This Is Water, and This Is Social Work: Perspective, Boundaries, and Accountability
Perspective and Responsibility
David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College, later published as an essay, explores awareness, perspective, and how we navigate the world around us. His core argument is that our default setting as humans is to see everything through a self-centered lens. When someone behaves in a way that frustrates or inconveniences us, we assume malice, carelessness, or incompetence—without considering what unseen struggles might be driving their actions.
Wallace argues that true freedom comes from consciously choosing how to interpret the world. This idea has strong implications for social work, where everyday interactions involve people who push boundaries, make irrational choices, or seem resistant to change. It is easy to make quick judgments, but true professional practice requires maintaining both perspective and structure. The challenge is ensuring that while clients retain autonomy, their actions still have real-world consequences.
Understanding Without Justifying
A core dilemma in social work is balancing insight and accountability. Understanding why a client behaves a certain way can be helpful, but it should never be used to justify avoiding responsibility.
Consider the case of a client who refuses to apply for realistic jobs, instead focusing on an unlikely dream of securing an internship abroad. On the surface, this appears to be avoidance or magical thinking. However, when confronted with the observation, "You must be experiencing a lot of peer pressure," the client was visibly surprised and admitted that this was true.
This moment of recognition was significant—but it did not lead to change. And this is where social work must draw a line. Awareness is valuable, but insight alone is meaningless unless paired with action. If the client continues to resist reality, the response is clear boundaries—such as placement in a work program—ensuring that insight does not replace responsibility.
The Functional School of Social Work: Boundaries and Consequences
The functional school of social work, developed in the mid-20th century, places strong emphasis on client autonomy within structured boundaries. Instead of focusing on controlling behavior, the functional approach maintains that clients are free to make choices, but they must also face the natural consequences of those choices.
This approach aligns with the principle that a social worker does not “fix” people. The role is not to micromanage clients’ lives, nor to emotionally invest in changing them. It is to enforce the framework that ensures reality takes effect.
If a client refuses to seek employment → They may be referred to a structured work program.
If someone attempts to hide financial resources while receiving support → Their benefits may be adjusted accordingly.
If rules are ignored → The system moves forward without them.
In this model, social work is not about punishment—it is about structure. Clients are treated as responsible agents, capable of making choices, but not exempt from their outcomes.
Boundaries as Professionalism
A key strength of the functional school is that it protects social workers from burnout and emotional overinvestment. A common challenge in the field is the temptation to believe that if the right words, explanations, or insights are offered, clients will suddenly understand and transform their lives. But this is not how change works.
The reality is that people change when they experience the impact of their own choices. Insight, without a structured environment enforcing consequences, often leads to clients continuing maladaptive behaviors while giving the illusion of engagement.
Functional social work draws clear boundaries:
1. Clients have freedom, but not freedom from consequences.
2. The social worker does not carry responsibility for the client’s actions—only for enforcing the structure that makes responsibility real.
3. Empathy is necessary, but not at the expense of professional detachment.
This approach allows social workers to maintain both effectiveness and mental resilience.
The Connection to "This Is Water"
David Foster Wallace’s speech reminds us that we rarely know the full story behind other people’s actions. This perspective is valuable in social work, where clients’ behaviors are often driven by unseen struggles, past trauma, or societal pressures.
However, perspective alone is not enough. Understanding a person’s motivations does not eliminate their responsibility. The functional model of social work aligns well with Wallace’s ideas—by acknowledging the complexity of human behavior while maintaining firm boundaries and professional detachment.
In the end, social work is not about changing people—but about creating the structure where change becomes possible. Clients will either engage with reality, or they will face the natural consequences of avoiding it. The role of the social worker is not to dictate outcomes, but to ensure that reality remains intact.