Occupational therapists as “intellectuals”: learning from Edward Said

Abstract

Introduction: Palestinian philosopher, Edward Said, claimed that the role of intellectuals is to interrogate the unquestioned assumptions on which their discipline’s practices depend, resist the uncritical acceptance of authoritative discourses, and stand in opposition to injustice and oppression. Said defined some professionals as “maintainers”, whose work contributes to preserving the status quo of power and practice. He differentiated these people from “intellectuals”: those academics, and practitioners (“organic intellectuals”) who challenge orthodoxy and provoke change. Objectives: To highlight the importance of Said’s ideas to the work of those occupational therapists striving towards an anti-ableist, ethically-consistent, and socially-accountable profession. Method: This paper explores aspects of Said’s work that have particular relevance for occupational therapists seeking to contest the injustices of the profession’s status quo and realign the profession’s professed values and Position Statements with its actions. Results: Said exhorted intellectuals to contest the proclamations and platitudes of those wielding power within their discipline. Because he refuted professionals’ collusion with classificatory practices that reinforce colonialism’s hierarchical systems of injustice (for example, by assessing and documenting physical and functional differences from constructed “norms”), his work has clear relevance to an occupational therapy profession informed by, and promoting an ableist ideology. Conclusion: Intellectual integrity obligates occupational therapists to expose hypocrisy within their profession’s discourses and practices, demand accountability, and engage in, and promote sceptical critical consciousness. Said’s work provides inspiration for those occupational therapists contesting the ableist status quo, and demanding that their profession enact its stated commitment to resisting injustice and supporting human rights.