Introduction

In ancient Greece, ethics (ethos) originally referred to people's habits, customs, or even to the nature of a human being. In the course of history, it has been systematized by reasoned rules for forming social relations, which determine the behavior of people by the principles of duty and responsibility for themselves and others by certain moral rules bearing the signs of justice. A. Mátel s kolectivom (2010) states in this context that "although ethics and morality are often confused and used as synonyms in ordinary language, they must be distinguished. Morality represents the rules of human behavior, while ethics as a philosophical discipline examines the essence and origin of these rules and seeks a justification for why a certain action is good and required of individual members of society. Morality is often equated with life practice, ethics is then a reflection of this practice."_The practice of social work is inevitably based on ethical principles, it is determined by ethics like psychotherapy or other medical disciplines or pedagogy. J. Payne (1997, p. 144) claims that "ethics is beneficial for psychotherapy, because it shows the direction of its action."_ This also applies in a similar way to the activity of social work, where the essential part of a person is in direct social interactions, while the individuality of the individual is so unique that the social approaches of social work require specific indications of appropriate focus even in general measures. They have an anticipatory character.

Social work, in order to make visible the rules of the course of mutual relations, not only within the activity processes of social work participants, clarifies its position in relation to other social areas. Her autonomy has finer boundaries than psychotherapy. In order for internal processes to develop freely during the social work activity, it needs to have clarified relations with external influences, because it is itself part of the wider social events of social policy at different levels (family, village, state).

Human nature in social work

In the past, even at the beginning of the 19th century, people in a situation of social and economic emergency could not help themselves many times, because the laws of the functioning of the socio-economic system according to M. Novak (1966) were made clear to mankind only through the answer to the question about the cause of the wealth of nations. The origin of wealth is not material, it lies in the thinking of people, in their culture and customs. That cause is the intellect, its parts:

  1. ingenuity,
  2. developing a
  3. creativity of the human mind.

These form the three supporting pillars of the basic architecture of social systems. They free human relations among all human beings (a) from tyranny by specific political institutions, (b) free from poverty through specific economic rules, and (c) free thought, imagination, and freedom of expression by introducing pluralism.

Our attention was primarily drawn to the third pillar - the creativity of the human mind, where social work also has a large presence. With its activity, it touches the immediacy of a person. "The sources of creativity lie in the creative spirit of invention, discipline and order. The primacy of the spirit also applies in the economy" (M. Novak, 1966, p. 65). If we continue to think about M. Novak's other words, then in the real liberation of people from socio-economic need, it is impossible to perceive only some part of the triple side of human nature in the political, economic and moral-cultural aspects. These triplicities of the site are also reflected in various ways in the focus of social work.

If we look at the essence of the focus of social work, it cannot remain captive to social policy in the role of "Samaritan" only for the social management of the economically endangered population due to inappropriate management of the resources of the given political system. A. Mátel with the collective (2010, p. 61) writes in his publication that "social work as an applied science is aimed at implementing social changes leading to the improvement of people's prosperity." When we think about the quoted words, it follows that social work is not the handmaiden of social policy, but carries within itself the trinity of human nature - politics, economics and morality. It is enough to look at the curriculum of the university training of social workers and it can give rise to thoughts about the need for its broader focus. It also raises the question of whether the field of study of social work is becoming too dependent on the needs of the state's social policy. In social practice, we often witness that the representatives of political power, while practicing ancient virtues such as honor, justice, courage, self-control, are too far away from creating an atmosphere of free spirit of social politics, where a person could become free, free himself with his creativity from the position of a passive recipient of "social gifts", and social work from the distribution function of these "gifts".

Focus of social work

In addition to focusing on a social problem, social work also perceives its background, because the solution or the central cause of the problem may be hidden behind the object of focus of social work. Social work carries this predisposition from the very beginning of its creation of care for individuals in social and economic need (the poor, the sick, war invalids, widows, orphans, the homeless, the destitute), where the focus was not only the protection of life and health, but also social encouragement, enabling the solution of one's social situation through one's own actions. The subject of social work is not only the individual (individuals, groups) and his bio-psycho-social and spiritual needs in relation to himself and other individuals, but also the environment of the community of his being in the socio-political context of the region, state and globalization influences.

