Semiotic and hermeneutic aspects of rhetoric in social work

One of the basic principles in the field of helping professions is effective communication with the client.

Since every communication takes place on two basic levels - verbal and non-verbal - mastery of basic skills and competences in rhetoric on the part of the social worker contributes significantly to its effectiveness. The ability to deal adequately with the verbalized form of information should be part of the basic equipment of every social worker who cares about not only perception, but above all adequate apperception at the end of the communication channel towards the client.

Rhetoric as a science provides basic theoretical knowledge about correct speech communication and points to specific means that lead to the aestheticization of expression. Knowledge of rhetoric creates a theoretical basis, which is one of the main prerequisites for developing speech-communicative skills. In addition to other functions, rhetoric also fulfills a mediating function, between language theory and concrete living language practice (Gallo, 2004).

Social work as communication at the level of communicator, communicator, communicator

In the basic communication model communicator – communicator – communicator, the social worker is in the position of communicator, his therapeutic work with the client is the communicator, and the client himself is the communicator.

Since the means of communication include non-verbal signals, signs, contexts, symbols and codes in addition to verbal signals, we reach the field of semiotics and hermeneutics, the basic principles of which are commonly used in social work, although the communicator, i.e. the social worker, is usually not aware of them. Such communication is not abstract, but becomes an action with a certain level of activity, that is, it is effective and cancels the distance between the communicator and the communicator (Jakobson - Halle, 2002).

The above-mentioned fact that the basic means of communication include non-verbal signals in addition to verbal signals also applies to rhetoric, which in its complexity cannot do without accentuating all signs, contexts, symbols and codes. These must necessarily be reflected in the final form of the communication, which, taking into account all non-verbal signals, not only fully describes the essence of the idea, but also gives it another dimension, which can be identified if the communicator says about the communication that it has a "soul, color, smell, or spark". In other words: the communiqué does not sound simplistic and flat, but has a depth and breadth that transcends itself and positively affects the other levels of the relationship between the social worker and the client, which are fully completed and completed by it.

Applying the idea of ​​Jakobson and Halle (2002) that effective communication cancels the distance between the communicator and the communicator, in the case of therapeutic work with the client, we come to the fact that this distance is not only canceled, but turns into a relationship based on mutual respect and trust.

According to Gadamer (1976), apperception is understanding, or the ability to have an understanding of something. This ability belongs to the basic equipment of a person and is the basic cornerstone of his coexistence with other people. It takes place primarily in speech and mutual communication. It is therefore not only a mechanical reception of the communicated content, which in the process of communication goes from the communicator through the communicator to the communicator, but its active grasp by the communicator and subsequent intrapersonal processing. Heidegger (1977) deepens the concept of apperception to existential, i.e. j. to the basic categorical determination of human existence.

Our claim that the communicator enters into a close relationship with the communicator is also confirmed by Gadamer (1976) with his conviction that no conceptual speech, in our case communication (work with a client), does not represent an unbreakable curse for the thinking (communicator) at the moment when he surrenders to his speech, but starts an active, lively dialogue with another and differently thinking person, i.e. the communicator. It follows that for a rhetorical act - a communication (however it may appear as an immutable given), it is true that it tells us something about itself, while its statement can never be definitively exhausted by the term. In this way, space is created not only for the intention of the communicator himself, but also for the apperceptive experience of the communicator.

The communicator/social worker in contact with the client creates a rhetorical device that is new in every attempt to grasp the message and puts the social worker in front of the task of functioning for himself as an interpreter of speech. Finding the appropriate language for communication can be quite problematic and fulfilling this task challenging (Gadamer, 1976), and the success of fulfilling this challenge is reflected in the extent of apperception on the part of the communicator/client.

The client therefore accepts with understanding what the social worker communicates to him through the communication. The depth and intensity of apperception depends on several factors, among which can be included the rational and intellectual level of the client, his current concentration and the current range of dispositional abilities during the process of perception.

The degree of relationship that will be formed between the social worker and the client depends on the above-mentioned factors that affect the depth and intensity of the client's perception of the communication. A natural outcome of this relationship is the subsequent guidance of the client by a social worker. A social worker should always keep this fact in mind, because it becomes an important factor in the process of creating specific mental attitudes, opinions and ways of the client. Increased attention should be paid especially if there are children and young people on the client's side. This group, due to the fact that its process of psycho-social development has not yet been completed, is the most risky group, because it tends to accept the message unconditionally, without its own critical attitude, without re-evaluation and without the ability to apperceive wider and deeper contexts, which the adult client is aware of and on the basis of which he creates the final - his own impression. In real life, we see almost every day how children and young people literally live, for example, their favorite movie or TV heroes, how they adopt not only their way of dressing and behavior, but also their means of expression and the typical terminology used by the characters. This means that the social worker plays an extremely important and responsible role in this case.

