Alexander Technique Review 8.22.11
Reviews

Judith Leibowitz* + Bill Connington*

The Alexander Technique
- The World-Famous Method for enhancing Posture, Stamina, Health, and Well-Being, and for Relieving Pain and Tension
1990 hb (1999 pb), 177+xxii pages, illustrated, 208 x 144 mm, index, UK: Souvenir Press, Cedar, USA: HarperCollins. 0060160535.

Out of print.
1. Review by Walter Carrington
2. Review by Nicholas Brockbank
3. Review by Joan Arnold
1. Review by Walter Carrington
First published in STATNews, January 1991. This is a book that can be highly recommended to everyone who wants to know what our work is all about. It is addressed primarily to the general reader but it can be studied with profit by all Alexander teachers and students.

It must be remembered that the Alexander Technique is for every individual; and experts and specialists, however knowledgeable in their own fields, are merely laymen when it comes to the study of the use of the self. Years ago when Alexander first came to London, he presented letters of introduction from his medical friends. A distinguished surgeon advised him not to waste his time on the professionals but to put his case directly before the general public. This book does just that.

It is in two parts: the first gives Judith Leibowitz’s own story, followed by Bill Connington’s story, thereby establishing their credentials. It goes on to recount the experiences of people who have been helped by the Technique, under the caption of “Using the Alexander Technique to Change Your Life”. Then it explains some of the pracdcal problems under headings such as, “How Tension Responses Develop”, “Mental Attitude”, “Inhibition, Mental Directions and Sensory Awareness”. After that it deals with some “Anatomy and the Alexander Technique”, and explains about the “Mind-Body Connection” and “Self-Image and Psychological Factors”. Finally it explains “What Happens in Alexander Lessons”.

The Second Part describes what have come to be known as “The Leibowitz Procedures”. These are the outcome of Judith’s long experience in teaching the Technique to actors and dancers in the Drama Division of the Juilliard School where she has been member of the faculty for many years. As she says:

“The Leibowitz Procedures and the Alexander Technique are not the same thing. The procedures are a series of movements that are designed to help you observe yourself objectively in movement and at rest and to help you learn how the body moves when it is used well”.

It is not a matter of teaching people to “do” anything, it is a way of showing them how they can, and indeed must, apply the Technique for themselves in daily life. Long experience has shown, that it is not sufficient to teach people inhibition and direction, the principles of the Technique. People need help and guidance in applying it in all their everyday activities: otherwise these will just be carried out in the old familiar habitual ways.

Judith Leibowitz is a most remarkable woman, and she has made an unique contribution to the propagation of Alexander’s teaching. From childhood she had to surmount tremendous handicaps and difficulties in herself and so she learnt from personal experience how the principles could be of help to others. Many of the pupils who came to her, especially the performers, were only too anxious to help themselves and to be shown how to “do” what was right. Instead, she taught them how to inhibit and direct and how to use themselves in the most effective way, to discover the best means-whereby their chosen ends could be gained. She has become an expert in the practical application of the Technique.

As has been said, this book is addressed to the general reader. In particular it is addressed to the general reader in America where space and distance will separate so many from the centres where Alexander teachers are available. It is designed to generate interest, so that people will be motivated to find ways and means to attract teachers to visit them. If it achieves this, it will more than serve its purpose.

But this book can also be profitably studied by experienced teachers and students everywhere. We all need to learn more about how to communicate with the public and to spread knowledge of our work amongst a wider audience. These days so many books and publications are far too superficial in their approach or of too specialized a nature. Many are addressed to other teachers and to people who are already familiar with the work. Some are addressed to medical or other health specialists in an attempt to argue a case or somehow to prove the validity of the Technique. But Professor Raymond Dart used to say: “It has already been proved: get on now and teach it”.

This book is a model of its kind and shows the way in which our work can be explained and understood. So far, it has only been published in the USA, where its first printing was sold out almost immediately. But it is to appear here soon and translations into other languages are in preparation.

© Walter Carrington. Reproduced with permission.

 This edition © Mouritz 2005. All rights reserved.
2. Review by Nicholas Brockbank
First published in The Alexander Journal, no. 11, 1991. Reading new books on the Alexander Technique often turns out to be less interesting than re-reading old ones. The reason for this isn’t hard to find. Rather than wanting to say something innovative about their subject, within the wider context of explaining what that subject is, most authors nowadays seem to be happier putting across a compendium of existing information, inevitably reflecting the nature and degreeof their individual understanding, but primarily determined by the perceived demands of their market.

