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Australian Occupational Therapy Journal (2013) 60, 301–303 doi: 10.1111/1440-1630.12026

Viewpoint

The dark side of occupation: A concept for consideration

Rebecca Twinley
Faculty of Health, Education and Society, School of Health Professions, Peninsula Allied Health Centre, Plymouth
University, Plymouth, UK

KEY WORDS dark side, occupation, occupational science. consideration of the dark side into research, theory,
education and practice.

Introduction
Occupation: Our core concept
Occupation is the core concept of the occupational ther-
apy profession and its underlying philosophy, and has The question considered is how adequate, all-encom-
long been the primary topic of concern for occupational passing and holistic are the current definitions of
scientists. As a result, occupation has been continuously occupation that exist, and which therefore inform our
defined and discussed by occupational therapists and associated understanding of occupation? There are
scientists, with our understanding of what constitutes certainly definitions of occupation that could be seen
occupation ever-evolving. The focus of occupational to attempt to incorporate every potential aspect of
therapy and science literature has been upon occupation human occupation. To illustrate, Law & Baum assert
and its link to good health and wellbeing. Occupation occupation is everything we do in life, including
has therefore largely been understood as something actions, tasks, activities, thinking and being (2005). It
positive and productive for the individual, groups and is anticipated that utilising a broader, more inclusive
communities. Only recently has this belief begun to be definition such as this can enable an analysis of any
challenged (Kiepek & Magalhaes, 2011). This article pre- of the occupations a person engages in, performs or
sents the assertion that occupation must be viewed as experiences. However, currently our professional liter-
many-sided, multifaceted and that, of these many ature and evidence-base has a dominant focus on
‘sides’, there is a dark side to occupation (Twinley & those occupations that can restore or maintain good
Addidle, 2012). The dark side is understood to include health, development, growth, social interaction, pro-
various dimensions of occupation that have not, tradi- ductivity and that promote a state of wellbeing. Le-
tionally, been examined by occupational therapy theor- clair’s (2010) examination of various definitions of
ists, researchers and practitioners and occupational occupation found that several agree upon the notion
scientists, and which may not lead to good health and/ that occupation is subjective because it is something
or wellbeing. Reference is made to an online discussion experienced by an individual and also that, as each of
forum in which a talk about the dark side of occupation us participate in our daily occupations, we are able to
was facilitated; contributions from this discussion are positively contribute to our respective communities.
included as examples of some people’s current opinions Leclair also discusses another important feature of
regarding the dark side of occupation. The article con- occupation as being something that can be shared
cludes with recommendations for how to implement a with at least one other person and can therefore be
described as a shared, collective or co-occupation.
However, still the explanation of these occupations
relates to those that are traditionally viewed as posi-
Rebecca Twinley MSc, PGCAP, BSc (Hons); Lecturer in tive, such as the family occupation of having a meal.
Occupational Therapy. Many authors profess occupational therapy is a holis-
Correspondence: Rebecca Twinley, Faculty of Health, Edu- tic profession, but how can occupational therapy – very
cation and Society, School of Health Professions, Peninsula much a discipline that sees therapists working with a
Allied Health Centre, Plymouth University, Derriford diverse population of individuals with such an equally
Road, Plymouth PL6 8BH, UK. Email: rebecca.twinley@
diverse range of occupational performance, participa-
plymouth.ac.uk
tion, engagement and justice issues – have come this far
Accepted for publication 13 November 2012. without truly considering the whole picture in terms of
© 2012 The Author what occupation is? And what every occupation a per-
Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2012 Occupational son, group or community might engage in?
Therapy Australia
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302 VIEWPOINT

