Holism and consciousness

What does holism have to do with psychology? For that matter, what is holism? The old tale about an elephant and several blindfolded people, touching different parts of the elephant while trying to determine what they're touching, comes to mind. One person touches an ear, another a tail and another a foot. Each exclaims what it is they're touching. Each is wrong, because only a small part of the whole – the elephant – is being touched. In fact, we can never understand the whole from any individual part. That contradicts the definition of holism.

Again, we must ask: What does holism have to do with psychology? The holism of psyche, our complete psychology, is described by many parts: consciousness (awareness), ego (identity and values), shadow (opposite of ego values), complexes (unconscious influences based on our experiences), and more, but, together, all the elements do not make up the whole of psyche. Our consciousness functions as a separator, helping us divide and focus on different parts of life (parts of the elephant), but an awareness of the whole is always missing.

Centuries ago, consciousness was different from the consciousness we live with today. Back then, people didn't separate the parts as much as they do today. This means that people in the distant past had a greater sense of the whole. As the centuries progressed, a different consciousness evolved, and people lost their sense of the whole. This is why, today, we tend to define and understand everything in terms of cause and effect, but holism does not operate on cause and effect. It operates on relational connections.

Of course, there are benefits and detriments to both the whole and the parts. By focusing on elements, rather than the whole, competitions, oppositions, stresses, technological advances, medical advances and so forth developed. In this case, though, the forest can't be seen for the trees!

On the other hand, focusing on the whole leads to greater relationships with other people, with ourselves, our spiritual nature and nature in general. The discovery of scientific properties, the development of mathematics and biology, or even remaining cognitively healthy, however, does not occur easily. In this case, seeing the trees for the forest is difficult.

Clearly, the next evolutionary development of human consciousness requires a simultaneous holistic and elemental awareness. Essentially, this is a return to an older consciousness combined with a future consciousness.

What can we do to assist this evolutionary change? Whenever possible, we can try to exercise our understanding of the whole and bring back the relational quality of life.