The Individual as the Organizing Principle in Psychological Inquiry: A Holistic Approach

Making the individual the organizing principle for individual functioning and development is basically a holistic view, rooted in the history of scientific psychology. In the early part of this century, a holistic position was strongly advocated, from different perspectives, by some of the most distinguished psychologists, among them Gordon Allport, Alfred Binet, Wilhelm Stern, Egon Brunswik, and Kurt Lewin. The Kraepelin approach to psychiatric diagnoses from the turn of the last century, which still influences psychiatric thinking and practice, and the typologies, for example, Jung’s categorical typology and its transformation into a dimensional typology by Sheldon, likewise reflect an early holistic approach in psychological practice and research.