- the theory that whole entities, as fundamental components of reality, have an existence other than as the mere sum of their parts.
- care of the entire patient in all aspects of well-being, including physical, psychological, and social.
- any psychological system postulating that the human mind must be studied as a unit rather than as a sum of its individual parts.
- an emphasis on the dynamic interrelatedness of mind, body, the individual, society, and the physical environment as key to understanding cultural phenomena: In anthropology, holism seeks to understand humans as both biological and cultural beings, as living in both the past and the present.
- any doctrine that a system may have properties over and above those of its parts and their organization
- the treatment of any subject as a whole integrated system, esp, in medicine, the consideration of the complete person, physically and psychologically, in the treatment of a disease
- one of a number of methodological theses holding that the significance of the parts can only be understood in terms of their contribution to the significance of the whole and that the latter must therefore be epistemologically prior
