The Profession’s Image, 1917–1925, Part II: Occupational Therapy as Represented by the Profession

Abstract

Abstract This second part of a two-part article examines the representation of occupational therapy during its formative years, 1917–1925. It focuses on the image of the profession as it was described in the early professional journals and compares this image with that projected by the media (as described in Part I). Both the media and professional literature presented a similar image of occupational therapy: that of a profession that offered the promise of returning persons with disabilities to useful occupation within society. In today’s health care system, where every profession espouses the goal of returning patients to full functioning, it is important to remember that in 1917 only one profession held that goal. The portrayal in the media and in the professional literature of occupational therapy at that time confirms this image.