Assumptions of Traditional Allopathic and Holistic Models of Care
Traditional Allopathic Model | Holistic Model |
Treatment of symptoms | Search for patterns, causes |
Specialized | Integrated; concerned with whole patient |
Emphasis on efficiency | Emphasis on human values |
Professional should be emotionally neutral | Professional's caring is a component of healing |
Pain and disease are wholly negative | Pain and misery may be valuable signals of internal conflicts |
Primary intervention with drugs, surgery | Minimal intervention with
appropriate technology, complemented with a range of noninvasive techniques (psycho techniques, diet, exercise) |
Body seen as a machine in good or bad repair | Body seen as a dynamic system, a
complex energy field within fields (family, workplace, environment, culture, life history) |
Disease or disability seen as an entity | Disease or disability seen as a process |
Emphasis on eliminating symptoms and disease | Emphasis on achieving maximum body-mind health |
Patient is dependent | Patient is autonomous |
Professional is authority | Professional is therapeutic partner |
Body and mind are separate;
psychosomatic illnesses seen as mental; may refer (patient) to psychiatrist |
Body-mind perspective,
psychosomatic illness is the province of all health care professionals |
Mind is secondary factor in organic illness | Mind is primary or co-equal factor in all illness |
Placebo effect is evidence of power of suggestion | Placebo effect is evidence of mind's role in disease and healing |
Primary reliance on quantitative information (charts, tests, and dates) | Primary reliance on qualitative
information, including patient reports and professional's intuition; quantitative data an adjunct |
"Prevention" seen as largely
environmental; vitamins, rest, exercise, immunization, not smoking |
"Prevention" synonymous with
wholeness; in work, relationships, goals, body-mind-spirit |
"When I was finally ready to reclaim the part of me that was so hurting and broken down -- Healing began."