Adolescent Services Branch, Saint Elizabeths Hospital, National Institute of Mental Health, Washington, DC.
Holistic medicine is an attitudinal approach to health care rather than a particular set of techniques. It addresses the psychological, familial, societal, ethical and spiritual as well as biological dimensions of health and illness. The holistic approach emphasizes the uniqueness of each patient, the mutuality of the doctor-patient relationship, each person's responsibility for his or her own health care and society's responsibility for the promotion of health.
As holism has become an increasingly popular concept, it has been distorted by both proponents and critics. Tendencies to equate holism with particular therapeutic modalities, to neglect public health for a one-sided emphasis on individual responsibility and to reject rather than elaborate on the scientific method have hampered the movement's progress. In the future orthodox and alternative approaches and techniques must all be seen as complementary parts of a larger synthesis that will genuinely deserve the name of holism.
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