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Summary Holism holds a central place among the ideals of social workers, nurses and others working in the helping professions. There is widespread agreement that all forms of professional praxis should be holistic. Using different analytic framings, this article directs its attention to exploring what is actually entailed by holism in practice. The analyses employs four perspectives: one drawing on professional ethics; another using organizational theories; a third drawing on professional critiques and a final one focusing on power. These interrogations of holism as a signifier reveal that it takes on different meanings depending on the perspective employed to view and to understand it. The difficulties in defining what is meant by holism revealed by these analyses indicate that it is impossible to reach agreement about what is entailed by this ideal. These findings suggest that uncritical acceptance of this ideal for professional practice needs to be avoided until such time it becomes clear what exactly is meant by holism.

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