In the true sense, social work does not help, educate, or heal, because that is the competence of other disciplines, but it involves socialization in those places and with those individuals and groups who need it, so that they are not excluded from social life. The fact that it helps, educates and heals is rather a consequence of acquired social health through the establishment of natural healing mechanisms of self-development and self-actualization in the process of socialization. Š. Strieženec (2003, p. 52) claims that "social work is changing from the initial solidarity approach to meritocracy", which he adds with the words "active personality formation".

Meaning of Morality

The object of social work is primarily psychosocially and physically disabled individuals, where the importance of morality comes to the fore because (A. Kozoň, 2010):

  • The internalized value system helps to maintain the identity of the personality and thereby provides a stable balance in the proportions of libidinous, aggressive and neutralized energy of the general level of personality excitability.
  • It gives external stability to the subjective world, through the feeling of experiencing the credibility of one's own identity, which regulates self-evaluation and maintains harmony between moral codes and self-assertion in an ordered social environment in the sense of the real freedom of the disabled individual.
  • Although morality can be cultivated by different types of education, it is unimaginable without the innate ability to feel guilty. It is a functional unit of biological factors with behavioral disorders, where this sense of guilt is distorted or often absent in delinquent behavior.
  • Feelings of guilt are not created in childhood only by the incorporation of authority prohibitions, but also by identification. First with the mother (attribute of Love), later with the male authority of the father (attribute of Light) and are the foundations that regulate behavior according to internalized ethical principles.
  • For somatically disabled individuals, it is as if experiencing feelings of guilt for the fact that their somato-psychic integrity is disturbed by the disability is more pronounced than it is for other disabled individuals.
  • Because these patterns of authority were influenced by the parents' conscious and unconscious responsibility for their child's disability in terms of the formation of the child's somato-psychological disability identity, whereby the disabled child identified and took the feelings of guilt of his disability instead of the parents onto himself through the mechanism of inverted projective identification, in order to make them stronger, more capable and more self-dependent on the social environment.
  • Parents and their disabled child, many times confused by feelings of guilt, find it more difficult to navigate the possibilities for successful socialization by compensating for the disability with other personality dispositions of the disabled child.
  • The practical side of the activity of social work makes it possible to objectively evaluate the possibilities of forming the identity of a disabled individual, so that the overall anxious emotional atmosphere in the family with permanent guilty feelings of insecurity changes, it gives parents an insight into their possibilities and the real dispositions (also latent) of the disabled child, so that his personal identity is understandable for the disabled, and has a firm anchorage among close people.

Ethics and morality of social work

Social work does not contradict social policy, because social work does not come from social policy, but moves in its space, where the boundaries are generally determined by the moral side. Social work adheres to the principles of Caritas (i.e. the love of God that people share). As we have stated elsewhere (Kozoň 2009, p. 11-12), social work is basically an activity with human attributes of belonging, while it does not have precise theoretical boundaries, which we can consider as a certain advantage, because it enables a creative grasp of the solution to a specific problem in a given social situation, to find readily real solutions, because it is not limited by some theory, where other disciplines have exhausted their knowledge possibilities of solving the given human problem. The entry criteria for social work are ethical principles, legal norms and the logic of laws of social-psychological procedures in sensitively mutually understanding communication. Many things can be learned in the university training of social workers, but a person must have the talent - empathy of social work in himself, so that through training he can become a virtuoso of socialization.

In our thinking about ethics and morality in social work, we start from the thought associations of the thesis of St. Thomas Aquinas "True freedom is ordered freedom". Its organization is given by the principles of morality, where the personal freedom of a person as an individual in making various decisions is (and should be) a thinking process, the direction of which should lead to the preservation of a sense of responsibility even in the wake of events in the sense of Caritas moral principles and to develop them as an ability.

Ethics - the direction of social work's relationship with people

The relationship of social work to a person as an individual of society is not only (and in many cases cannot be) a client one, because the individual may be in a state of personal lack of freedom (even this personal freedom may be taken away by the state by imprisonment, note). One of the forms of social work - social assistance without a rational representation of reciprocity (gratitude) creates the impossibility of responsible action of the individual, and the latter can remain in the grip of even greater personal unfreedom, without the possibility of expressing the human natural need to love and be loved. We start from the fact that Love needs direction, and from this point of view, social work does not only have a client relationship with the individual, but also the content of the tutor form. (1) Love is in its essence the Warmth of the relationship, the energetic potential of motivation, which for true fulfillment needs the individual to be able to make responsible decisions at every stage of their journey through life in the light of seeing the various pitfalls of life.

