Symbolic Violence within the Work of Counseling Institutions – the Paradox of Counseling

Abstract

Counseling and helping are generally associated with honorable actions, aimed at the benefit of another person. People take these actions because of individual reasons or taking into account the social and professional role one performs. It is done by interpersonal interaction or within the frames of particular institution. The latter is meant by arranged actions. The aim of this article is to present another dimension of giving help by means of institutions. The presence of symbolic violence related to power is present in the dimension. According to Michel Foucault “the one who was put within the range of perception and realizes that, accepts the limits enforced on them by power.” As the author continues, everybody is placed in the field of power, despite the fact that one does not always realize that. Our deliberations, related to the presence of symbolic violence and its meaning in the process of helping are based on the definition of violence coined by Pierre Bourdieu. The deliberations refer to the way psychological and pedagogical counseling centers work. The violence is a part of the secret scheme of the institution. The authors try to uncover and reveal it with the view to make people think and realize its existence. The hidden dimension embraces what is not visible but palpable, what is meant straightaway but has its place in the course of actions taken by the assisting team and the institutions, what is included in the formal “between” and in hidden actions and which is not realized by people who use the services of psychological and pedagogical counseling centers.