THE LOVE AS A MORAL AND ETHICAL CATEGORY IN SOCIAL WORK

Abstract

The social work is one of the professions, which lies in the field «human-human», that’s why there are some ethical requirements for social workers. The humanity, altruism, tolerance, kindness, mercy etc. can be emphasized among the ethical categories of social work. The most important value of social work is humanism, which means love, but first of all human. The social worker has to respect cli ent’s view of life, his beliefs and values while process of working. Durin g decisionmaking process, the specialist of social services should be guided firstly by the interests of the client. The humanism is a manifestation of love to neighbor. The feeling of love helps to express the best sides of human soul, to find balance and harmony in himself, that’s why it’s an important category of ethics of social work and requires d etailed examination. Therefore, the love to neighbor has to be one of the key categories of social work. The phenomenon of "love" is interested by many national and foreign scientists, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, social workers. They are Helen Fisher, Erich Fromm, Richard of Saint Victor, V. Solovyov, P. Florensky, M. Fedorov, I. Ilyin, Nikolai A. Berdyaev, etc. However, there isn’t a thorough a nalysis of the concept of "love" as the basic mor al and ethical category in social work. That’s why this issue is relevant. The main purpose of this publication is to analyze the concept of "love" as the most important human value, it’s place and role in the conceptual bases of «The ethics of social work». The love is a true moral and aesthetic sense, which is based on the emotional and spiritual experience, interest, sympathies. It is expressed in a focused commitment to the subject of love, selfless and dedicated aspiration to it. Different philosophers and thinkers tried to understand meaning of love since ancient times. The issue of love in modern society got the distorted idea of fleeting happiness, euphoria, physical proximity and, as a result, rapid disappointment under the impact of globalization, mixing of various cultures, lack of moral censorship in the media, access to information on the Internet. We were impressed with the approach of the German psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm to the definition of "love" in his work « The Art of Lovi ng». Erich Fromm calls the "object" on every species, and the love is considered as a way to know the mystery of human. On Erich Fromm opinion, love is an art, that has to be learned in theory and practice. An indication of the professionalism of social workers is not only a high level of knowledge and skills, but also compliance with their own ethical code. Professional social worker values are based on physical, social, political and spiritual values. And the love is the most important value and fundamental principle of social worker. The help, support, care, protection of personality are impossible without humanity, charitable, compassionate attitude to people, their personal needs, problems and world view. The humanity, charity found the bright reflection in many works of Ukrainian philosophers, historians, educators, sociologists, also in practical help from the state and society. The professionally important personal qualities and values of future social workers should include a sense of love to the neighbor. The category of love should take deserved place in the conceptual bases of social workers.