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There's a section in "Philosophy: Who Needs It?" where Rand discusses the play/movie "The Miracle Worker". She raves about the epistemological story and praises how Annie Sullivan brought Hellen Keller to understand language. Annie Sullivan, her young teacher (superlatively portrayed by Anne Bancroft), is fiercely determined to transform this creature into a human being, and she knows the only means that can do it: language, i.e., the development of the conceptual faculty. But how does one communicate the nature and function of language to a blind-deaf-mute? The entire action of the play is concerned with this single central issue: Annie's struggle to make Helen's mind grasp a word -- not a signal, but a word. I would think that Objectivist social workers might find similar valuable personal (selfish) challenges to expand their own knowledge while also being productive in their work. Selfishly, I wish more social workers to be Objectivists. If they were successful in helping to properly rehabilitate men's minds, they'd be doing valuable work... to themselves, to me, and potentially to "society" too! ;-)

I think her very first sentence said it all VERY clearly: Right there, she has said plainly that following objectism IMPROVED her life, and goes onto say that not following it has caused deterioration... until the point where she is engaging in horrible reductionism. I would simply point out her first sentence and say... "Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong." --- Remember also, that it is not your job to turn her into an objectivist. If she doesn't want to accept reason, I would tell her simply that she is wrong, and that if she wants proof, examine her own life. Then leave the conversation. You simply can't "logic" an irrational person into reason. If you could, not a single person on earth would 'believe in god'. Good Luck