| Here we arrive at the point where we are once more confronted with misdirected energies concentrated into narrow channels through abnormal tendencies; hence the over-compensation which inevitably follows. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 38 |
| The dancing at this school was considered a form of free expression, and the children were encouraged to make their own movements, undirected. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 78 |
| Perhaps I should add here that I convinced this pupil by practical demonstrations that the energy directed to his arm was wasted and misdirected; that, if this energy were correctly directed to the proper co-ordinations concerned with the mechanism of breathing and speaking, the process would represent the difference between correct and incorrect attempts in the direction of ultimate satisfactory breath and speech control. |
Man's Supreme Inheritance by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 1996, London), page 136-137 |
| In such a case, the activities of the psycho-physical mechanisms involved in his attempts will be the result of unsatisfactory direction and control, resulting in a misdirected use of the psycho-physical mechanisms, and hence his inability to keep them operating on the satisfactory means whereby he will be able to gain his desired "end." |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 37 |
| As a matter of fact, the defective use of the mechanisms which is responsible for such conditions cannot be adequately described as "mind-wandering," seeing that it is the manifestation of a harmful and misdirected action and reaction, not only in connection with those processes commonly spoken of as "mind," but throughout the whole psycho-physical organism. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 38 |
| Any attempt, then, made by the child that is imperfectly co-ordinated to use its unreliable sensory appreciation as a guide in its efforts to do something in obedience to directions in order to correct a defect, is bound to result in some form of misdirected activity, accompanied by an increase of the original defect or imperfection, and by the undue development of the fear reþexes. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 94 |
The technique, therefore, in which we are interested has been developed throughout from the premiss that, if something is wrong with us, it is because we have been guided by unreliable sensory appreciation, leading to incorrect sensory experiences and resulting in misdirected activities.
These misdirected activities manifest themselves in the use of the psycho-physical mechanism in connection with all the general activities of life, and in many varying ways according to our individual idiosyncrasies. They are inþuenced by and associated with our incorrect conceptions, our imperfect sensory appreciation, our unduly excited fear reþexes and uncontrolled emotions and prejudices, and our imperfectly adjusted mechanisms. These psycho-physical derangements in the process of formation are the forerunners of a psycho-physical attitude towards the conduct of life in general which must be considered perverted, and because these misdirected activities are so closely connected with this perverted attitude, they present a problem of great difficulty to both teacher and pupil in any endeavour to convey or acquire knowledge, particularly in regard to the satisfactory use of the psycho-physical mechanisms. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 95 |
| In the matter of conception, the first step is to convince the pupil that his present misdirected activities are the result of incorrect conception and of imperfect sensory appreciation (feeling). |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 96 |
| He has probably never thought out how (the "means-whereby") he has performed such acts as "bending his knees," and though he knows in a general way that something is wrong with him (else it is improbable that he would be coming to a teacher at all), he has not associated this "something wrong" with anything that he has been doing himself-that is, with his own misdirected activities. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 99 |
| This is only one example of the difficulty which a pupil's incorrect conceptions and misdirected activities in certain directions will present both to him and his teacher in any endeavour to convey or acquire knowledge in the psycho-physical sphere. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 101 |
This procedure constitutes the means whereby the teacher makes it possible for the pupil to prevent (inhibition) the misdirected activities which are causing his psycho-physical imperfections. In this work the inhibitory process must take first place, and remain the primary factor in each and every new experience which is to be gained and become established during the cultivation and development of reliable sensory appreciation upon which a satisfactory standard of co-ordination depends.
