Holism
Is illness necessarily the inadequate or inappropriate expression of a relationship with our environment? Is it possible to feel ill and yet be reacting healthily to the world around us? Yes, it is. When we react against a bacterium with inflammation, when we grieve over the death of someone close, when we suffer pain from overstraining while lifting, we respond healthily. There are numerous conditions that we perceive in negative ways but are healthy responses by our body to potential threats.
Total health has to do with all following relationships:
- Cognitively; we think and reason about things
- Affectively; we feel and interpret inwardly about our world
- Socially; we interact and communicate with other people
- Spiritually; we seek meaning and purpose in the world
What is healthcare?
- If health is only the absence of disease, then health care’s main function should only be concerned with identifying and eradicating the disease.
- However, if health is seen in a broader light as a measure of the efficiency with which we relate, then eradication of disease will be seen as only a part of total health care.
If the emphasis is upon relationships, then it makes little sense to concentrate our study upon individual parts (the study of parts may give insight into the ways in which those parts relate to each other). We need a conceptual model that allows us to view health and change in health as an expression of the appropriate or inappropriate way in which the body relates to the world.
Key distinction; reductionism examines the nature of ‘parts’; holism examines the relationship between ‘parts’.
Perhaps at times, we need to treat things that are not causing illness or suffering, but which in our judgment are contributing overall to an inadequate or inappropriate relationship with the patient’s environment.
Stephen Tyreman 1992. Concepts for Osteopathic Health Care, Section 4. General Systems Theory. BSO course notes (extracts)