David Brandon (1941-2001) social worker, academic and Zen buddhist monk.

The late David Brandon was a visionary who recognised the necessity of social workers offering a human response to their clients. His remarkable little book, Zen in the Art of Helping, was a revelation to me when I read it in the 70's and remains a source of inspiration whenever I return to it. It is written in a refreshingly creative and humorous way and is very different from many contemporary social work textbooks which are so often dry and dull. I particularly appreciate the value David attached to knowledge gained from ordinary life experience and intuitive understanding.

David seemed to enjoy playing with the paradoxes and contradictions of our lives. He reminded me of the paradox that the social work process of helping is often experienced by our clients as the opposite. Sometimes we fail to help others, however well-intentioned our motives, because we are too concerned with our own egos, wanting to be clever, to impress others, or to be important. He was brilliant at cutting through the platitudes and petty concerns of social workers to remind us of a deeper truth about the meaning of emotional aspects of their work. He also understood the absurdity of political leaders asking social workers to sign up to liberal, professional values while at the same time ignoring the bigger problems of poverty and those arising out of the market economy.

His two books on spirituality in counselling - Zen in the Art Of Helping (1976) and Tao Of Survival (2001) - convey his deep concern with the pain of all human beings and are unsettlingly open and honest about his own personal struggles. They are good introductions to humanistic approaches, even for readers who know nothing about Zen or Buddism, and are well grounded in radical thinking. Social workers need a coherent belief system about the meaning of their efforts if they are to remain convinced that social work is a worthwhile activity. David's books certainly helped me.

His ideas have a continuing relevance as social work training has become too concerned with technical competence and often fails to understand the notion of the 'wounded helper'. David was one of the few academics who was open about his own personal experiences of abuse, of homelessness, and of the mental health system, and the way these shaped his understanding of the social work task. He successfully combined the softer qualities of warmth, humility and compassion with a razor-sharp intelligence and a formidable capacity for confrontation. He was in many ways a true radical in action.

Hilary Searing

Further Reading

Smith, Mark K. 2006 David Brandon: homelessness, advocacy and Zen in the art of helping , the encyclopaedia of informal education

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