Moses N. Ikiugu

Meaningful Living Across the Lifespan

Moses N. Ikiugu

‘Meaningful Living across the Lifespan is an important book for the 21st Century.Educators, students and the general public will find much to ponder in the discussions of Victor Frankl and other ideas about meaning and how meaning is connected with occupation broadly defined as all human activity. Whereas the first parts of this book are theoretical, the final parts offer a detailed guide for practical action targeted to occupational therapists and occupational scientists. This is an important textbook for those who are concerned with occupation-based practice.’ Elizabeth Townsend, PhD, Professor Emerita, Dalhousie University Canada
‘This book by the brilliant team of Ikiugu and Pollard takes an occupational lens to the problem of how human beings achieve meaningful lives, given the challenges they face as individuals and in communities over time. A magisterial rethinking in occupational terms of social science and behavioral science,politics and the humanities, Meaningful Living across the Lifespan is a coming of age story for occupational therapy and occupational science. This is a book to help the world’s 350,000 occupational therapists—and generations of students—to expand and justify practice for more humane and sustainable lifestyles for all people and their cultures.’ Gelya Frank, Ph.D., Professor, Mrs. T. H. Chan Division of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California
Occupational therapy and occupational science are based on the basic idea that participation in meaningful occupations is essential for health and a sense of well-being.However, there is no agreement regarding what constitutes meaningful occupation, or exactly how participation in meaningful occupation works to produce good health and a sense of well-being. In this book we attempt to bridge the gap between the postulation that meaningful occupations are related to health and a sense of well-being, and an understanding of how people use meaningful occupations to create and to discover meaning in their lives. Key topics in the book are:
· An understanding of meaningfulness from multiple perspectives
· Exploration of how people search for meaning throughout their lives using the analogy o fthe quest for meaning as a life-long journey
· Examination of how occupations are used to help people create and discover meaning at different stages in this life-long journey
· Illustration of a step-by-step application of a theoretical conceptual practice model that can be used to guide people in examining their lives and using occupations to optimize meaning in their lives
· Some thoughts about how occupational therapists/scientists can use occupation-based interventions not only to help people optimize meaning in their lives, but also to address the outstanding global problems of our times
This book is an important resource for occupational therapists and scientists who really want to understand meaningful occupations both conceptually and operationally.
This book is the first in the new series Critical Studies in Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science