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Published Online: September 1948

THE HOLISTIC APPROACH IN PSYCHIATRY

ANDRAS ANGYALAuthors Info & Affiliations

Publication: American Journal of Psychiatry

Volume 105, Number 3

https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.105.3.178

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Abstract

The holistic approach seeks to understand the person on the basis of his organization.

An organization cannot be described in terms of one-to-one relations but in terms of systems. Systems are types of order, arrangements of parts according to a unifying principle, the system principle.

An item functions as part of a whole through the occupancy of a position; it has a positional value within the structure of the whole.

Personality organization is a hierarchy of systems.

Any constituent of personality may function as a part of several subsystems at the same time.

Holistic determinism allows for more than one single effect; it determines only the range within which the effect will fall.

In the life of the person interactions do take place not only in the direction, past-present-future, but also in the opposite direction.

The law of continuous spread of system action states that only neighboring systems can effect each other in a hierarchy of systems.

The holistic approach as outlined here does not contain assumptions about specific psychiatric phenomena but describes a way of thinking which I believe is fruitful for the clarification of psychiatric problems.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published In

American Journal of Psychiatry

Volume 105 • Number 3 • September 1948

Pages: 178 - 182

PubMed: 18879776

History

Published in print: September 1948

Published online: 1 April 2006

Authors

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ANDRAS ANGYAL

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THE HOLISTIC APPROACH IN PSYCHIATRY

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