The energy that sparked a profession

O'Brien smiled faintly. "You are no metaphysician, Winston," he said. "Until this moment you had never considered what is meant by existence. I will put it more precisely. Does the past exist concretely, in space? Is there somewhere or other a place, a world of solid objects, where the past is still happening?" "No." "Then where does the past exist, if at all?" "In records. It is written down." "In records. And- ?" "In the mind. In human memories." (Orwell, p. 205).One telling of the history of the American Occupational Therapy Association is captured in Virginia Quiroga's book "Occupational Therapy: The First Thirty Years 1900-1930." The opening statement in her text regarding George Barton is "Studying George Barton's career in occupational therapy is like trying to follow the course of a comet: after a moment of brilliance as it races across the night sky, it suddenly burns out."  (p. 116).Quiroga's work is admirable particularly because the text was published in 1995, before the Internet was functionally available as a research tool.  The fact that she gathered as much information as she did is quite remarkable.  However, her analysis of Barton in the text is not complete, and many records are now available that may not have been available at the time her book was published. In her telling, she speculates on what she considers the curious nature of his participation, partially supported by the constricted number of  letters and other writings...
Source: ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog - Category: Occupational Therapists Tags: history Source Type: blogs