From Work to Therapy: The Changing Politics of Occupation in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Historically, there have been strong links between the establishment and maintenance of health through occupation, on the one hand, and broad sociopolitical and economic forces, on the other. As a result, occupational therapists have consistently contributed to, and been influenced by, prevalent attitudes to work, leisure, unemployment and poverty. This article examines the nature of these Interactions between occupational therapy and society, by exploring some of the continuities and discontinuities in the practice of occupational therapy within the history of a particular institution established in 1902 for children and adults with what are now referred to as ‘learning difficulties’ or ‘learning disabilities’. The article argues that it is the strength of the ideological and pragmatic links between therapy, health and work, rather than a reliance on rigid biomedical explanations of disease, that has traditionally constituted the basis for the professional expertise of occupational therapists.