Whole Medical Systems versus the System of Conventional Biomedicine: A Critical, Narrative Review of Similarities, Differences, and Factors That Promote the Integration Process

Table 2

Differences between conventional medicine and whole medical systems (WMSs).

	Conventional medicine	WMSs
Worldview/philosophy	Biomedical/humanistic model	Holistic/spiritual/bio-psycho-spiritual-social model
Health	Default situation of the machine	Result of self-regulating inner activity (e.g., of the organism or psychosocial)
		Restoring wholeness/balance
		(Re)establishment of the harmony between the functions of body, soul and spirit
Disease	Breakdown of the machine	Expression of system imbalance and/or insufficiency of the wholeness creating forces
	Deviance from biological norms	Disequilibrium between biological, psychological, social and spiritual forces
	Has no intrinsic meaning	Entails a potential for human development
Diagnosis	Group level (often, not always)	Individual level
		System level
Treatment	Group-oriented guidelines/protocols (often)	Complex individualized interventions
	Fighting disease	Health promotion
	Requires external resources	Requires internal resources/body, mind and spirit are interrelated and must all be considered in healing
	Use of pharmacotherapy with predominantly specific effects and high use of technology	Use of WMS pharmacotherapy and nonmedicinal therapies with system effects