• Summary: For quite some time the evidence-based practice
discourse in social work has been influential. While this may be viewed as a
positive development, problems arise when some of the proponents of the discourse
deride other approaches in social work as unscientific. In particular, it is of
concern that those who embrace a psychodynamic perspective have been corralled into
a ‘mentalist’ enclosure which, it is argued, lacks scientific
rigour. By way of rebuttal, this paper argues that approaches promoting an
understanding of ‘deep structure’ have a legitimate place within
the evidence-based discourse in social work. Bhaskar’s critical realism is
adopted to make the case.
• Findings: The retroductive method, as articulated by Bhaskar, can
be extrapolated to social workers’ assessments of complex situations. This
method provides a way of generating and testing hypotheses and evidence by drawing
on realist, explanatory theories to gain understanding of the deep, causal
mechanisms at play in social life.
• Applications: This paper makes a contribution to the continuing
discussion about the nature of evidence, and how it is acquired, in social work.
Critically, it argues that the pursuit of evidence is central not only to the
intimate, micro-domain of face-to-face interaction but also to the macro-domain of
oppressive social structure.
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