The Meaning of Everyday Occupation

by Hasselkus, Betty Risteen

• ISBN13: 9781556423987
• ISBN10: 1556423985
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-31
• Publisher: Slack Incorporated

Summary

The Meaning of Everyday Occupationdescribes the meaning found in the ordinary and familiar occupations that make up our everyday lives. Meaning and everyday occupation are dimensions of living that are of the utmost importance to quality of life for each of us.This exceptional new text is about occupation as an experience rather than occupation as a task. Occupation as experience is occupation as it is perceived through our senses, as it is lived through, as it isexperienced. From an occupational perspective, the occupations of our lives and the meanings of those occupations are essential contributors to the pace and direction of the life flow. Daily occupation is viewed as the essential current that propels each of us along a lifelong journey.The initial chapters in the text address the concepts of meaningfulness and meaninglessness in our lives as well as meaning and occupation. Cultural contributions to meaningful occupation and the contributions of experiential space and place are discussed. Subsequent chapters focus on the primary ways in which daily occupation contributes to meaning in our livesas a source of connection to others, as a force for well-being and lifespan development, as a source of meaning in disability, and as a repository of creativity and spirituality.The Meaning of Everyday Occupationcontains many theoretical concepts related to everyday occupational experiences that are interwoven in all chapters. Quotations and stories from the author's phenomenological research on occupation and from her own life experiences, as well as illustrations from literature are used liberally throughout the book.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
About the Author	ix
Introduction	xi
Meaning: An Essential for Life	1	(12)
Personal and Social Meanings	3	(2)
Meaning and Performance in Life	5	(1)
Aspects of Seeing	6	(1)
How Do We ``Know'' Meaning?	7	(3)
The Open Door Policy	10	(3)
Meaning in Everyday Occupation	13	(12)
Happiness Is	14	(3)
Occupation and Being	17	(3)
Occupation and Becoming	20	(2)
Conclusions	22	(3)
Space and Place: Sources of Meaning in Occupation	25	(16)
Space and Place in Our Lives	26	(2)
Placelessness	28	(1)
``A Place to Call Home''	29	(3)
At Home in an Institution	32	(1)
Special Places	33	(3)
Health and Well-Being Within Space and Place	36	(5)
Culture and Occupation: The Experience of Similarity and Difference	41	(18)
Culture as Similarity and Difference	42	(3)
Cultivating the Similar in Our Lives	45	(3)
Cultivating Difference in Our Lives	48	(1)
Structuring the Similarities: Routines, Habits, and Rituals	48	(5)
Disability as Difference	53	(6)
Occupation as a Source of Well-Being and Development	59	(12)
The Essence of Well-Being	60	(5)
Occupation and Human Development	65	(4)
Occupation to the End	69	(2)
Disability and Occupation	71	(14)
The Faces of Disability	72	(3)
Occupation as Disability Experience	75	(3)
Disability as Occupational Experience	78	(3)
Being the Bridge	81	(4)
Occupation as Meaningful Connection	85	(16)
Capacity for Relatedness	86	(2)
Relation and Well-Being	88	(2)
A Balance of Solitude and Relation	90	(1)
Occupational Therapy and Connectedness	91	(4)
Occupational Forms of Relation	95	(3)
Conclusion	98	(3)
Occupation as a Source of Spirituality	101	(14)
This Thing Called Spirituality	102	(1)
Spiritual ``Health''	103	(2)
Spirituality and Occupation: Compatible Partners?	105	(2)
Spirituality and Everyday Occupation	107	(2)
Spirituality and Occupational Therapy	109	(2)
Spirituality as the Space Within	111	(4)
Creativity in Occupation: A Source of Meaning	115	(16)
Beginnings	116	(6)
Creativity and Health	122	(6)
To the Dancing Star	128	(3)
Final Thoughts	131	(6)
References	137	(16)
Index	153