holism

/ˌhoʊlˈɪzəm/

If you believe in holism, you think that a person's being is one whole, and that you can't separate it out into body versus mind.

Holism is what it sounds like: the idea that problems or questions need to be treated as wholes, instead of breaking them into little parts. It's not that in holism there's no acknowledgement of parts, but just that the only way to understand parts is in their relationship to the whole, whether that's the role of canoeing in your education, stress in your illness, or the way salt interacts with butter in your baking.

Definitions of holism

1. noun

   the theory that the parts of any whole cannot exist and cannot be understood except in their relation to the whole
   “holism holds that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

   synonyms: holistic theory

   antonyms:

   atomism

   (chemistry) any theory in which all matter is composed of tiny discrete finite indivisible indestructible particles

   type of:

   theory

   a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena