In-Depth Articles – Alexander Technique

The Experts On… Introducing the Alexander Technique

July 28, 2020 Bradley Newman

Introduction “My life’s work as revealed in my books has been the teaching, on the lines of the educator, of a technique I evolved for changing and improving the manner of use of the self, which in turn so improves the general functioning of the pupil that specific symptoms tend to modify and in time disappear which, in medical terms, is called a ‘cure’.” F.M. Alexander (Articles and Lectures – Manufacturing Premises Required for Desired Deductions p214) WC: The Alexander…

Read More Read More

The Experts On… Inhibition and Inhibiting

July 20, 2020 Bradley Newman

“Boiled down, it all comes to inhibiting a particular reaction to a given stimulus. But no one will see it that way. They will see it as getting in and out of a chair the right way. It is nothing of the kind. It is that a pupil decides what he will or will not consent to do. They may teach you anatomy and physiology till they are black in the face – you will still have this to face:…

Read More Read More

The Experts On… Directions and Directing – Part 1

July 15, 2020 Bradley Newman

“All I want you to do is to give certain directions for me, and then inhibit the tremendous effort you are making to be right.”F.M. Alexander (Articles and Lectures – Teaching Aphorisms p204) Introduction PM: A large part of this audience will have been through the experiences which I am proposing to touch upon, but there will be others to whom giving directions is little more than a verbal concept and it is possible that this lecture may clarify their…

Read More Read More

The Experts On… Directions and Directing – Part 2

July 6, 2020 Bradley Newman

“There is no such thing as a right position, but there is such a thing as a right direction.”F.M. Alexander (Articles and Lectures – Teaching Aphorisms p194) (…continued from Directions and Directing – Part 1) Back to lengthen and widen LW: We can now discuss the final parts of the pattern, the lengthening and widening of the back. But before we begin to consider the back by itself, let us realize that we can never possibly consider the back by…

Read More Read More

The Experts On… Feelings and the Kinaesthetic Sense

May 22, 2020 Bradley Newman

“They won’t try and get out of the chair unless they feel they have that something that will get them out of the chair! That something is their habit.”F.M. Alexander (Articles and Lectures, Teaching Aphorisms – p198) Introduction FPJ: I can’t talk about the Alexander Technique without using the word “kinaesthesia”. So I’ll start out by defining it. Kinaesthesia is a Greek word – it is too bad there isn’t a good English word for it like “sight” or “hearing”…

Read More Read More

The Experts On… The Primary Control

May 18, 2020 Bradley Newman

“The experiences which followed my awareness of this were forerunners of a recognition of that relativity in the use of the head, neck, and other parts which proved to be a primary control of the general use of the self.”F.M. Alexander (The Use of the Self – Chapter 1 p9) Introduction PM: One of Alexander’s discoveries and one which has immense significance in the learning of the Technique is what he called “The Primary Control”.(The Alexander Technique As I See…

Read More Read More

The Experts On… Doing and Non-Doing

May 2, 2020 Bradley Newman

“Everyone is always teaching one what to do, leaving us still doing the things we shouldn’t do.”F.M. Alexander (Articles and Lectures, Teaching Aphorisms – p196) Introduction FPJ: The Alexander Technique might be defined as a method for knowing simultaneously what you are not doing as well as what you are doing – knowing, for example, that you are not interfering with the “primary control” while you are talking, listening or thinking…(Freedom to Change – chapter 14 p158) WC: The method…

Read More Read More

The Experts On… The Right Thing Does Itself

April 24, 2020 Bradley Newman

“These things can take care of themselves.”F.M. Alexander (Articles and Lectures, Teaching Aphorisms – p195) Introduction WC: The basic thing is up, and up is built in.(Thinking Aloud – “Lengthening in Stature” – p36) WC: What you are doing with the orders or the directions is confronting yourself with a picture, and the more vivid the picture, the better. Then, in comparison with that picture, you can consider, evaluate, and criticize your own state. The clarity of that picture is…

Read More Read More

The Experts On… Change During Lessons

April 19, 2020 Bradley Newman

“As we have seen, one of the serious obstacles to be overcome in helping pupils to change their manner of use is that any change from the old wrong use (the known) to the new right use (the unknown) feels wrong to them, and at each stage of change the new improving manner of use has to be experienced for some time before the pupil can feel that it is right and comfortable, and so develop faith and confidence in…

Read More Read More

The Experts On… Learning the Alexander Technique 1

April 12, 2020 Bradley Newman

“Under the ordinary teaching methods, the pupil gets 19 wrong to 1 right experience. It ought to be the other way round.”F.M. Alexander (Articles and Lectures, Teaching Aphorisms – p196) An Unstructured Group of Quotes Related to Learning AT MB: There’s a ‘still point’ as Elliot would say, where, I don’t say it’s unaffected, but it’s not pushed off its perch – you’re able to keep something going whatever happens to you outwardly. And that’s the secret of life really….

Read More Read More

The Experts On… Learning the Alexander Technique 2

January 30, 2020 Bradley Newman

“I ask you to do nothing, but you act as if I had asked you to do. I have got to train you to act according to your decision where the habits of life are concerned.”F.M. Alexander (Articles and Lectures, Teaching Aphorisms – p196) An Unstructured Group of Quotes Related to Learning AT FPJ: When I knew F. M., he had very little to say about “directive orders” or “thinking.” I assumed that he was satisfied that I knew how…

Read More Read More