Holistic
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[edit] Definition
In broad terms, holistic refers to any tendency to perceive or produce things in their entirety rather than piecewise. In alternative or complementary medicine, holistic medicine usually refers to a treatment scheme that attempts to deal with the entire person, including emotional and lifestyle aspects that are not simply aspects of the physical symptoms presented.
[edit] Quotations
- "Where traditional Western medicine identifies and attacks symptoms, holistic medicine seeks to identify the underlying conditions in the client's life that have caused the illness or allowed it to happen and then to alleviate them." San Francisco Bay Guardian 16-23 Oct. 1980
- "Holistic medicine is a system of health care which fosters a cooperative relationship among all those involved, leading towards optimal attainment of the physical, mental emotional, social and spiritual aspects of health.
- "It emphasizes the need to look at the whole person, including analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional, social, spiritual and lifestyle values. It encompasses all stated modalities of diagnosis and treatment including drugs and surgery if no safe alternative exists. Holistic medicine focuses on education and responsibility for personal efforts to achieve balance and well being." [1]
- "Holistic Health is actually an approach to life. Rather than focusing on illness or specific parts of the body, this ancient approach to health considers the whole person and how he or she interacts with his or her environment. It emphasizes the connection of mind, body, and spirit. The goal is to achieve maximum well-being, where everything is functioning the very best that is possible. With Holistic Health people accept responsibility for their own level of well-being, and everyday choices are used to take charge of one's own health." [2]
- "As an iridology student it was drilled into me that iridology cannot diagnose disease. From the holistic (alternative medicine) view this is iridology's strength. Alternative medicine holds that diagnosis is only a method of looking at symptoms and putting a name to them. Iridologists teach that symptoms are late signs of disease and that iridology allow them to catch imbalance in the body before it causes disease.[...]
- "Does this process prove iridology? No, in fact, it condemns iridology" [3]
[edit] Discussion
As presented by many practitioners of alternative medicine, traditional, "Western" medicine is not "holistic," in that it is simply an attempt to label a collection of symptoms and to treat the symptoms, without regard to the underlying causes.
Unfortunately, this is a misrepresentation of conventional medical practices. In a simple example, part of the reason that doctors take general medical histories as a matter of course for all their patients is to make sure that they are aware of everything that might be affecting the patient. Similarly, doctors are generally well aware of situations where the patient's lifestyle and emotions are of crucial importance to their overall well-being, which is why people are so often advised to eat better, lose weight, exercise more, stop smoking, and so forth. In point of fact, practitioners of so-called "holistic medicine" are much more likely to ignore the overall aspects of the patient, such as recommending treatments based only on an examination of the pulse or of the iris of the eye. As such, "holistic medicine" is simply an example of the "strawman" fallacy.