With this aim in view-that is, the prevention of misdirected activities-the teacher from the outset carefully explains to the pupil that his part in this scheme is very different from that which is usually assigned to pupils under other teaching methods. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 111 |
| The object of his re-education is to eradicate such psycho-physical faults, and so, as soon as he is asked to sit down, he immediately says "No," and gives himself the order not to sit down, thereby inhibiting the misdirected activity hitherto connected with the act, a procedure which prevents indulgence in the old subconscious faults. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 115 |
| The object of his re-education is to eradicate such psycho-physical faults, and so, as soon as he is asked to sit down, he immediately says "No," and gives himself the order not to sit down, thereby inhibiting the misdirected activity hitherto connected with the act, a procedure which prevents indulgence in the old subconscious faults. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 115 |
| When this happens, the teacher must point out to the pupil that he has not quite comprehended what is required of him, and he must again place the whole position before the pupil, and from as many angles as possible, until he is certain that the pupil understands that the primary orders which he is asked to give are preventive orders, and that if he gives these preventive orders (inhibition of the old misdirected activities), and then proceeds to give the new ones, his spine will be kept at its greatest possible length (not shortened), . . . |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 126 |
| These ideas are the response to a stimulus (or stimuli) arising from a reasoned, constructive conscious understanding and acceptance by the pupil of the principles concerned with the "means-whereby," and as the procedure concerned with the application of these principles involves the prevention of "end-gaining" acts, the performance of which is associated with misdirected activities, . . . |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) pages 130-131 |
| In each case the stimulus to these misdirected activities is the pupil's idea or conception that he must try to do correctly whatever the teacher requests, and, as we have seen, on the subconscious plane the teacher insists upon this. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 144 |
| This last proceeding being an unreasoned one on his part, all he accomplishes by it is to reinforce all the old misdirected activities subconsciously connected with the act of sitting down, whilst the new reasoned directions concerned with the act go by the board. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 173 |
| Be this as it may, we cannot fail to recognize the important fact that an alarming growth of disunion leading to complications in human activity is herein indicated, and complications are ever associated with misdirected activity. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 186 |
| One cannot forget either the unfamiliar but satisfactory manifestations of the child when he becomes able to inhibitÝ-that is, to say "No" to some stimulus to misdirected activity (which in the case of the last illustration would be to say "No" to his subconscious desire to throw back his head and stiffen his neck)-and then, with an expression born of confidence, to give the orders or directions, which are the result of a reasoned conception of his correct "means-whereby," the whole process tending to prevent the over-excitement of the fear reþexes. |
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (STAT Books, 1997, London) page 190 |
| I now had proof of one thing at least, that all my efforts up till now to improve the use of myself in reciting had been misdirected. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 19 |
| Because he lacks this knowledge, the athlete, like the animal, has to depend upon his feeling for the direction of the working of his mechanisms, and as that feeling has become more or less untrustworthy in the majority of athletes (a fact that can be demonstrated), the mechanisms which he employs for his activities are bound to be misdirected. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 23 |
|
Certain points impressed themselves particularly upon me:
(1) that the pulling of my head back and down, when I felt that I was putting it forward and up, was proof that the use of the specific parts concerned was being misdirected, and that this misdirection was associated with untrustworthy feeling;
(2) that this misdirection was instinctive, and, together with the associated untrustworthy feeling, was part and parcel of my habitual use of myself;
(3) that this instinctive misdirection leading to wrong habitual use of myself, including most noticeably the wrong use of my head and neck, came into play as the result of a decision to use my voice; this misdirection, in other words, was my instinctive response (reaction) to the stimulus to use my voice.
When I came to consider the significance of this last point, it occurred to me that if, when the stimulus came to me to use my voice, I could inhibit the misdirection associated with the wrong habitual use of my head and neck, I should be stopping off at its source my unsatisfactory reaction to the idea of reciting, which expressed itself in pulling back the head, depressing the larynx, and sucking in breath. Once this misdirection was inhibited, my next step would be to discover what direction would be necessary to ensure a new and improved use of the head and neck, and, indirectly, of the larynx and breathing and other mechanisms, for I believed that such direction, when put into practice, would ensure a satisfactory instead of an unsatisfactory reaction to the stimulus to use my voice.
