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Paper short abstract:

Psychiatric occupational therapy aims to support patients regaining their ability to function in everyday life through the use of objects. Crafting turns into a therapeutic practice, the produced objects develop co-therapeutic and co-diagnostic agencies within the process.

Paper long abstract:

Objects shape our everyday life in many ways. Objects, artefacts or materiality are central and defining topics in Science and Technology Studies.

Patients in mental health treatment are often considered to not be able to deal with their everyday life. During Occupational Therapy objects such as pencils, rattan, brushes or soapstone are intended to treat these patients. Crafting is transformed into a therapeutic process. What do patients learn and how do they and their therapists discuss how to reach therapy goals? How is the making of objects included in the process? Can objects have impact in therapy?

Despite the increasing attention given to objects in Science and Technology Studies and the vast amounts of concepts available for studying objects, discussions in STS are mainly of conceptual or methodological nature and rarely engage with the practicalities of applied ethnography with objects. The study is based on twelve months of participatory observations in psychiatric health care units in two hospitals in and around Berlin (Germany). It argues, objects become co-therapeutic and co-diagnostic converting crafting into a therapeutic process in order to be able to "do everyday life" and tries to find out, how objects unfold these material agencies within the process of making.

Key words: Medical Anthropology, STS, Objects, Making things, Making everyday life