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What is Holistic Medicine Holistic Medicine "Holism" is a concept introduced in the 1920s as an antidote to the analytic reductionism of the sciences. The philosopher of science Jan Christian Smuts first used the term in 1926. It is a way for understanding whole organisms and systems as entities greater than the sum of their parts. Holistic medicine is an approach to the whole person in the context of healing. Holistic practices include humanistic psychotherapy, behavioral psychology, integral and oriental medical practices, all of which are based on an appreciation of the patient as a mental, emotional and spiritual being in addition to being a physical body. The ability of body, mind, emotion and spirit to heal oneself is central to holism, and its techniques respect and encourages this process. There are many aspects of holistic medicine, and we intend to describe and survey the more important ones, especially those that we are able to do ourselves. Beyond the general foundations of holistic practices and good health, there are specific considerations that must be understood and confronted. The characteristics of holistic medicine provide a "new paradigm" for understanding and working with our whole being in the world, that is, a new way of looking at ourselves within the world we create for ourselves. Family background, genetic heritage and society are integral parts of our being and inseparable from the state of our health. Good health is in this context a positive state of being, not merely the absence of disease. Any approach to healing is an aspect of a larger whole that corresponds to the wide range of people's needs. Everyone has his or her own unique reality, emotions, ideas, needs and sort of equilibrium. No one therapy or practice works for everyone. Indeed, the basic principles of holistic medicine are flexible and transformative, both for the practitioner as well as the patient. The process is a continual seeking of the path that leads to wholeness, often through many byways, all of which are necessary in discovering the right route. Healing is a complementary linking up of the orthodox with the unorthodox, so that we can appreciate the wonder of the body and mind. A T
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