Occupational Therapy: History and Modernity Occupational therapy (ergotherapy) is a scientific and practical discipline based on the use of purposeful activity (occupation) for the restoration, maintenance, and development of human functional abilities. Its evolution from moral treatment to evidence-based rehabilitation science reflects fundamental changes in the understanding of health, disability, and social integration. Historical Roots: From Moral Treatment to Systematization The origins of occupational therapy lie in ancient practices of using labor and handicrafts to distract from painful thoughts. However, a systematic approach emerged in the late 18th to early 19th centuries within the framework of the "moral treatment" movement. Philip Pinel (France) and William Tuke (England) began replacing chains and isolation with structured activities (gardening, crafts) in psychiatric asylums, believing that occupation ordered the mind and promoted recovery. Labor was considered a tool for moral correction and discipline. In the United States, Benjamin Rush ("the father of American psychiatry") in the early 19th century advocated manual labor as a treatment for melancholy. A key turning point occurred after World War I, when a huge number of young disabled veterans with physical and psychological injuries ("shell shock") emerged. The need for their return to active life required a scientific approach. "Occupational schools" emerged where veterans were trained in professions adapted to their abilities. Emergence of a Professional Discipline (20th Century) Occupational therapy formally became a profession in 1917 with the establishment of the National Society for the Promotion of Occupational Therapy (NSPOT) in the United States. Its pioneers were: William Rush Danton Jr. and Eleanor Clarke Slagle, who viewed activity as a fundamental human need, and its disruption as a cause of dysfunction. Slagle founded the first educational program for occupational therapists. In th ... Read more