An anthropophagic proposition in occupational therapy knowledge: Driving our actions towards social life

ABSTRACT

This year Brazil celebrates 100 years of a landmark in Modernism. The Manifesto Anthropophagic, by Andrade, is part of this and proposes that a real process of knowledge production stems from alterity, the coexistence of cultures, understanding the other and, from the ‘devouring’ of knowledge, building the new. Inspired by this, I propose the discussion of an anthropophagic knowledge construction in occupational therapy, starting from questioning the locus and the purpose of professional actions. Loci of practice are discussed in terms of four concepts: occupation, human activity, cotidiano (everyday life), and ways of life. Purpose is discussed through the concepts of occupational engagement, social insertion/inclusion, emancipation/autonomy, and social participation. Coming from social occupational therapy, I advocate the relevance of directing our actions towards social life. To this end, it is necessary to recognise the plurality of vocabularies, histories, and cultures within the profession, which can be achieved through a construction that can unite us.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational Therapy
• Knowledge
• Tendencies
• Concept Formation
• Social Justice

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) for inviting me to present the opening keynote lecture in the 18th WFOT Congress 2022. I wish also to express my gratitude to Roseli Lopes and Patrícia Borba for their work in jointly constructing this presentation and in the theoretical elaboration of this debate, whose discussions have accumulated over time from so much coexistence, sharing, and struggles for a social occupational therapy. I am also grateful to Professor Liz Townsend for being available to review it.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 * Marks citations to the Manifesto of Pau-Brasil Poetry (Andrade, 1924).

2 ** Marks citations to the Anthropophagic Manifesto (Andrade, 1928).

3 Theme of the 18th WFOT International Congress: Occupational R-Evolution. https://wfotcongress2022.org

4 The reflections presented here in this text were constructed together with Roseli Lopes and Patrícia Borba in an academic article that has been submitted for publication. Part of this debate was presented in some occupational therapy conferences (IV Occupational Therapy Research National Symposium – 2016, Brazil; XIII Latin America Congress of Occupational Therapy, 2019, Argentina; Inaugural Occupational Science Conference, Canada, 2022; 18th WFOT Congress, France, 2022).

5 Purpose is used here to describe what is intended to be achieved, the goal of professional intervention, also discussed as the ‘objective’ of professional work.

6 The discussions about the loci and the purposes of occupational therapy come from our participation in the Post-Graduate Studies Program in Occupational Therapy at the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil, proposing this collective debate. It happened in 2014–2015, when the PhD in occupational therapy proposition was presented formally to the Brazilian Education Ministry and approved. In 2016, the first offer was made of the discipline Theoretical-Methodological Frameworks in Occupational Therapy, which was designed through a collective debate by researchers who were (and some of them still are) part of the Post-Graduate Studies Program in Occupational Therapy, and also other Brazilian colleagues, aiming at educating doctors in occupational therapy.

7 Part of the reflections in this sub-item were published in Malfitano (2021).