Holistic Psychology To Understand Behavior

Holism in psychology is a term that suggests that, as a whole, people are much more than the sum of their parts. Holistic psychology works to focus its observation on how all the parts of each person work together, not being able to dissociate their functions in certain processes.

To understand the reasons that push us to think or behave in a certain way, holistic psychology is committed to studying the whole person, rather than just one aspect of the problem.

There are many factors that interact and interfere with each other to influence or condition us and this is the aspect that holism rescues to try to understand the course of a case or problem.

A very clear example is found in the brain itself. We know that it contains millions of neurons, but looking at each one separately will not tell us what the brain as a whole can do.

Applying holistic psychology

A holistic approach is taken when considering how different factors work and interact together and how this set can affect a person’s behavior or emotional state. In this sense, the variables that are handled are very heterogeneous.

They range from the place and the people they live with, their work, their professional and educational backgrounds, their social connections, their interaction in groups, their health, and their perception of well-being and stress. Thus, we find that the observation of the person is not relegated only to the analysis of their symptoms.

Advantages of this approach

Holistic psychology, compared to other more reductionist approaches, has many points that identify it as one of the best approaches for intervention. By incorporating many factors into the study, the chances of finding the source of the problem increase. The counterpart is that many times, increasing the spectrum of analysis also increases the demand for resources that must be allocated to it.

In any case , this approach helps to find more precise and potentially better solutions, combining the intervention at different levels. In many cases, paying the price of increasing the time of analysis and evaluation, ends up offering interventions that are much richer and that project more stable changes.

When we consider people holistically we can address many of the aspects that influence how a person feels, both mentally, physically and socially. It’s actually about stepping back to see the whole photo. It is gaining perspective regarding the knowledge we have of that person. Holistic psychology does not only see the trees, it is looking for a map of the entire forest.

The weaknesses of holistic psychology

As in almost all approaches, holistic psychology is not without some drawback. In some types of problems, it is advisable to focus on a specific aspect in order to find a solution.

In this sense, holistic psychology can make that precision difficult. In particular, when working in research, the variables that are handled must be clearly defined. This is why holistic psychology is not always compatible with the scientific method.

Holism is a complex approach that can guide the design of evaluations and interventions that pose a challenge due to their complexity. This can make the holistic approach difficult to handle in some cases, in the same way that it cannot be applied by many professionals.

Holistic schools of thought

Within psychology and throughout its history we find several schools of thought that have adopted this holistic approach. Among them is Gestalt psychology, which strongly advocates that human behavior should be observed as a whole.

Humanistic psychology is another of these holistic schools of thought. In fact, it arose in as a partial response to the reductionism of the behavioral and psychoanalytic schools. Also social psychology incorporates this holistic approach by contemplating environmental, social, emotional and group aspects together.

Holistic psychology is especially attractive for its ability to provide solutions where other reductionist approaches fail. Evaluate how our past has influenced us, how we live our present and how we face the future.