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The philosophical notion that phenomena are more than the sum of their component parts; in medicine, the application of this principle, involving the treatment of the whole person rather than isolated signs or diseases. Chinese medicine is considered holistic on the grounds of a perceived emphasis on the relationship between the human being and the environment and the relationship of the parts of the body to the whole in contrast to the emphasis of Western medicine on analysis and detail, in which a global view of the individual and his or her environment is partially lost. Holism is also seen in the universal correspondences of yīn-yáng and the five phases.

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