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purpose of this book is to describe a method of helping people out of trouble. The principles underlying this method are applicable, not only when one is with an individual whose personal affairs are at a crisis, but whenever one finds himself so placed that he may influence other people—whether as parent, teacher, employer, or neighbor, whether with patient, parishioner, friend, or client.

It is a method both old and new, old in that its point of view toward life and many of its processes has been appreciated and used by understanding men and women since human beings first began to live and work together, new in that not until recent years has a sustained and directed effort to cultivate it been made.

This effort is being carried on by social workers and is inspired by their experience in meeting the perplexities and difficulties of the people who seek their help in clinics and hospitals, in schools and courts, in children's and family welfare or charity