Horror autotoxicus: critical social work as autoimmunity

Stephen A. Webb

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

Horror autotoxicus, literally means the horror of self-toxicity. The famous German scientist Paul Ehrlich used the metaphor to describe the body’s innate aversion to immunological self-destruction. However, as we now know, the immune system can upon occasion attack itself and does so in the autoimmune disorders. Indeed, this autoimmune system is healthy and plays beneficial homeostatic roles for the body. All species are bathed in beneficial autoantibodies that react with “them” selves. This chapter takes up the biological metaphors to show how critical social work has an affirmative autoimmune function in relation to the mainstream. Immunity is shown to be a biopolitical metaphor as “negative protection”, with autoimmunity, the political agonism of critical social work. A principal aim of the chapter is to clarify the agonistic nature of the immune-autoimmune dialectic as political and to strengthen the foundations of the meaning of critical social work. In plain terms, this involves conceptualising critical politics as continuous struggle against the immunitary function of normative social work, especially those forms of negative protection explicitly performed in child welfare and mental health work.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Routledge Handbook of International Critical Social Work: New Perspectives and Agendas
EditorsStephen A. Webb
Place of PublicationOxon
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter3
Pages63-78
Number of pages16
ISBN (Electronic)9781003211969
ISBN (Print)9781032078885
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Nov 2022

Publication series

NameRoutledge International Handbooks

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