Holism
The term holistic is entirely derived from the abstraction of the whole of the adjective , which can be proven in the German language before the 8th century . “Whole” originally means whole, unharmed and complete. Holisticness is therefore the consideration of a thing in the systemic completeness of all parts as well as in the totality of its properties and relationships with one another.
Holism as a way of looking at things
The consideration and treatment of a topic, an object or a relationship in its entirety means a comprehensive, far-sighted and far-sighted consideration of as many aspects and relationships as possible:
- recognizable origins ( causality )
- Goals and provisions
- Properties, attributions and assignments,
- direct and indirect relationships and cross-relationships
- Rules, values and norms
- Framework conditions, benefit considerations , application aspects and
- Side effects , consequential effects and interactions of the system behavior - and foreseeable reactions of others when dealing with them.
In philosophy there are several approaches to grasp and describe the essence, the entirety of a thing or a concept. The dialectic is a generic term for such methods, which require to think in complementary pairs of opposites, and to inquire: the up and down, the past and the future, pro and con, conflicts of interest u. a. m.
Two different ways of examining the relationship between the whole and its parts are denoted by the terms “ analysis ” and “ synthesis ”: In analysis, the whole is broken down into its parts. In the synthesis, the whole is reconstructed by ascending from the simplest to the concrete.
While wholeness is often secondary in science in favor of considering individual parts ( reductionism ), it has always been the primary goal of mythical thinking in cultures close to nature . If holism is raised to the guiding principle in modern sciences , one speaks of holism (holism).
Holistic medicine
Holistic medicine is an approach in health care according to which the whole person is to be viewed and treated in his life context with an emphasis on subjectivity and individuality . The terms holistic medicine and holistic medicine are also used synonymously.
According to this, the human being would be a structured, outwardly open system , the parts of which are mutually related to one another, to the whole organism and to the outside world. Factors to be considered in medical treatment would therefore be the unity of body , soul and spirit , ideals and values of the patient, his way of life ( exercise , nutrition , stress , relaxation ), the social environment with all relationships (partner, family, job, fellow human beings , Society), the natural environment (water, soil, air, climate), the artificial environment (living space, workplace, technology) and, according to some of the views, also supernatural (religion, belief, spirituality).
Man is more than the sum of his limbs and organs (multiplicity of body parts), only through their functional continuity is man a living whole (unity in multiplicity). Here, continuity is not to be understood purely in terms of time, but as a constant, seamless functional context. In the tradition of Hippocrates, the healthy organism is precisely that whole, the parts of which show no break in continuity. The disease manifests itself in the wounds as a result of the break in continuity. In this sense, the break in continuity would be a suspension or at least a disruption of the unity in plurality. The extreme case of a break in continuity would be the separation of the individual body parts and organs, which would lead to the end of the organism (as a living whole). Already Plotinus had pointed out the unity of body and soul:
- "The whole soul is in every part of the body and also completely in its entirety."
According to holistic medicine, the health problem areas should be recognized with their various connections and a one-sided emphasis on individual aspects should be avoided. The aim is the comprehensive consideration of all aspects of illness and health. The human being should not only be an object of medical techniques, but should be perceived and treated in its entirety in the sense of humanism as the measure of all things . The methods of scientific medicine , biological medicine and alternative healing methods are combined with methods of psychotherapy to form a uniform therapy .
In the narrower sense, holistic medicine is a slang term. The assignment of different healing methods is then not based on any scientifically or state-recognized criteria. The traditional Chinese medicine , the anthroposophic medicine or Ayurveda regard themselves as holistic approaches.
On the other hand, psychosomatics and medical cybernetics are scientifically recognized as holistic approaches in medicine, whereby the application of cybernetics or systems theory to medical questions is still in its infancy. Only the Medical University of Vienna has an independent institute for medical cybernetics.
Holism in body psychotherapy
The body psychotherapy is based on the assumption that the body, mind and soul were not separable. All mental, emotional and physical processes of the human organism are subject to the wholeness of the self and are inseparably connected with one another.
