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The Big Picture, Part One
by Dr. Peter Borten, LAc., DAOM
Readers familiar with my newsletters might have been surprised by my recent article on trigger points, since it dealt strictly with a physical disorder, rather than the broader psychological and spiritual topics I often write about. But in this series, I will propose that rarely, if ever, does an issue occur strictly on the physical level. Neither are issues confined strictly to the mental or emotional levels. Trigger points – and all other health issues – are a product of the interaction of many variables on many levels. We stand to benefit greatly from learning how to perceive the interaction between gross and subtle. In this series, we’ll explore the inseparable connection of mind and body (and beyond), and we’ll discuss what it means to see the "big picture."
You hear terms like "mind-body," and "body-mind connection," all the time in the alternative healing world. The reason it’s so emphasized is probably because it differs from the predominant medical framework, which tends to view humans as two separate entities – a mind and a body.
Moreover, there is a prevailing tendency in mainstream medicine to even isolate the various parts and systems of the body. If one part can be adequately treated with a particular drug, the drug’s detrimental impact on other parts is often considered a non-issue. Especially if this impact can be addressed with additional drugs. Thus, it’s common to hear drug commercials in which half the ad consists of the narrator reading off the list of possible side effects.
There are certain situations in which mainstream medicine recognizes the interaction of mind and body, such as the common occurrence of depression in tandem with chronic pain. But even here, the depression is usually treated with drugs to alter brain chemistry, while little consideration is given to the possibility that the depression and the pain may have a common origin.
These are examples of reductionistic thinking: seeing the person as merely the sum of many loosely-related parts. Reductionism has its place, and sometimes reductionistic medical practitioners achieve good results. When they don’t, though, it’s often because of a failure to see the big picture. Any time the same treatment is administered to every person with a particular problem (e.g., acid blockers for heartburn, sedatives for insomnia), there is sure to be a practitioner who is missing the big picture. I believe this is a major reason for Americans’ migration to alternative medicine. People like to be treated as whole, integrated beings, and they’re smart enough to know when their doctor is only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
In contrast, several older medical systems (such as Chinese medicine and Ayurveda) treat the many facets of mind, body, and environment as a whole, integrated unit. These systems of medicine also see the potential for any imbalance to be expressed simultaneously on a physical, mental, and emotional level. This is not to say that these forms of medicine are better than conventional biomedicine, just that they lend themselves to a more holistic form of application.
We’ll examine what exactly constitutes "holistic," but first, let’s address "alternative." While so many folks are flocking to alternative medicine, it may or may not give them what they want, partly because "alternative medicine" is such a vague term. And "complementary medicine" is no better. Alternative medicine could mean any form of medicine other than conventional biomedicine: acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, shamanism, hydrotherapy, massage, faith healing, etc. It’s about as specific as dividing the world into Germans and Non-Germans. Apart from a desire to help people, there is probably not a single thing that all these fields have in common. So, it’s hard to make an accurate or meaningful statement about "alternative medicine." Each of these disciplines deserves to be understood and evaluated individually.
If we’re looking for a term that meaningfully distinguishes between different approaches to medicine, "holistic" is a little better. Holistic medicine, also known as wholistic medicine (as in "whole"), is medicine founded on the philosophy of holism. Holism, from the Greek word holos, meaning all, entire, or total, is the philosophy that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That is, in order to really understand something, we have to consider the entire thing, not just its component pieces. Holistic medicine, therefore, evaluates all facets of a person and their environment in order to arrive at a diagnosis, and, rather than simply curbing symptoms, it aims to bring the whole person into balance.
The determination of whether a particular medical practice is holistic is not a clear cut matter. If we think of it as a spectrum, with reductionism at one end and holism at the other, each practitioner, in each patient interaction, varies in how holistic their approach is.
Natural medicine is not necessarily holistic. It can definitely be practiced in a reductive way (such as prescribing ginseng for fatigue without discerning the origin of the fatigue). And biomedicine (conventional medicine) is not necessarily reductive. I have had the honor of knowing some very wise, holistically-oriented medical doctors.
Now that we’ve touched on reductionism and holism, I hope you’re beginning to see why perspective is one of the most important qualities in medicine. In the next newsletter, we’ll look at how we start seeing the big picture, and we’ll also discover just how big the big picture is.
With love,
Peter and Everyone at The Dragontree