Start at the very beginning not always be productive, yet may provide a sense of well-
being. Amongst other things, it includes tasks, activities,
The importance we place upon occupation is clearly inher- routines or acts that are considered antisocial, perhaps
ent in the curriculums of pre-registration undergraduate even criminal and illegal. Use of the term ‘dark side’ is not
programmes. Occupational therapy students are encour- intended to portray occupation as having two sides. As the
aged to learn about occupation: what it can constitute; the definition and understanding of occupation has evolved,
reasons for promoting engagement in occupation; how to the great majority of accounts do now assert that occupa-
measure and analyse occupation; how to use it as a tool tion is something that is complex and multidimensional. It
for assessment, a therapeutic tool for intervention and as a is certainly not something that can be divided into this side
tool for evaluation. Occupation is learnt about in terms of and that. However, in many ways the term ‘dark side’
its health-promoting potential. Crucially, this means occu- seems fitting; it suggests occupation is something that has
pational therapy students can appreciate the power of aspects which are less acknowledged, less explored and
occupation and its integral role in each of our daily lives. less understood. It presents occupation as something
We ask that students learn to observe and analyse peo- which has aspects to it that have been left in the shadows.
ple performing, or attempting to perform, their daily occu- Something that, when prompted to consider, we all know
pations. We encourage them to understand individuals as is there, yet something that many of us have not incorpo-
occupational beings. And, in understanding occupation, rated into our theory, understanding and use of occupa-
we expect students to be able to go out and ‘use’ occupa- tion. Perhaps this is because there is an immense dearth of
tion in their practice. The impact of this is reflected in stud- work that clearly incorporates those other aspects of occu-
ies such as that conducted by Aguilar, Stupens, Scutter pation that could be seen to exist as part of the dark side.
and King (2012). They explored the professional values of That is, occupations that could be one of, or a combination
Australian occupational therapists and found that the par- of, the following: anti-social; criminal; deviant; violent;
ticipants clearly valued occupation, and appreciated the disruptive; harmful; unproductive; non-health-giving;
importance of using it as the therapeutic medium. Their non-health-promoting; addictive and politically, socially,
participants understood the focus on ‘what people do’ as religiously or culturally extreme. Occupations that, to the
the unique feature of the occupational therapy profession. individual performing them, could still be any combina-
Occupation was understood as a human right. What tion of the following: meaningful, purposeful, creative,
would be interesting to explore further is what specific engaging, relaxing, enjoyable, entertaining, that can pro-
occupations were the participants considering? And what vide a sense of wellbeing and even that are occupational in
do they perceive as constituting human occupation? This the sense of being an individual’s paid or unpaid work.
is important to dissect when we consider the assertion that
participation in occupation should be a human right.
However, can we be confident we are educating truly Discussing the dark side
holistic, client-centred and occupation-focussed therapists On March 13th 2012 a group of sixteen people from dif-
when they are only expected to learn about occupation as ferent countries and professional backgrounds, including
something positive, productive and health-giving, and as occupational therapists and students, engaged in an
something that we must therefore work with individuals online discussion regarding the dark side of occupation,
to be able to engage in and perform? We do expect students hosted on a Twitter forum named #occhat (https://twit-
to learn about reasons for impaired or limited occupational ter.com/i/#!/search?q=%23Occhat, accessed 21 Septem-
functioning, performance and engagement. However, it is ber, 2012). This discussion was inspired by Twinley and
suggested that we do not sufficiently ask that they consider Addidle’s (2011) presentation at an international occupa-
the impact of non-health-giving, anti-social or unproduc- tional science conference – held in Plymouth, UK –
tive occupations upon an individual and his/her daily where they first proposed consideration of the dark side
routine. Exploring the dark side of occupation might of occupation. The group discussed topics such as: how
promote a far more balanced, broader and inclusive people define the dark side of occupation; how adequate
appreciation of human occupation. Notably, Pierce (2012) current definitions of occupation are; whether occupa-
suggested occupational science can increase its social rele- tional therapy and occupational science frameworks sup-
vance by describing occupations that are self-damaging, port the assertion that people can and do engage in the
deviant or disrupted. This is about both widening and dark side of occupation; the significance of considering
deepening our understanding of occupations in which all of a person’s occupations, rather than only those that
people participate in, perform and can find meaningful. promote health and wellbeing and the challenges this
consideration of the dark side may present in practice.
A review of the discussion that resulted demonstrates
The dark side of occupation how, initially, participants felt that the concept of the dark
This leads us to consider the dark side of occupation side of occupation was relatively novel to them. There
(Twinley & Addidle, 2011, 2012); that is the things some were comments posted such as: “… never considered the
people do that may not always promote good health, may ‘dark side’ before” and “I have to say it was something

© 2012 The Author

Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2012 Occupational Therapy Australia
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DARK SIDE OF OCCUPATION 303

I had not really considered either” (OTalk_Occhat, 2012). experience, including their current life stage, recent life
However, over the course of the discussion it became events and future plans. In addition to focussing on the
apparent that the dark side is something a few had human element and experience of occupation (be that
considered in their work; two members drew upon their individual or shared or collective), Hocking (2009) pro-
experiences from practice when working with clients who posed for a focus on occupation itself, to include the devel-
wished to smoke, with one recalling how she worked with opment of in-depth descriptions of human occupations.
a company to get a custom-made smoking aid made for a This would facilitate development of our theoretical per-
client. Others spoke about how engagement in pro-social spective and understanding of human occupations in the
and health-giving occupations can lead to occupational quest to gain in-depth descriptions of all those occupa-
imbalance and, therefore, to people becoming engaged in tions yet to be explored. These occupations need to be con-
the darker side of occupation. Examples included being a textualised; that is, explored with a consideration of the
student with a substantial workload and how this leads to context within which they are experienced and per-
becoming a ‘workaholic’, and the proposal that: “The pur- formed, including the physical, environmental, sociocul-
pose of an occ(upation) could make it dark… e.g. Physical tural, political and historical context. It is crucial our
activity and eating disorders” (OTalk_Occhat, 2012). analysis, construction, comprehension and critique of
occupation continue to develop and evolve.
Exploring the dark side: An example
References
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© 2012 The Author

Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2012 Occupational Therapy Australia