The last century has seen increasing specialization in health care. Because of this, many significant gains have been made in our knowledge of the human system, and how to fight disease, depression, etc. Researchers and practitioners in each field developed a great deal of pride in their respective fields---and often distrust of the other fields. The fields of psychology, religion, “traditional medicine”, and “alternative medicine”, etc., often clashed, with each often discounting and wearing blinders to the validity of the others.

This "reductionistic" (reducing a thing down to its component parts) thinking often assumed that there could be only one right way of doing something. When asked what caused something, we often give a single answer, as if that is the only variable which affects the outcome. But if asked how does this thing affect that, deeper reflection tells us that, ultimately, everything affects everything in some way.

The reductionistic view denied the consumer the benefits of most fields of knowledge about health other than that of the provider in front of them. Recently, however, there has been growing momentum to recognize how the whole “system” works---how various parts affect outcomes of other parts. We focus particularly on the Interaction Effects among the parts, and the cumulative effect of approaching the symptom or goal from all sides to produce more effective treatment.

This also appears to be one of the main waves of the new millennium.

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Article supplied by Gaaren Anderson, LMFTis