Occupational therapy’s oversight: How science veiled our humanity
Background Occupational therapy’s connection to positivist science predates the profession’s formal beginning, with important contributing knowledge sources coming from mathematics, physics, psychology, and systems theory. While these sources of objective knowledge provide a rational, defendable pos...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/11038128.2024.2306585 |
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| author | Heleen Reid Clare Hocking Elizabeth Smythe |
| author_facet | Heleen Reid Clare Hocking Elizabeth Smythe |
| author_sort | Heleen Reid |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background Occupational therapy’s connection to positivist science predates the profession’s formal beginning, with important contributing knowledge sources coming from mathematics, physics, psychology, and systems theory. While these sources of objective knowledge provide a rational, defendable position for practice, they can only explain a portion of what it means to exist as an occupational being.Aims/Objectives This article aims to reveal some of the history of science within occupational therapy and reveal the subjective, ontological nature of doing everyday activities that the profession’s preoccupation with positivist science has obscured.Methods This research used a history of ideas methodology to uncover how occupational therapy perceived people and how practice was conceptualised and conducted between 1800 and 1980s, as depicted in writing of the time.Conclusion Analysis showed that, through history, people were increasingly categorised and delimited. Practice also became systematically controlled, moving occupational therapy into a theoretical, scientific, and abstract realm.Significance The emphasis placed on objectivity diminishes the attention given to human ways of practicing, where the subjective experience is central to our thinking. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e0b6fc1223954791a4d8f8e5ac3f2f42 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1103-8128 1651-2014 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy |
| spelling | doaj-art-e0b6fc1223954791a4d8f8e5ac3f2f422025-01-24T17:53:19ZengTaylor & Francis GroupScandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy1103-81281651-20142024-12-0131110.1080/11038128.2024.2306585Occupational therapy’s oversight: How science veiled our humanityHeleen Reid0Clare Hocking1Elizabeth Smythe2School of Clinical Sciences, AUT University, Auckland, New ZealandSchool of Clinical Sciences, AUT University, Auckland, New ZealandSchool of Clinical Sciences, AUT University, Auckland, New ZealandBackground Occupational therapy’s connection to positivist science predates the profession’s formal beginning, with important contributing knowledge sources coming from mathematics, physics, psychology, and systems theory. While these sources of objective knowledge provide a rational, defendable position for practice, they can only explain a portion of what it means to exist as an occupational being.Aims/Objectives This article aims to reveal some of the history of science within occupational therapy and reveal the subjective, ontological nature of doing everyday activities that the profession’s preoccupation with positivist science has obscured.Methods This research used a history of ideas methodology to uncover how occupational therapy perceived people and how practice was conceptualised and conducted between 1800 and 1980s, as depicted in writing of the time.Conclusion Analysis showed that, through history, people were increasingly categorised and delimited. Practice also became systematically controlled, moving occupational therapy into a theoretical, scientific, and abstract realm.Significance The emphasis placed on objectivity diminishes the attention given to human ways of practicing, where the subjective experience is central to our thinking.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/11038128.2024.2306585Occupational therapysciencehistoryexistentialonticontology |
| spellingShingle | Heleen Reid Clare Hocking Elizabeth Smythe Occupational therapy’s oversight: How science veiled our humanity Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy Occupational therapy science history existential ontic ontology |
| title | Occupational therapy’s oversight: How science veiled our humanity |
| title_full | Occupational therapy’s oversight: How science veiled our humanity |
| title_fullStr | Occupational therapy’s oversight: How science veiled our humanity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Occupational therapy’s oversight: How science veiled our humanity |
| title_short | Occupational therapy’s oversight: How science veiled our humanity |
| title_sort | occupational therapy s oversight how science veiled our humanity |
| topic | Occupational therapy science history existential ontic ontology |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/11038128.2024.2306585 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT heleenreid occupationaltherapysoversighthowscienceveiledourhumanity AT clarehocking occupationaltherapysoversighthowscienceveiledourhumanity AT elizabethsmythe occupationaltherapysoversighthowscienceveiledourhumanity |