Alexander Technique Atlantic

A Delightful Find

I came across the following description of Alexander's work which I found to be the closest to my experience of my work as an AT iPAC teacher and wanted to share this with others.

I found this piece written by Andrew Rugg- Gunn who was an eminent eye specialist and life long friend of Alexander in a book written by Alex Murray called: FM Alexander. In his own words, and in the words of those who knew him. The book has all sorts of gems in it about Alexander and his work. I highly recommend it to all those interested in this great man and his great legacy to mankind.

You can purchase the book from - www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3391835

The Technique of Re-Integration.

Shape is perceptible to and is appraised by the eye, supplemented by touch; surface texture by touch, supplemented by the eye. Both eye and touch must be trained. The trained eye is a familiar concept, but the trained touch, is more difficult to define. It involves the sense of touch, but it includes much more, and is better described, as in clinical medicine, by the word 'palpation.'

Certain secrets of the living body are revealed only through palpation by the educated hand. For in the living body there is an individual organic consistency, the proper elasticity and spring of an organism as a working whole, which reveals to the experienced hand its state of internal equilibrium and adjustment, the quality of its functioning, and its general organic well-being, i.e. its integration as a whole or reverse. This natural resiliency or plasticity is an expression of the distribution of parts, particularly of the axial elements of the body; of the free play of elastic structures; of the optimal (or sub-optimal) level of muscle tonus and its substratum of nervous energy neuromuscular system serving posture and movement. It is an index of the dynamic state of the organism, a tactile sign of an indwelling harmony and grace. It is an index, however, which few possess the ability to assess. Much knowledge and experience underlie the correct interpretation of these perceptions.

Closely correlated with the feel of the body by perceptive hands is its objective shape, which also is an index of importance not only for the individual but for the species. Form follows function. It is evident, therefore, that shape characteristic of any species is a norm around which individual variations fluctuate, and that there is an optimal shape for the individual within this range. It follows, further, that a technique of individual re-integration must restore both the inner consistency and the outer shape which is optimal for that individual. Matthias Alexander possessed this quality of palpation to a supreme degree. His insight into the living body had the quality of genius, the product of natural endowment and great experience. Alexander's mode of palpation must not be misunderstood. His aim was not the exploration of anatomical structures but an assessment of physical and physiological forces, their distribution within the body and their collective co-operation to one end. This end is the integration of the whole man, and is based ultimately on the efficient use of man's complete anti-gravity mechanism. Alexander's conception of the body as an indivisible unity, with function as the unifying force, and the sense of touch which defines it, underlay this technique and explain his success as a re-educator.