Having said that, writing a comprehensive and accessible overview of something as notoriously hard to describe as the Alexander Technique is obviously far from easy, whatever the motivation. To their credit, Judith Leibowitz, and Bill Connington have neither resorted to general dilution nor specific abandonment of those “difficult” concepts that make the subject what it is. Their clear insistence on the need for “inhibition and direction”, throughout the learning process, is a case in point. Unfortunately, this emphasis on something that is undeniably “mental”, but that appears to have an exclusively “physical” bearing, and yet is not to be “done” - problematical enough even after having had lessons - is almost bound to be misinterpreted in any unaided attempt at practical application.

Judging by its format, this book will be most widely read by the “body-oriented” sector of the self-improvement market. This will include a large number of DIY enthusiasts who, believing they can change their lives by reading an instructive work and putting what they have read into practice, will hardly take seriously - how could they? - the warnings from the authors that the Alexander Technique cannot be learned without a teacher; nor that the “Leibowitz Procedures” - a series of movement exercises based on sound body mechanics, which take up the second half of the book - and can be learned - are not the Alexander Technique.

The main impediment to useful progress for determined readers will be the difficulty of realising that the harmful habit patterns they are being called upon to “inhibit” are going to be - initially, at any rate - indistinguishable from their “normal” behaviour. This is why a teacher is necessary; but until a reader has experienced what it is like to function, even momentarily, outside of habit - as opposed to learning to do different movements in a habitual way - they might be excused for questioning the authors’ insistence on the need for one.

On the whole, though, it would be fair to say that this book is well balanced, thoughtfully laid out and visually appealing. There are many case histories, probably enough for everybody to be able to identify with at least one of them. There is an excellent short chapter on anatomy. The typical transition from well-balanced infancy, through the development of “tension responses”, to the mind-body split of adulthood, and on, via the Alexander Technique, towards the reclamation of a measure of harmony, is well documented. The fundamental problem for any author, however, remains the same one Alexander spoke of in The Use of the Self, when he said: “knowledge concerned with sensory experience cannot be conveyed by the written or spoken word, so that it means to the recipient what it means to the person who is trying to convey it.”

© Nicholas Brockbank. Reproduced with permission.

 This edition © Mouritz 2005. All rights reserved.
3. Review by Joan Arnold (www.alexandertech.net)
First published in The ACAT News, Summer 1990. “We can throw away the habit of a lifetime in a few minutes if we use our brains,” said F. M. Alexander. But many of us have inherited one of the habits that F. M. never threw away - the resistance to actively selling his work. Judith Leibowitz’s and Bill Connington’s book - beautifully published by Harper & Row - is a major step toward changing this pattern by helping to make the incredibly useful tool of the Alexander Technique known to a wider audience. A broad-based introduction, it is a much-needed 168-page advertisement and a good addition to writings on the Technique.

The book begins with stories about people changing. The authors tell how they and their students were affected by the Technique in fifteen case studies that span a variety of ages, professions and problems. An editor, an accountant, a performer who unsuccessfully sought relief through other modalities were ultimately freed from nagging chronic conditions or were able to expand their expressiveness. Showing how a change in the body can render a change of mind, this section gives a wide range of readers the opportunity to find themselves in the book, and gives personal meaning to the subsequent instructional sections. In descriptions of the Technique’s concepts and tools for change, the authors’ most impressive accomplishment is putting subtle, elusive concepts in clear, accessible language. But in both the anecdote and theory segments, I found myself wishing that such dramatic stories could have been expressed more lyrically, with more of the warmth and humor that can come through a lesson with Judy or Bill.

Part II conveys and illustrates the Leibowitz Procedures, directions for a series of Alexander-informed simple movements such as sitting, bending or lunging. This section reaches for a high level of motivation and self-awareness in readers. Though a preceding chapter defining anatomical terms is well illustrated, the section establishing a mode for self-observation uses easily misinterpreted spatial terms like “back”, “down” and “forward” for the head without the benefit of pictures. This points to an inherent contradiction in the book’s premise - the admonition to study the Technique with a certified teacher, accompanied by written instructions. A careful disclaimer doesn’t quite solve this problem. As someone working with the Technique, I can’t say how these instructions would be used by a novice, but I find it hard to imagine learning inhibition without a teacher’s immediate feedback. The final two chapters applying the Procedures and Alexander principles to daily activities, sports and exercise seem to me more likely to produce real insight in someone new to these concepts. Particularly helpful is the section on bringing self-awareness to an evaluation of one’s workspace and to the actions so many do unconsciously - washing the car, eating, or gardening.

The authors have taken on the daunting task of describing a hands-on movement technique without the complex feedback of demonstration and individual guidance. Of course there is leeway to get it wrong, but they have, in a clear, cogent way, put forth an extremely useful introduction, one that can pique the interest of a greater public. This has been a good year for the press and the Alexander Technique, and the production of this book makes it a better one. Though reading and self-experimentation will never replace a pair of hands, some people really have been helped by books. Hopefully, this one will reach the many places in the world without Alexander teachers.

© Joan Arnold. Reproduced with permission.

 © 2006.

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