How many times have you heard that alternative medicine is holistic, and that by implication conventional medicine isn't? The idea is that the holistic medicine treats the whole person, and not just the symptoms, with the implication that conventional medicine doesn't.
But that's a complete misunderstanding of the word, what it means, and what it implies. Conventional medicine treats the whole person, but from a position of medical knowledge. As Professor Michael Baum argues, compassion without knowledge borders on the fraudulent, so when alternative medical therapists make claims to practice holistic medicine, in the absence of medical knowledge, they are behaving fraudulently.
Medical knowledge is based on detailed study over a very long period of time, with incorrect theories replaced by better ones based on evidence, with research published and shared to inform better, improving practices. By understanding the whole person, that complex biological organism, medical science integrates holistically, the hierarchy of organisation that makes a human being. When a medical practitioner treats a patient, they are using all of that accumulated knowledge, and providing fundamentally holistic care.
The trite and distorting use of the term holistic as a barely disguised accusation against conventional medicine, goes hand in hand with that other term of abuse, allopathic. Allopathic was a term coined by homeopaths to refer to anything that didn't fit their theory. It has no medical, scientific, or even colloquial meaning at all.
In April this year, Professor Michael Baum delivered a lecture at the Royal College of Physicians in which he looked at alternative and complementary medicine in the treatment of breast cancer. He looked at the complexity of the illness, the complexity of the issues surrounding patient care, the ethical decisions involved, the whole totality of the necessary care required for treatment.
It is one of the very best, real-world examples of the differences between those who claim to know about holistic medicine, and the actual practice of it. This talk is highly recommended to anyone interested in what the word holistic really means, and how it really relates to modern medical practice. It should be required viewing for any alternative practitioner who has ever used the word.
