Holistic thinking: what it is, characteristics and examples

There are different types of thought, each fulfilling different functions, some of them being the following: inductive, deductive, creative, analytical, critical thinking or holistic thinking, which we will talk about in more detail in this Article.

Holistic thinking is an approach to perception and analysis of reality in an integral or global way, being considered as a natural way of thinking and very characteristic of being. human, since it consists in making connections between various phenomena, carrying out an abstraction of ideas and also obtaining a global vision of all the parts of a complex system.

In this article we will see what holistic thinking consists of, as well as its influence within the field of psychology.

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What is holistic thinking?

Holistic thinking is a phenomenon that has aroused considerable interest in recent years within the field of psychology. It is sometimes known as complex thinking or systems thinking.

It is an approach that from certain theoretical conceptions has been considered as a type of thinking opposed to the analytical type of thinking, in which an analysis of a phenomenon or a system is made through its operation and the sum of its parts, a method different from that of holistic thinking as we will see later.

According to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the word 'holistic' (from the Greek word "ὅλος" hólos, which means 'total' in Spanish), belongs to or is related to "holism", a philosophical doctrine of thought that is oriented towards the conception of reality as a whole other than the sum of its component parts, so an entity would be considered as more than the sum of its parts.

This doctrine is linked to holistic psychology, an approach that encompasses the study of psychological phenomena by analyzing a phenomenon, considering it as a complex entity in itself same.

Therefore, holistic thinking could be defined as an approach of perception and analysis of the reality that surrounds the human being in an integral or global way, being considered by many theorists as a natural way of thinking and quite characteristic of the human being, since it is capable of carrying out connections between various phenomena, carry out an abstraction of ideas and also obtain a global vision of the set of parts of a complex system.

In addition, holistic thinking is a very practical type of thinking on a day-to-day basis, since enables the resolution of many tasks, such as when building a system within any field, because even if we start with one part, we will be able to understand that it is part of a larger whole. Therefore, carrying out a holistic reasoning we will be able to find how we can connect that part that we have in mind with other parts so that their union manages to form together the system that we intend to form or build.

An example in which holistic thinking is applied It is the one that is applied when building a model. When we have in our hand one of the pieces of the model that we intend to build, we are aware that it is one of the elements that, together with others, form a larger structure, which is what the model we want would be mount.

Therefore, this type of thinking will allow us to find how the pieces should fit so that, being related or interconnected, little by little they will form larger and larger parts, until they form the complete structure of the mockup.

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Holistic thinking in psychology

As we have seen, holistic thinking makes it possible to recognize the interconnectedness of a wide variety of factors that maintain some relationship by which they end up forming a series of patterns, larger objects and/or larger systems. complexity.

Although holistic thinking has come to be seen as the opposite of analytical thinking, because the former try to look at each of the parts as a whole, while the second consists of analyzing each of the parts in isolation, the truth is that to carry out certain tasks of great complexity, we would need to carry out cognitive processing using both types of thought, since we would need understand the entire system or structure as a whole, as well as it would be necessary to analyze each of the parts that make up that set.

In the field of psychology, a health or clinical psychologist can use holistic thinking to understand what the patient needs that he has in front of him, given his current state, which is what has led him to seek help; and a type of analytical thinking can also help you to try to understand a series of factors related to the patient, their way of life or their closest relationships, among others, to try to find the possible relationship they could have with the issue.

Therefore, the holistic way of thinking enables people to broaden their horizons, moving your focus away from the simple, in order to be able to understand more complex processes and systems, which may not be presently visible and require more work at the level of reasoning. In addition, this type of thinking requires going beyond simple conditioning, being aware that the people are part of a more complex whole, being necessary to analyze a series of interrelationships that affect each person.

It also offers the possibility to analyze patterns, instead of analyzing each problem as something isolated or unique, thus putting the problems in context to be able to understand them in greater depth and, therefore, more in detail. For this, it is necessary for a psychologist to try to analyze the origins, the triggers and the possible interdependencies of the problems with others. factors to try to identify some type of pattern that could be behind the problems or difficulties that have brought each patient to inquiry.

On the other hand, holistic psychology tries to seek to solve the difficulties or problems of people by analyzing their past, the way of living the present and how they face the future**, also trying to analyze the possible interrelationships between all and each of the stages that have been passing throughout the life of each person, trying to study the individual in his or her set.

There are several schools of thought within the field of psychology that have adopted a type of approach holistic, among which the following should be highlighted: Gestalt psychology, social psychology and psychology humanist.

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Characteristics of people who apply holistic thinking

When studying the personality traits of people, within the field of psychology it has been observed that some people tend to use the holistic type of thinking more, being its most common characteristics the ones that we are going to mention below:

• They know how to take advantage of contradictory ideas, and may even find some kind of relationship.

• They have the ability to accept the contradictions that could arise in their day to day.

• When they observe something, they focus on the whole or the whole, instead of focusing their attention on isolated details.

• They tend to have a global perspective of things.

• They tend to assume that things happen for a reason because everything is related to other factors.

• By using holistic thinking they know that to understand a complex process they need to be patient.

• They use a type of thinking that goes beyond their own creativity, taking into account all the surrounding context.

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The relationship between holistic thinking and analytical thinking

Now that we have seen what are some of the most common characteristics of people who have a higher tendency to use a holistic way of thinking in your day to day, instead of analytical thinking, it is possible mention that all people could come to use both types of thinking, depending on the requirements of the task being carried out and what is to be achieved.

For example, the coach of a football team should think holistically, since to win matches must organize the entire team as a whole to carry out the tactical system and the method of play that has taught; although, on the other hand, he also needs to use analytical thinking to understand the state of form and mood of each of the players that make up the team, as well as their skills to be able to entrust each one with the role that best suits their needs. aptitudes.