Atomism vs. Holism (1) 'Two Types of Perceptions & Approaches'

On June 12, Junko Nara of Sky Business, Co. Ltd., left the hospital. However, she needs to be hospitalized again for three nights to remove gallstones in the bile duct on June 23.

After the second hospitalization, her physician recommends she surgically removes whole gallbaldder to avoid pancreatitis within a few months. He told her that there are a little sand-like gallstones in the gallbaldder. He worries if the gallstones will block the bile duct again. The physicians also told her there is no alternative treatment.

As a matter of fact, there is an alternative treatment for gallstone pancreatitis. That is acupuncture. Amazingly, acupuncture experts have successfully cured the diseases that Western medicine cannot. The diseases include cancer, leukemia, atopic dermatitis, rheumatism, depression, etc. Gallstone pancreatitis is also included in this category. Currently, Junko has started acupuncture treatment. Fortunately, her condition is getting better.

Before Junko suffered from gallstone pancreatitis, I have already studied the traditional Oriental medicine with acupuncture doctors of the Hokushin-kai, one of the largest research organizations in Japan.

Dr. Renpu Fujimoto, the founder and president of the organization, once told me that the essence of the Hokushin-kai acupuncture is intuition and logical thinking. In other words, acupuncture experts depends on his intuition and logical thinking to see the patients. As a cognitive psychologist who specializes in Naturalistic Decision Making, his remark struck a cord with me.

Dr. Fujimoto also pointed out that the biggest difference between Western medicine and Oriental medicine lies in perspectives -Atomism and Holism. He told me study about how these two perspectives differ from each other. Also, he suggested I should have studied about how intuition related to holism. Big questions....

For several months, I could not figure out what Dr. Fujimoto meant. However, I gradually understand the meanings of the two perspectives and the relationship between intuition and holism....

(To be continued....)