Man's Supreme Inheritance

– Conscious Guidance and Control in Relation
to Human Evolution in Civilization
by F. Matthias Alexander

This is the first book on Alexander's technique. It was first published in 1910 and subsequently revised and enlarged. The present edition consists of Alexander's authorized 1946 edition with additional material from earlier editions. £20.00

New and reset edition. Paperback, 284 pages, 12 b/w photos, 10 appendices.

More details: Man's Supreme Inheritance

This new edition contains two prefaces by Alexander, an introduction by John Dewey, and the section "To My Reader" with appreciations which were included in the 1918 Methuen edition but accidentally left out of later editions. Ten appendices contain further material which was omitted from earlier editions, reviews of the 1910 and the 1918 editions, extracts from reviews, a printing history and a text comparison table of the 1910 and the 1918 editions. As well as the original photographs the book contains additional illustrations.
Foreword by Walter Carrington.

Sample pages from books available in pdf.

F. M. Alexander teaching John Dewey in c. 1917. Man's Supreme Inheritance contains 12 b/w illustrations on plates.

Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword by Walter Carrington
Preface to New Edition (1945)
Preface to First Edition (1910)
To My Reader
Introductory Word by Professor John Dewey
Appreciations from Professor John Dewey, Professor Frank Granger, Rev. J. H. Jowett and Professor H. M. Kallen
A Note on the Text by Jean M. O. Fischer

• Part One: Man's Supreme Inheritance
  i From Primitive Conditions to Present Needs
  ii Primitive Remedies and their Defects
  iii Subconsciousness and Inhibition
  iv Conscious Control
  v Applied Conscious Control
  vi Habits of Thought and of Body
  vii Race Culture and the Training of Children
  viii Evolutionary Standards and their Influence on the Crisis of 1914
• Part Two: Conscious Guidance and Control
  Introduction to Part Two
  i Synopsis of Claim
  ii The Argument
  iii The Processes of Conscious Guidance and Control
  iv Conscious Guidance and Control in Practice
  v Conscious Guidance and Control: Apprehension and Re-Education
  vi Individual Errors and Delusions
  vii Notes and Instances
• Part Three: The Theory and Practice of a New Method of Respiratory Re-Education
  Introductory
  i The Theory of Respiratory Re-Education
  ii Errors to be Avoided and Facts to be Remembered in the Theory and Practice of Respiratory Re-Education
  iii The Practice of Respiratory Re-Education
  Concluding Remarks
• Appendices
  a. Text from the 1910 edition of Man's Supreme Inheritance, omitted from later editions
  b. A case history from Conscious Control (1912), omitted from later editions
  c. Text omitted from the 1946 edition, but which appeared in the 1918 and 1941 editions
  d. Excerpts from reviews of Man's Supreme Inheritance (1910)
  e. "Health and Hygiene" -Review of Man's Supreme Inheritance (1910) in The Onlooker
  f. Excerpts from reviews and appreciations of Man's Supreme Inheritance (1918)
  g. "Making Over the Body"-Review of Man's Supreme Inheritance (1918) by Randolph Bourne in The New Republic
  h. Appreciation of Man's Supreme Inheritance (1918) by Dr A. C. Barnes
  i. Printing history of Man's Supreme Inheritance
  j. Textual origins of the 1918 edition

Index

Publication notes

First published 1910. Second revised and enlarged edition 1918. Third edition 1941. Fourth edition 1946. Fifth edition 1957. Mouritz edition published October 1996. Reprinted December 2002.

Paperback, 284 pages, 12 b/w photos on plates, frontispiece. Printed on 90gsm Acid Free Book Wove. ISBN 0–9525574–0–1.

Errata to 1996 edition (Corrected in reprint of December 2002)

Page ix, last paragraph. Insert full stop after "Inheritance." After full stop read "In 1918 it was subtitled ... " etc.
Page 195, title: for "Practice of New Method" read "Practice of a New Method"
Page 236, table "Changes", re "Introductory by Dewey": for "Unchanged" read "New"
Page 237, table "Changes", re Part 2: for "pahmplet" read "pamphlet"
Page 238, table "Changes", 3rd line: for "postion" read "position"
Page 250, 3rd paragraph: for "in detailed" read "in detail"