|
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 24-25 |
| I looked all round for any other possible causes of failure, and after a long period of investigation I came to the conclusion that it was necessary for me to seek some concrete proof whether, at the critical moment when I attempted to gain my end and speak, I was really continuing to project the directions in their proper sequence for the employment of the new and more satisfactory use, as I thought I was, or whether I was reverting to the instinctive misdirection of my old habitual use which had been associated with all my throat trouble. By careful experimentation I discovered that I gave my directions for the new use in their sequence right up to the point when I tried to gain my end and speak, but that, at the critical moment when persistence in giving the new directions would have brought success, I reverted instead to the misdirection associated with my old wrong habitual use. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 30 |
| I had already noticed that on the occasions when I failed, the instinctive misdirection associated with my old habitual use always dominated my reasoning direction for the new use, and I gradually came to see that this could hardly be otherwise. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 31 |
| It will be seen that under this new plan the change in procedure came at the critical moment when hither to, in going on to gain my end, I had so often reverted to instinctive misdirection and my wrong habitual use. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 34 |
| By the time I had reached the stage when a new manner of use had become established through my conscious employment of this primary control, I was able, when the stimulus came to me to use my voice to recite, to inhibit my instinctive misdirection leading to the old harmful use of my head and neck and vocal organs, and so to my hoarseness, and to substitute for it a conscious direction leading to a new use of my head, neck and vocal organs which was not associated with hoarseness. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 40 |
| Indeed, the results that have been obtained by adopting the procedure described on pages 33-36 furnish evidence of how harmful reflex activity brought about by misdirection of use can be consciously held in check, even in face of the excitation involved in carrying out the procedure.1 |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 41 |
| Unfortunately, with the increasing prevalence of untrustworthy sensory appreciation,1 this instinctive direction of use tends, as time goes on, to become more and more a misdirection, having a harmful effect, as was proved in my own case, upon functioning and, consequently, upon the reactions which result. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 44 |
| For this reason I claim that the primary requirement in dealing with all specific symptoms is to prevent the misdirection which leads to wrong use and functioning, and to establish in its place a new and satisfactory direction as a means of bringing about an improvement in use and functioning throughout the organism. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 45 |
| When the golfer starts to make his stroke, he brings to the act the same habitual use of his mechanisms that he brings to all his activities, and since for such an essential part of the recognized golfing technique as "keeping his eyes on the ball" the mechanisms concerned with the control of his eyes fail to function as he desires, we are justified in concluding that this habitual use is misdirected. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 50 |
| The result is that he makes the stroke according to his habitual use, and as this habitual use is misdirected and includes the wrong use of his eyes, he takes his eyes off the ball and makes a bad stroke. It is clear that as long as he is dominated by his habit of end-gaining, he will react to the stimulus to "make a good stroke" by the same misdirected use of himself, and will continue to take his eyes off the ball. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 51 |
| The instruction to the pupil to "keep his eyes on the ball" shews that the teacher recognizes that the mechanisms concerned with the control of the pupil's eyes do not function as they should, but when, in order to meet this difficulty, he simply tells his pupil to "keep his eyes on the ball," he also shews that he does not connect the faulty functioning of the eyes with misdirection of the use of the mechanisms throughout the organism. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 54 |
Evidence of misdirection on of use in human activity is to be found on all sides, and our real interest in the golfer's difficulty is that it is a difficulty not confined to golf, but experienced by all who are trying, without success, to correct defects which hamper them in their various activities, or to perform a certain act satisfactorily.
