Holism in psychology is a term that suggests that people, as a whole, are much more than the sum of their parts. Holistic psychology works by focusing on how all the parts of each person work together, not being able to dissociate their functions in certain processes. .
To understand the reasons why we think or behave in a certain way, holistic psychology is committed to studying the person as a whole, stead of one aspect of the problem.
- There are many factors that interact and interfere to influence or condition us.
- And it is this aspect that saves holism to try to understand the course of a case or problem.
A very clear example is in the brain itself: we know it contains millions of neurons, but looking at each of them separately does not tell us what the brain as a whole can do.
A holistic approach is taken when considering how different factors work and interact with each other and how this set can affect a person’s behavior or emotional state, in this sense the variables involved are very heterogeneous.
They include the place and people you live with, your work, your job and education training, your social relationships, your group interaction, your health, and your perception of well-being and stress.
Thus, we find that the person’s observation is not only delegated to the analysis of their symptoms.
Holistic psychology, compared to other more reductionist approaches, has many points that identify it as one of the best approaches to intervention. Incorporating many factors into the study increases the chances of finding the source of the problem.
The disadvantage is that the increase in the spectrum of analysis often also increases the demand for resources allocated to it.
In any case, this approach allows for more accurate and potentially better solutions, combining interventions at different levels.
In many cases, paying the price for more analysis and evaluation time results in much richer interventions projecting more stable changes.
When we look at people in a holistic way, we can address many aspects that influence how a person feels, both mentally, physically, and socially.
It’s really about taking a step back and getting the big picture. It is about taking a step back from the knowledge we have about that person. Holistic psychology doesn’t just see trees, it looks for a plan for the whole forest.
As with almost all approaches, holistic psychology is not without drawbacks, in some types of problems it is advisable to focus on a specific aspect to find a solution.
In this sense, holistic psychology can hinder this accuracy, especially when working in research, the variables involved must be clearly defined, so holistic psychology is not always compatible with the scientific method.
Holisticism is a complex approach that can guide the development of challenging assessments and interventions due to their complexity.
This can make it difficult to treat the holistic approach in some cases, just as many professionals can’t apply it.
In psychology and throughout its history, we find several schools of thought that have adopted this holistic approach, including the psychology of Gestalt, which strongly holds that human behavior should be considered as a whole.
Humanist psychology is another school of holistic thinking that appeared as a partial response to behavioral and psychoanalytic school reductionism.
Social psychology also integrates this holistic approach by bringing together environmental, social, emotional and group aspects.
Holistic psychology is especially interesting because of its ability to provide solutions where other reductionist approaches do not arrive, it evaluates how our past has influenced us, how we live our present and how we face the future.