ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the field of rehabilitation has been the location for some fundamental advances in physiotherapy. It explores the concepts of function and rehabilitation before offering a summary history of the rehabilitation movement as it has applied to physiotherapy in the 20th and 21st centuries. The chapter then looks at some of the criticisms levelled against physiotherapists and others who advocate for functional rehabilitation, and tackle some of the costs and benefits of models like the International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF). It also looks at the way the idea of the body-as-functioning-machine has influenced day-to-day physiotherapy practice. The chapter explores some of the different meanings ascribed to function and rehabilitation. The history of rehabilitation in many ways mirrors the history of physiotherapy. In both cases, practices that would later be synonymous with physiotherapy and rehabilitation had existed for many years.
