94

In the context of social work, the helping relationship can be defined as a meeting point between otherness and deviance. First, this paper aimed to show how deviance, although it is not a known reference in the language of social workers, shapes the meaning of the relationship. Two situations are presented : one has its origin in a research study, the other in a group of analysing social practices. Considering the importance of the clinical approach for social workers, we then attempt to show how certain social evolutions, which depend on either the introduction of managerial logic or legal modifications, change the meaning of the conception of deviance and put into question the possibility of a clinical approach.