That is why it is possible to get to psychological issues via body sensations such as hot, cold, spongy, tingling, firm or inflated. Conversely, emotions could be checked via physical perception (see also Eugene T. Gendlin , Focusing ). The non-verbal communication between therapist and client via body language would be an indication of closeness-distance behavior, which plays an important role in communication in relationships. At the same time, the way in which space is dealt with (intimate sphere, proxemics ) is an indication of the biography and reflects emotions (feeling drawn), values (prejudices) and attitudes. In addition, physical symptoms such as anxiety in the neck , clammy hands, and heavy breath could be indications of psychological processes.
These assumptions experience a certain confirmation by research results in neuroscience , brain research and neuropsychology , in particular from Giacomo Rizzolatti , the researcher of mirror neurons , as well as António Damásio , Gerhard Roth (biologist) , Gerald Hüther and Joachim Bauer . Difference theoretical considerations z. B. in systems theory with Niklas Luhmann u. a. assume that the relationships postulated in this way would be grossly simplistic or even inadequate.
Holistic approach to education
In pedagogy, holism refers to a neurophysiologically founded, integrative component of action-oriented concepts. It is based on reform pedagogy and, in addition to the traditionally privileged cognitive-intellectual aspects, also emphasizes physical and affective-emotional aspects. Holistic learning is learning with all the senses, with mind, spirit and body. Unlike constructivism (learning psychology) , gestalt pedagogy takes a rudimentary holistic approach.
Holism in movement science
In contrast to the empirical- analytical (e.g. biomechanical, ability-oriented) approaches, the focus here is on the holistic view of movement and not its breakdown into individual parts. A movement is therefore more than the sum of its individual components.
The movement coordination does not include only the co-ordination of movement phases , power pulses and neurophysiological function processes but also a purposeful coordination of the different levels of control of the central nervous system occurring sub-processes. The system dynamic approach and the connectionism consider the internal aspect and are mainly characterized by a very theoretical orientation. The morphology, which examines the external aspect, i.e. the pure observation of a movement, is designed to be very practical and is of great importance for sports practice. Morphology is generally regarded as the most elementary holistic approach and is particularly relevant for movement analyzes.
literature
- Karen Gloy : The understanding of nature , Vol. 2: The history of holistic thinking , Beck, Munich 1996, licensed edition, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-406-38551-6 .
- Anne Harrington : The Search for Wholeness. The history of biological-psychological holistic teaching. From the German Empire to the New Age movement . rororo, Reinbek 2002, ISBN 3-499-55577-8 .
- Gustavo Bueno Martinez , whole / part article , in: Hans Jörg Sandkühler u. a. (Ed.): European encyclopedia on philosophy and science . Meiner-Verlag, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-7873-0983-7 .
- Willibald Pschyrembel : Naturopathy Dictionary . 2nd edition, de Gruyter, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-11-016609-7 .
- Georgi Schischkoff : Philosophical Dictionary . Kröner, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-520-01321-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Kluge, Etymological Dictionary, de Gruyter, Berlin 1999, p. 298.
- ↑ Cf. Gustavo Bueno Martinez, Article Whole / Part , in: Sandkühler (Ed.), European Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Sciences , Volume 2, p. 226.
- ^ Claude Lévi-Strauss: The wild thinking. Translation by Hans Naumann. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1968.
- ↑ a b c Pschyrembel, Dictionary Naturopathy, p. 130.
- ↑ Compare Gustavo Bueno Martinez, Article Whole / Part , in: Sandkühler (Ed.), European Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Sciences , Volume 2, p. 220.
- ^ Rainer Wollny: Movement Science: A textbook in 12 lessons. 2nd Edition. Meyer & Meyer, Aachen 2010, ISBN 978-3898991834 , pp. 31, 32.
- ^ Rainer Wollny: Movement Science: A textbook in 12 lessons. 2nd Edition. Meyer & Meyer, Aachen 2010, ISBN 978-3898991834 , pp. 75-78.