Body Awareness in Action: A Study of the Alexander Technique Book

At one time or another almost everyone suffers from backache and physical tension. Because most of our complaints arise from our own unconscious bad habits, conventional treatment rarely brings more than temporary relief. F. M. Alexander maintained that because of the the influence of civilization we can no longer rely on our instincts. By continuing to rely on instinct instead of intelligence, man would no longer develop but degenerate: if we are to survive, our behavior has to be consciously determined. Alexander believed this to be the most important phase of man's development: the passage from subconsciousness to conscious control of body and mind. His technique, developed at the turn of the century, introduces conscious bodily control for physical reeducation. In Body Awareness in action, Frank Pierce Jones presents the essential features of Alexander's method. Drawing on his long association with Alexander and his brother. Jones supplements Alexander's findings with his own carefully designed research at Tufts University Institute for Psychological Research. By measuring the differences between "habitual" and "teacher-guided" movement patterns, and by studying the actual mechanics of the body in achieving awareness. Jones provides scientific support for Alexander's ground-breaking discoveries. --- from book's back coverRead More