The sistemic approach to complex phenomena

The awareness of the limits, that today is often encountered during an analytic interpretation of complex phenomena, is one of the reasons that allow to consider, even in medicine, the General Systems Theory (GST) as an effective approach to the knowledge of complex processes. The categories of opening and closing, which are basic within the GST, allow to understand the difference between systematic organization and systemic logic. The application of the systematic organization of knowledge, together with the belief to give exhaustive explanations and unchanging interpretations of symptoms and syndromes, has sometimes created resistance to new ideas, so that medicine has had to face, in different times and for different reasons, the dogmatism of the most accredited systems. Through the examination of certain types of systems, we intend to stress the difference between self-closed logics, aiming at everlasting static systems, and a systemic logic, open and able to promote adaptive innovation and to offer considerable benefits in terms of diagnosis and intervention.