Misdirection of use is to be found in the person who takes up a pen to write and proceeds at once to stiffen the fingers unduly, to make movements of the arm which should be made by the fingers, and even to make facial contortions; . . . |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 55 |
| It follows that where there is misdirection, this satisfactory use of the mechanisms is not at our command. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 56 |
| First he would diagnose the golfer's failure to make a good stroke as due to misdirection of the habitual use of the mechanisms, and not primarily to any specific defect such as an inability to keep the eyes on the ball. He would recognize that the inability to keep the eyes on the ball was merely a symptom of this misdirection, and could not by any stretch of imagination be said to be the cause of his failure to make a good stroke. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 56 |
| A teacher who made a diagnosis on these lines would understand that the difficulty could not be met by any such purely specific instruction as telling his pupil to keep his eyes on the ball, for he would recognize that any "will power" exerted by a pupil whose use of himself was misdirected would be exerted in the wrong direction,1 so that the harder he tried to carry out such an instruction and the more he "willed" himself to succeed, the more his use would be misdirected and the more likely he would be to take his eyes off the ball. From this he would conclude that he must find some way of teaching his pupil to stop the misdirection of his use and as he observed that the misdirection began the moment the pupil tried to gain his end and make a good stroke, obviously his first step would be to get the pupil to stop "trying to make a good stroke." He would explain that any immediate reaction to the stimulus to make a good stroke would always be by means of his wrong habitual use, but that if he prevented this immediate reaction, he would at the same time be preventing the misdirection of his use that went with it and was the obstacle to the gaining of his end. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 57 |
| He would impress upon him that of all the activities that go to the making of a good stroke, this act of prevention was the primary activity, since by the inhibition of the misdirected habitual use the way would be left clear for the teacher to build up in his pupil that new direction of the use of his mechanisms, which would substitute the means whereby he would in time be able to keep his eyes on the ball, and thus make a good stroke. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) pages 57-58 |
| If at any point in the series the chain of directions is broken and use misdirected, all the succeeding acts of the series will go wrong, and the end will not be attained in the way desired (for instance, the golfer will not make a good stroke). |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 58 |
| This primary control, called by the late Professor Magnus of Utrecht the "central control," depends upon a certain use of the head and neck in relation to the use of the rest of the body, and once the pupil has inhibited the instinctive misdirection leading to his faulty habitual use, the teacher must begin the process of building up the new use by giving the pupil the primary direction towards the establishment of this primary control. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 60 |
| The instruction given to the golfer of our illustration to keep his eyes on the ball is typical of the kind of specific instruction given by teachers generally for the purpose of eradicating specific defects in their pupils, and, as we have seen in his case, this instruction was a stimulus to him to try harder than ever to gain his end, and so to misdirect his efforts worse than ever.2 |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 62 |
| 2 Even supposing it were possible to restore at once to a pupil satisfactory direction of his use and functioning throughout the organism, the pupil's habit of end-gaining would still persist in acts in which he was practised in employing his old familiar use, as, for instance, in making a golf stroke, so that the moment he attempted to make the stroke by his new unfamiliar direction of use, he would bring into play his old habitual misdirection of use, take his eyes off the ball and make a bad stroke. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 62fn |
| I assured him that my long years of practical experience in dealing with the difficulties and idiosyncrasies of people who stutter had convinced me that stuttering was one of the most interesting specific symptoms of a general cause, namely, misdirection of the use of the psycho-physical mechanisms, and I did not wish to take him as a pupil, unless he was prepared to work with me on the basis of correcting this misdirection of use generally, as the primary step in remedying his defects in speech. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 70 |
| Now in my experience stuttering, like the golfer's tendency to take his eyes off the ball, is due to habitual misdirection of the use of the mechanisms, so that the remedying of the defect in both cases presents fundamentally the same problem. Like the golfer, the stutterer needs to have this habitual misdirection of his use changed to a more satisfactory direction, . . . |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) pages 70-71 |
| In every stutterer of whom I have had experience this habit of reacting too quickly to stimuli is always associated with sensory untrustworthiness, undue muscle tension and misdirection of energy, but in this pupil's case the habit of going directly for his end, and of trying to "feel right" in doing it, had been positively cultivated in him by the methods employed by his previous teachers in trying to "cure" his stutter.1 |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) pages 74-75 |
| For in cases where it is claimed that a stutter has been "cured," there is usually something peculiar or hesitating about the manner of speaking, and those concerned do not seem in the least perturbed that the harmful conditions of undue muscle tension, misdirection of energy and untrustworthiness of sensory appreciation, present in the case when the "cure" was begun, are still in evidence now that what is considered a successful "cure" has been brought about. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 76 |
