Work and other activities in mental institutions: a historiographical approach

Abstract

Introduction: The literature on the history of occupational therapy refers to the fact that it is preceded by a knowledge built from the administration of activities, especially work, to people in asylums. Objective: To identify how, from Latin American occupational therapy and history, the issue of work and other activities in mental institutions before the professionalization of occupational therapy has been studied. Method: A documentary analysis is carried out at two levels: studies of occupational therapists in Latin America and studies from history in different parts of the world. Results: The works of occupational therapists vindicate the understanding of the historical processes of shaping the professional field in Latin America. They address the issue with an exploratory scope and reveal issues that need to be deepened; they mainly employ secondary sources and some transfer analyses based on other realities. From history, seven themes are raised: the relationship between work and moral treatment; relationship between ability to work and mental illness; adaptations and appropriations of models and proposals on work in psychiatric institutions; institutional models that incorporated the work of patients; debates between economic and therapeutic benefit; meanings attributed to work in institutions; professionalization in the first half of the twentieth century. Conclusion: This approach opens possibilities for analyzing a little-studied practice and exposes its complexity and contradictions. It also evidences gaps in the narratives about the use of work and other activities in Latin American mental institutions, its particular forms and the disputed knowledge and interests that shaped it.