Insisting on revolutions: problematization as a “theoretical weapon” for social therapeutic-occupational practice

Abstract

In the face of daily life, marked by alienation, which consumes the possibilities of a life with more freedom, it is important for occupational therapists to understand the forces of capitalism that have been devouring the natural, cultural, political and social bases - in the various dimensions, macro-microsocial, of life. Therefore, a revolutionary perspective is needed that has problematization as a "theoretical weapon" to develop an anti-oppressive therapeutic-occupational practice and that has the creation of "zones of freedom" as an intentionality. In order to substantiate this assertion, we discuss two aspects in this essay: the idealistic overcoming that occupational therapy is essentially good and innocent, thus dealing with its potential, already demonstrated by history, to produce violence, so that it is possible to assume a counter-hegemonic technical-political commitment; and, under these parameters, the proposition of occupational therapists as agents of problematization, in actions that contribute to making daily life happen better. It is a matter of understanding History as a possibility, which does not mean denying its cultural, social, political and economic conditioning, but recognizing them as non-determinant, affirming the ethical responsibility of being in and with the world and, thus, insisting on the guideline of transforming it collectively.