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Conceptualizing holism in international interdisciplinary critical perspective: Toward a framework for understanding holistic health

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Abstract

The concept of holism is defined in disparate ways. This article offers foundational understandings of this term from various parts of the world, illustrating the virtually universal, historical, as well as contemporary nature of ideas such as interconnectedness, unity and oneness. Throughout human history, holistic worldviews were dominant until the past 400 years or so. At present, a revival of holistic thought-forms is taking place in many parts of the world. The purpose of this article is to sketch the landscape of holistic philosophical foundations, discuss systems science in this context and apply these underpinnings to holistic health in the hope that it will increase our understanding of both the conceptual foundations of holism, as well as its applications to health promotion, disease prevention, treatment of ill health and palliation. The article will conclude with the recommendation that holistic health-care practitioners take social inequities into account, so that this integrative health-care can become a means for individuals to take action for wellness, as well as a means to create structural changes toward equitable resource distribution.

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Notes

  1. Marti Kheel (1989) warns that Hippocrates’ contributions are often idealized as holistic. She argues that Hippocratic ideas marked the beginnings of a dualistic mentality that separated mind and body, human being and nature. She notes that in Hippocratic medicine, the patient's symptoms were aggravated to the point of a healing crisis. Purgings, bleedings, induced vomitings and other ‘heroic’ feats were used in this task. ‘The notion of “aiding” nature had already led to the practice (by male physicians) of giving her a “helpful” shove. Meanwhile, witches and faith healers were branded by Hippocrates as charlatans and quacks’ (p.101). Kheel thus links the demise of holistic healing to some of the principles espoused by Hippocrates. She also links patriarchal domination to the destruction of holistic healing, which was practised primarily by women. She asserts that the Greeks were the beginnings, in the ‘Western’ world, of wararchy: cultures based on war-worship, which moved away from the Goddess-worshipping cultures of the pre-patriarchal world. This mentality is perpetuated by metaphors such as the ‘war’ against disease.

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  1. Department of Family Practice, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC, Canada

    Farah M Shroff

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  1. Farah M Shroff
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Shroff, F. Conceptualizing holism in international interdisciplinary critical perspective: Toward a framework for understanding holistic health. Soc Theory Health 9, 244–255 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/sth.2011.6

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