AUTHOR COPY - Trent University

Conceptualizing holism in international interdisciplinary critical perspective
and allopathic medicine to improve population health. Given that the basis of
holistic philosophy is unity and oneness, a health-care system that incorporates
the most effective aspects of various systems of medicine would have powerful
potential to improve population health on many levels. If practitioners were to
also take social inequities into account, this integrative health-care could truly
become a means for individuals to take action for wellness, as well as a means
to create structural changes toward equitable resource distribution. I have
written elsewhere (Shroff, 1996) about a health-care system that incorporates
public health approaches and integrates best practices from multiparadigmatic
medical systems.
This article also reviewed the interdisciplinary nature of the concept of
holism, illustrating the philosophical and scholarly unity in the notions of unity
and oneness, interconnection, inseparability of mind and body. Modern physics,
particularly quantum mechanics, is at the forefront of the scientific frontier
that has arrived at the same conclusions as philosophical ideas from Hinduism,
Buddhism, Indigenous, African and other cosmologies. Systems science, an
interdisciplinary enterprise, is also part of this movement away from a reliance
on reductionist thinking.
Although holistic thought-forms are ancient, they have modern applications.
One of the most significant applications are holistic health practices that are
re-emerging the world over. This article has explored the underlying context of
this resurgence.
About the Author
Farah M. Shroff, PhD, is a public health researcher, educator and activist. She
teaches at the University of British Columbia’s Medical School. She has a
keen interest in Health for All and divides her research program into: a) social
justice issues related to health and b) holistic health: mind/body approaches
to health. She has written about Ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy, midwifery,
nursing, health advocacy, HIV/AIDS and more.
AUTHOR COPY
Note
1 Marti Kheel (1989) warns that Hippocrates’ contributions are often idealized as holistic. She
argues that Hippocratic ideas marked the beginnings of a dualistic mentality that separated
mind and body, human being and nature. She notes that in Hippocratic medicine, the patient’s
symptoms were aggravated to the point of a healing crisis. Purgings, bleedings, induced
vomitings and other ‘heroic’ feats were used in this task. ‘The notion of “aiding” nature had
already led to the practice (by male physicians) of giving her a “helpful” shove. Meanwhile,
r 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1477-8211 Social Theory & Health Vol. 9, 3, 244–255
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