| First published in STATNews, vol. 6 no. 10, May 2003. |
This small format book follows the author’s book titled, Straight to it from the same publisher (Orion, 2000). The cover announces, “At home or at work, feel fitter and happier by improving your posture.” It is expressly designed as a self-help book “directed at the millions of people” who for one reason or another will not find out about the Alexander principles or learn the Alexander Technique from a teacher. The book is divided into two main sections: “So, what’s the problem?” and “The Practicals”. It is written in an informal, often chatty, style that gives both a sense of authority and friendly encouragement. The reader is assured that problems that have arisen with trying to learn the Technique from other books (including Alexander’s own) are here obviated because this book “has the necessary detail” and describes a teacher-less way to “straighten [oneself] out, as far as circumstances permit.”
Throughout there is an emphasis on “straightening out” the body by which, Door explains, “The straighter you can become, the more you will understand how it is your habit to pull yourself out of shape in everything you do.” We are told that flattening oneself out by lying down “semi-supine” “is the most important thing for you to learn to do. It is lying down that will bring about the change in body shape.” Maybe such statements indicate that the author’s aims for the Technique are not as encompassing as Alexander’s.
One could be drawn into a long discussion about cause and effect - means and ends - chickens and eggs. My current view is that to start from a premise of having to “straighten oneself out” (or, in the case of a teacher, one’s pupils) is fraught with problems. Elsewhere, to my mind, Door is on a sounder philosophical footing. He writes, “You pull yourself out of shape because you have learned to. Because you learned this, you can learn how to stop doing it.” Disappointingly, however, he does not then go on to explain about inhibition: the keystone of the Technique. As control of reaction and manner of use improved, so the tendency to pull down and shorten in stature will diminish, and the appropriate changes in structure (to straighten out, maybe?) and functioning will follow.
The emphasis on body shape seems to be an invitation to the unwary to end-gain. The adage, “Nothing fails like success” comes to mind. One is reminded of the story of when someone mentioned to Alexander the favourable reports he had heard regarding the work of one of his trained teachers. Alexander is supposed to have remarked, “Oh, but he isn’t teaching my technique.” “But he’s very successful”, the gentleman added in defence. “Then he definitely isn’t teaching my technique”, came the reply!
This book is not an average do-it-yourself book, for it is written by a foremost Alexander teacher and experienced teacher trainer. As one might expect, there are some useful insights into the work. The descriptions of practical procedures such as lying “semi-supine”, walking, climbing stairs are generally reliable despite some technical inaccuracies (the idea of gravity “pressing down on us to straighten us out”, page 55, for example). The standard of writing is sometimes inconsistent and some of the advice can appear irrelevant, e.g. books used as a head rest should “have all the spines underneath each other” and facing away from you; “Standing at the top of the stairs with your back towards them is not safe”; “head back position may be correct for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation”; and, mysteriously, “[shifting weight between feet] will feel a little as if fluid is draining from your foot. (It isn’t, it just feels that way.).”
Door is clear and convincing when he writes about psychophysical unity, the force of habit and the problem of relying on feelings as a basis for changes in the way we use ourselves. There is an excellent chapter introducing the practical procedures. However, readers will still have to work out for themselves how to carry them out and, without the guiding hands-on help from a teacher, they must go through a long process of inhibiting and directing as Alexander did himself. This, though, is not explained in a book that claims to have all the necessary detail.
Disappointingly for me, there is little suggestion of the inner process of the Technique, except by implication. This places an onerous responsibility on the curiosity, intelligence and perseverance of readers. I keep asking myself why anyone should expect to be able to learn something as practical as the Alexander Technique solely from reading a book when it is generally accepted that leaming something much simpler, such as how to drive a car, requires some personal tuition. There is, of course, always the possibility that someone will produce the definitive how-to-do-it book on the Alexander Technique, but I am not convinced that this is it. It is a budget book, produced for the mass market, and one is left with the sense that there is a far better book somewhere inside trying to get out.
© Malcolm Williamson. Reproduced with permission.
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This edition © Mouritz 2005. All rights reserved. |