| If this test is applied to a stutter after he has been "cured" by such methods, it will be found too often that the original defects of undue muscular tension by misdirection of energy and untrustworthiness of sensory appreciation have been increased in the process of the "cure."2 |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 77 |
| But, more important than this, my pupil in the course of this procedure had learned that if he inhibited his immediate instinctive reaction to any stimulus to "do," he could prevent the misdirection of his use and the associated undue muscle tension which had been the marked feature of all his reactions to stimuli, . . . |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 81 |
| (2) Since the medical curriculum does not include training in the knowledge of how to direct the use of the human mechanisms, the medical man does not bring to his diagnosis an understanding of "use" in the sense I have defined, and so does not recognize the relationship between misdirection of use and that unsatisfactory standard of functioning which is always found in association with disease; . . . |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 93 |
| . . . for in the course of this training he would be gaining a knowledge which would enable him to judge the manner of use present in the patient, detect any misdirection of use, and where this exists, determine its relation to any symptoms of unsatisfactory functioning present. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) pages 93-94 |
| It has never been recognized in medical practice that sensory appreciation, the human compass, has become more and more unreliable with the advance of civilization, and that in proportion there has come about a growing misdirection of the use of the human organism. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) pages 102-103 |
| Like the golfer and the stutterer, they want to make a change, but bring into play for the purpose the only use of themselves they know, that use, with its associated habits, which we have called throughout this book the "habitual" use of the self, and the fact that, when using themselves in this habitual way they do not succeed in doing what they have reasoned out is the right thing to do, indicates that their habitual use is misdirected and faulty for the purpose. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 113 |
| All my experience goes to shew that in cases where untrustworthiness of sensory appreciation has led to a general misdirection of the use of the mechanisms and to unsatisfactory conditions of functioning, a particular stimulus may start up a sensory process which registers a reaction which is quite different from the reaction which has actually taken place. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 115 |
| As a result, the functioning of his sensory processes has become so unsatisfactory that the use of his mechanisms is constantly misdirected in his efforts to "do," and when he "tries" to put right the results of this misdirection, he has no other criterion for self criticism to guide him in these attempts but that of the untrustworthy sensory processes which originally led him into error. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 118 |
| Those who have had the experience of putting into practice the technique I have described for the building-up of a conscious direction of their use, have found that the process gives them the opportunity for testing continuously the validity of their sensory observations and impressions of what is taking place, because all the time that they are consciously projecting the directions for the new and improved use, they are obliged to go on being aware whether or not they are reverting to the old instinctive misdirection of their use which, associated with sensory untrustworthiness, had led them originally to be deceived in what they were doing with themselves. |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) page 119 |
| If a technique which can be proved to do this for an individual were to be made the basis of an educational plan, so that the growing generation could acquire a more valid criterion for self-judgment than is now possible with the prevailing condition of sensory misdirection of use, might not this lead in time to the substitution of reasoning reactions for those instinctive reactions which are manifested as prejudice, racial and otherwise, herd instinct, undue ''self-determination'' and rivalry, etc., which, as we all deplore, have so far brought to nought our efforts to realize goodwill to all men and peace upon earth? |
The Use of the Self by F. Matthias Alexander (Methuen, 1932, London) pages 119-120 |
| The pupil who, with the aid of his teacher, learns to employ these procedures as the means of gaining the end he desires, begins a process of change by starting with the inhibition of the misdirection of his habitual employment of the primary control associated with his harmful functioning. |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), page 39 |
| The instinctive misdirection which led to interference with the employment of the primary control will be changed to a conscious guidance of the use of the self, associated with reliability of sensory appreciation. |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), page 52 |
| The preventive messages projected serve to stop off the misdirection associated with harmful habitual use of ourselves in the performance of an act, and herein we have an activity which is primary to any other activity concerned with the act, and by means of which the way is cleared for the projecting of the new directive messages which bring about a new and improved use of ourselves. |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), page 85 |
| It is only when the use of the mechanisms is misdirected, so that there is interference with the employment of the primary control, that the working of the complex mechanisms becomes complicated and gives rise to difficulties, . . . |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), page 110 |
| If Sir Charles's study had led to this knowledge of the use of himself, he could have found out "the how of the body's doing these things," and should he then have become aware of any misdirection of energy and misuse of parts in his way of ''standing," sitting, or carrying out any other activity, he would have the knowledge of the "how" of restoring rightness of direction and right degree of action. |
The Universal Constant in Living by F. M. Alexander (Mouritz, 2000, London), page 119 |