Semiotics in the context of social work

We understand semiotics as a science dealing with signs. It is based on the fact that we are immersed in the world of signs, in words, in letters and draws attention to the necessity of deciphering individual signs with their current understanding. Semiotics offers not only philosophical-empirical, but also practical solutions, which is why it is useful for everyone who deals with communication, be it a critic, linguist, psychotherapist, psychologist or social worker. In semiotics, the general rule is that a person is not a passive part of the culture that surrounds him, but by creating it, he is its main, active, creative force (Doubravová, 2009).

The basic repertoire of semiotic signs in the context of rhetoric in social work includes vocabulary and terminology. They are carriers of information, functionally bound to the objects they denote. They change along with time, time, conditions, knowledge and achievements of culture. To a large extent, they are a mirror of the inner world, character, intellect and education of the social worker.

Individual words as carriers of meaning and co-carriers of the meaning of the text are an abstract moment. This also applies when they are transformed from the thought form of a social worker into a spoken word, i.e. speech, in contact with the client. Here it must be remembered that the rhetorical act on the part of the social worker is not literary in the true sense of the word, therefore it does not have to meet all the criteria of literature. As Gadamer (1976, 1987) states, speech is not writing and a lecture is not a pre-reading.

The vocabulary and terminology of a social worker also inherently includes non-verbal communication towards the client. This includes his actions, mood, gestures, environment, atmosphere - in other words, everything that is not expressed by speech provides important codes that, in addition to the aesthetic function, also have a meaningful function. Words are like coins with a certain value. Non-verbal communication is then the material from which coins are minted.

Hermeneutic process of cognition in social work

Understanding the thought and context of the social worker's rhetoric is essential. Such art of interpretation, art of understanding, process of understanding through codes, signs and symbols is called hermeneutics. The cooperation of the social worker with the client at the rhetorical level is then a hermeneutic performance with the need to understand the context and the entirety of the communication.

The first prerequisite for a successful hermeneutic process of cognition is the pre-understanding with which the social worker approaches the client. These are all the subjective contents, ideas, knowledge and opinions of the social worker, which are objectified in concrete forms of communication (words and sentences) towards the client. However, the pre-understanding of the social worker must necessarily respect the client's autonomy. The textual, i.e. verbal level of rhetorical contact is thus harmoniously combined with the iconic, i.e. non-verbal level, and the attitude of the social worker in this case is not only perceptually accepting, but above all apperceptively acting (Heidegger, 1977).

At this point we reach the point where we see the presence of apperception also on the second level - on the side of the social worker. The inevitability of apperception thus naturally passes through the entire process of cooperation with the client: from the first contact (which is preceded by pre-understanding on the part of the social worker and his responsible preparation), through the entire process of cooperation to its termination and ends with the perception of the communication on the part of the client, which ideally turns into apperception with an effective impact on positive changes in the client's life.

Conclusion

The fact that speech/rhetoric has acquired a central position in the communication process has its specific meaning in the process of therapeutic work with the client. The social worker must take into account all the semiotic signs that he must decipher and at the same time understand. Social work is then a hermeneutic performance with the need to understand the context and the entirety of the process of working with the client.

On the one hand, we have semiotics as a theory of signs and hermeneutics as a pre-understanding and understanding that lead to the functioning and construction of language systems and systems of signs in the rhetorical act of a social worker, on the other hand there is a theory of knowledge that realizes that speech is what mediates any approach to the world - even to the world that is communicated to the client through the social worker.

Hermeneutics and the related understanding of the client and his problem is more than just a methodical procedure, uncovering a given meaning. The social worker has every right to claim real universality in understanding the client and subsequent interpretation towards the client, which should have a dialogic form.

Gadamer (2002) points to a boundary that is implicit in the hermeneutic experience of meaning. With his sentence Being that can be understood is speech he points out the fact that what exists can never be fully understood. As a reason, he states that everything that the speech brings always points to what gets into the statement. In our case, it is the invention and intentionality of the social worker, whose action is implemented in the client's life in the process of therapeutic work.

Author: Mgr. Lenka Jalilah Hrušková References

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