The attribute of Love is not enough for social work, but the attribute of Light is also an essential part of it, which makes the activities of social assistance, counseling, care, care, intervention, treatment, support, animation, management, etc., visible to the public, thus giving a sensitive and uncompromising awareness that on the journey of life, a person as an individual is not alone and is not exempt from responsibility for himself and others.

True love is selfless, and therein lies its malignancy, because without Light it leads to self-love, or at the other extreme, self-sacrificing self-destruction. These extremes can be avoided by the rational application of ethical principles, which provide the opportunity to shape human nature: to think and choose based on the inner voice of conscience. Through its activity, social work is supposed to be a creator of the socialization of its individuals as unique beings, where uniqueness provides the possibility of applying individualized approaches with regard to social possibilities. Social work is also the search for the most suitable way to fulfill the individual, individuals in the field of natural human needs to be responsible for themselves and others in accordance with the real possibilities of the triple side of human nature: politics, economy and morality.

Conclusion

Emphasizing the attribute of Love in social work, especially where social policy is on the fringes of the society's system of ruling power, narrow elites with representative political-economic influence pursue their interests, not the social well-being of all, has its justified place, but persisting in this position is imprudent, because the Good remains isolated in the hearts of people without purpose. If we talked about social work also as a form of tutoring, then this form is led by a torch (Light and Heat), it makes knowledge visible with its light and initiates motivation with its heat, and it is the voice of Reason pointing to duty and responsibility and not until awakening in a situation of extreme need. Goodness like Caritas needs a space without darkness so that it can manifest itself in Love - warm human relations. "The desire of Jews and Christians, created in the image of their Creator, is to follow the light (to know), to build community (to love) and to use imagination in a changing world (to create) - in the pain of judgment" (M. Novak, 1966, p. 81).

Social work, as the voice of reason, is a conscience that gives feedback to responsible social agents for the creation of social values, pursuing social well-being without distinction for all, with respect for life in a dignified relationship with the world.

Author: doc. PhDr. Antonín Kozoň, CSc.VŠZaSP St. Elizabeth __________(1) The naming of the object of social work with the term "client", which was taken from legal and psychotherapeutic practice (Rogers) to express a partner relationship, should be sensitively re-evaluated. This is a counterweight to the concept of a patient, who is in a state of dependency in relation to the doctor. The ethics of humanity, honesty and respect for life are basically contained in both concepts of client and patient as a subject-object relationship. Determining the object of social work by the formal name "client" can in many cases make the subject of social work more difficult to operate in various social areas.

List of bibliographic references

[1] AQUINASKY, Tomas. 2008. About creation. Prague: Krystal OP s.r.o., 2008. 80 p. ISBN 978-80-87183-03-8. [2] KOZOŇ, Antonín. 2009. Social work with at-risk clients. Trenčín: SpoSoIntE, 2009. 68 p. ISBN 978-80-970121-6-8. [3] KOZOŇ, Antonín. 2010. Pitfalls in the socialization of the psychosocially and physically disabled. In: Nečas, Stanislav et al. (ed.): Social, economic, legal and security issues of today. Prague: SVŠES, 2010. 600 p. ISBN 978-80-867744-84-1, p. 233-239. [4] MÁTEL, Andrej et al. 2010. Ethics of social work. Bratislava : VŠZaSP St. Elizabeth, 2010. 183 p. ISBN 978-80-89271-85-6. [5] NOVAK, Michal. 1996. Philosophy of freedom. Program for people on the way to freedom. Bratislava: Charis, 1996. 172 p. ISBN 80-88743-16-8. [6] PAYNE, Jan. 1996. Ethics and psychotherapy. In: Vymětal, Jan et al. General psychotherapy. Prague: Psychoanalytické nakladatelství, 1996. 296 p. ISBN 80-86123-02-2, p. 141-151. [7] STRIEŽENEC, Štefan. 2003. Notes on Social Work Theory and Methodology. In: Social work/Social work, 2003, p. 52.

__________The lecture was given at the international scientific conference Applied ethics in social work and other helping professions, which took place on October 20-21, 2010, in Piešťany and was published in the proceedings of this conference: MÁTEL, A. – SCHAVEL, M. – MÜHLPACHR, P. – ROMAN, T. 2010. Applied ethics in social work and other helping professions. Proceedings of the international scientific conference. Bratislava : VŠZaSP St. Elizabeth. 413 p. ISBN 978-80-89271-89-4.