly contribute to the entire difference between the costs of services performed by different sectors.

Lučka Lorber, Ivan Lorenčič, Majda Wozniak

The chief purpose of organizing voluntary social work is to find and establish ways of inviting social groups to active contribution to modelling and changing our society, and helping volunteering pupils to their personal growth. The pupil undertaking social work is supposed to develop his/her capabilities and evolve into wholesome personality, capable of a productive life in society and a humane relationship with fellow humans.

Milko Poštrak

The author reflects upon contemporary urban subcultures. His contribution is framed by a wider range of considerations about the human being as one of the most complicated fenomena, and by the context of the relationship among the entities individual-culture-society. He briefly surveys the origin and the first usage of the term, and then quotes several key authors who have been dealing with these questions in the most extensive and profoundest way. Arange of terms is listed that are used in this framework and which demonstrate the complexity of the topic. In conclusion to the contribution (introduction to a series), a plausible interpretation of the origin of subculture is offered.

Darja Zaviršek

The article is based on anthropological research at the women's department of the psychiatric hospital in Ljubljana. The first part of the study deals with culturally specific and gender determined forms of mental distress. In Slovenia, it is characteristic for men to be dependent on alcohol and commit suicide, and for women, to be depressed and to attempt suicide. Since the traditional peasant mentality is prevailing, people somatize their distress and seldom talk in idioms of psychic feelings. The described cultural model is important for the microanalysis of female users of the psychiatric hospital and for the planning of new psychosocial services. The research proceeded in the forms of questionnary, collecting life stories and key events as well as in the form of engaged observation. A reflection of the research proves that anthropological research is always in the cross-section between the biographies of "the others" and one's own autobiography. To collect biographies is to shift the boundary between the researcher and the informer; it is to mediate among different realities. However, the very listening to individual stories and languages can lead us to uncover the needs of different groups of psychiatry users.

Bogdan Lešnik

Work on advocacy of psychiatric patients and considers the practical and conceptual frames of the title subject. He finds the project to include possibly antagonistic activities. In his view, advocacy is basically a critical and reflexive activity of articulating, promoting and safeguarding the rights of psychiatric patients, following the "principle of justice" as opposed to - and sometimes opposing to - the "principle of need" ruling the manifold forms of security, care and help. The essay contains numerous general remarks on the used terminology and remarks to the linguistic aspects of the topic.

Darja Zaviršek

Tanja Lamovec

Srečo Dragoš

A questionnaire (18 questions) was distributed among 48 social services which represent an innovation in this country and have been developed over the last four years. The questionnaire was designed for the (self)presentation of the interested respondents; it basic purpose, however, is information for the users, the services themselves, and the general public.

Srečo Dragoš