Occupational therapy and the expression “life production”: what do the Brazilian productions say?

Abstract

The production of national knowledge of occupational therapy took place in a contextualized way in line with the development of the profession, in its various fields of activity. In the last decades, there were propositions of expanded perspectives and concepts that point to possible interlocutions in this plurality. In this sense, this study sought to understand how the expression “life production” has been used by the national literature of occupational therapy, based on a bibliographic review of multidimensional strategy. The LILACS database and national journals in the area were consulted, identifying 29 productions with the expression “production of life” or similar, to analyze the profile of publications, authors, and references and the meanings involved in understanding the expression. The findings have become numerically more significant over the past ten years; they were related to themes of mental health, social field, arts and culture, collective health, occupational therapy foundations, and work field; and the references cited occupational therapy, psychiatry, philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychology, collective health, and anthropology authors. The analysis of their understanding indicated four categories: work as social emancipation; expanding health actions; creative experience and cultural transformation; and maintenance of existence. Emphasizing the consistent production on the expression 'life production', we concluded that the expression involves meanings in the construction of know-how more connected to the world, the different ways of existing and being the protagonist of life.

Keywords:
Occupational Therapy; Concept Formation; Review Literature as Topic