AUTHOR COPY - Trent University
AUTHOR COPY - Trent University
AUTHOR COPY - Trent University
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Conceptualizing holism in international interdisciplinary critical perspective<br />
interconnection between them. They recognize the interrelationship between<br />
human health and the social and physical environment. Holistic health theory is<br />
posited on the notion that life force (or prana (in Sanskrit), chi (in Chinese),<br />
mana (in Hawaiian) connects all life in the universe, and that this energy is<br />
responsible for the life of all beings. Prana is that which gives us life, or the<br />
vehicle of life, the cosmic breath, the rhythmic oscillation effective on all levels<br />
of conditioned existence. Restoring and keeping this life force flowing is one<br />
way of keeping people healthy.<br />
We may typify holistic health with various characteristics such as the notion<br />
that health is a positive state, not merely the absence of disease, and that health is<br />
tied closely to familial, social and cultural environments. Holistic health-care is<br />
also characterized by the belief that successful healing transforms the practitioner,<br />
as well as the client and that healing includes a spiritual component in the etiology<br />
and treatment of illness. Holistic health-care understands malfunctions (illness) in<br />
the context of the social, cultural and spiritual environment. Treatment of both<br />
body and mind are considered integral (Barnes et al, 2004).<br />
Tibetan medicine is similar. Religious rituals such as prayer are central for<br />
both the practitioner and patient. Because of the sacred nature of healing,<br />
Tibetan doctors of yore did not charge for their service (Dunkenberger, 2009).<br />
Such religious, spiritual and social aims of healing are combined in many<br />
systems of holistic health.<br />
The body is understood in a unified manner within holistic health perspectives.<br />
Injury to one part of the body may thus damage another, seemingly unrelated,<br />
part. Kidney malfunctioning, for example, may result from a damaged heart.<br />
If one part of the kidney is injured, another part may take over its functions.<br />
Holistic principles maintain that the body has an innate capacity to heal itself,<br />
and the role of the physician is to first do no harm and second to assist the body<br />
in its natural tendency toward balance. Andie Knutson (1961) declares:<br />
<strong>AUTHOR</strong> <strong>COPY</strong><br />
Many of the ills of modern society stem from attempts to deal with men<br />
(sic) segmentally rather than with men (sic) as a unit. Specialization,<br />
which seems to be an inevitable outgrowth of scientific advance, results in<br />
institutions competing with one another for various segments of a man<br />
(sic) who is seeking to maintain his integrity as a total being. How far<br />
removed we are from the medicine man (sic)! He has strengths that have<br />
not been duplicated in our modern society. (p. 1702)<br />
Despite the fact that Knutson was writing approximately 50 years ago, the<br />
segmentation, atomization and specialization of modern society continue to exist.<br />
More than 2300 years ago, the Greek philosopher Hippocrates emphasized<br />
that doctors should consider the whole human being in order to treat and<br />
diagnose. Included in the Hippocratic Oath is an allegiance to Hygeia, the<br />
r 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1477-8211 Social Theory & Health Vol. 9, 3, 244–255<br />
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