Compare Western and Eastern (Allopathic and Holistic) Methods of Wellness and Health Care
On the left is the traditional Western method of health, wellness and medicine. On the right is the holistic/integrative and 'appropriate' model endorsed by John Spencer Ellis.
Note: John is not a medical doctor. He is a health consultant, life coach and fitness educator.
| Traditional Western Allopathic Model | Holistic (John Spencer Ellis) Model |
| Treatment of symptoms with the patient as a primarily and passive participant in the healing process. | Search for patterns, causes, mental contributions |
| Specialized and segregated | Integrated; concerned with whole patient |
| Emphasis on efficiency and profit | Emphasis on human values and experience |
| Professional should be emotionally neutral to avoid bias | Professional's caring is a component of healing. Several studies confirm. |
| Pain and disease are wholly negative | Pain and misery may be valuable signals of internal conflicts |
| Primary intervention with drugs, surgery | Minimal intervention with appropriate technology, complemented with a range of noninvasive techniques (psycho techniques, food modification, exercise) |
| Body seen as a machine in good or bad repair | Body seen as a dynamic system, a complex energy field within fields (family, workplace, environment, culture, life history, understanding of self, personal orientation to environment) |
| Disease or disability seen as an entity | Disease or disability seen as a process |
| Emphasis on eliminating symptoms and disease | Emphasis on achieving maximum body-mind health |
| Patient is dependent | Patient is autonomous and a contributor to the healing process |
| Professional is authority | Professional is therapeutic partner |
| Body and mind are separate; psychosomatic illnesses seen as mental; may refer (patient) to psychiatrist | Body-mind perspective, psychosomatic illness is the province of all health care professionals |
| Mind is secondary factor in organic illness | Mind is primary or co-equal factor in all illness |
| Placebo effect is evidence of power of suggestion | Placebo effect is evidence of mind's role in disease and healing |
| Primary reliance on quantitative information (charts, tests, and dates) | Primary reliance on qualitative information, including patient reports and professional's intuition; quantitative data an adjunct |
| "Prevention" seen as largely environmental; vitamins, rest, exercise, immunization, not smoking |
"Prevention" synonymous with wholeness; in work, relationships, goals, body-mind-spirit, including avoidance of toxins |