| First published in STATNews, vol. 6, no. 9, January 2003. |
As teachers we all have the experience at one time or another, either in our own lives for ourselves, or with our pupils, that unexpected things happen when we embark on having Alexander lessons. We, and our pupils, may have come to the Technique with very particular needs: because something doesn’t work so well, may it be our posture, our breathing, our voice, or we feel de-skilled professionally, low in energy, dissatisfied with what we are doing and who we are. As we learn Alexander’s principles and apply them in our daily lives, new experiences become available to us, and we make surprising discoveries about ourselves and our potential. This may bring about unexpected changes in our lives, whether it leads us into new adventures or back to what we have always done with renewed vigour, clarity and creativity.
Maunder’s book Let Your Life Flow gives us a glimpse of the richness of this work. He is passionate about using the principle of the Alexander Technique not only for physical reasons, but also for psychological transformation and in our spiritual journeys.
The book attempts to address a perceived imbalance in the world of the Alexander Technique. He writes, “This book also shows for the first time how the basic principle that Alexander discovered can be used to process physical, mental and emotional disharmony (that leads to dis-ease) and to bring them all back into harmony with our higher purpose in life.” “Up until now” he continues, “the Alexander world has tended to ignore emotional problems that students bring with them and to say, ‘That is not in our field. Please go to and seek counselling or psychotherapy’.” He continues, “This book aims to show Alexander teachers, trainers and students that we already have the tools, we already have the principles that work across all levels of the psyche and that can lead to a total and radical transformation of the self. What is obviously needed is training and experience, and the quantum leap in thinking that can take the Alexander Technique out of a restricted little pigeon-hole that says, ‘Alexander Technique: good for releasing muscular tension patterns and improves your posture; much used by actors and musicians.’”
In the next four chapters he explains Alexander’s “Three Principles of Self-transformation” and the “Four Main Pillars of the Alexander Technique: Balance, Breathing, Directions and Mental Calmness.” In his attempts to describe what happens to us when we embark on this work, either by ourselves or by having lessons, he often draws on analogies from other disciplines and spiritual practices, like Yoga or T’ai Chi. I found these chapters rambling, repetitious and like a “stream of consciousness”. Terms like “cosmic energy”, “higher self” and “life force” are used liberally.
There are descriptions of terms and physiological processes which are inaccurate. For example: “The important point in Alexander breathing is that the lungs need to be emptied completely during exhalation” (page 55 and all through the book). Complete exhalation only happens when we have died and the lungs have collapsed. Sometimes part of the lungs can accidentally collapse through injury, and often the elasticity of this part of the lung is not recovered. When we are alive we will always have a residual volume of air in our lungs so that breathing continues unencumbered. Attempting to empty our lungs will be impossible and cause strain which will inevitably interfere with inspiration.
His understanding of primary control and use of this term throughout the book is imprecise and misleading. He writes on page 67, “The source of the primary control is in the medulla oblongata . . .” and later he continues, “When the ‘primary control’ is open you can look through this opening as if it were a telescopic eye into the body and gain accurate information about the inner state of muscular tension or relaxation”, and so on. Language is a fickle thing, isn’t it!
He proposes to update Alexander’s terminology, which he thinks is outdated and thereby misleading (pp 95 ff). Yet in his attempt to “winnow out the truth” of Alexander’s ponderous Victorian writing “and explain it in simple, modem language, so that the modem reader can understand it . . . and also practice it” he finds that Alexander’s original terminology is “quite good”. While he has no problem that some of us would find Alexander’s original terminology preferable here are his proposed changes: “Giving directions” is to be understood as thought projections. Most problematic seems to be the term “inhibition”, as Freud seems to have appropriated it for his particular purpose. Maunder would prefer to replace it with the term “creative indifference”. “End-gaining” is “aptly descriptive” and “faulty sensory appreciation” is an accurate descriptive term referring to the insight that “people suffer from inaccurate sensory awareness”. He would call the “means whereby” being in the flow or paying attention to the creative process, and “primary control” would become free flow of life energy.
In Chapter 6 - “Let Your Life Flow into Movement” - we find detailed descriptions of how to exercise, in the true sense of the word, certain movements: how to find one’s balance, how to perform the lunge, picking something up, moving our arms, sitting down and standing up, and lastly semi-supine and walking. Great care is taken to explain each movement in detail, adhering to the Alexander process, and to convey the movements as dynamically as possible through line drawings of a man. This left me completely over-stimulated and at a loss as to who these were really for.
In Chapter 7 we are given interesting insights into the psychological significance of posture, which leads us into the next section: “Psycho-Physical Rebalancing”. Here we read about how the Alexander Technique has influenced Fritz Perls, father of Gestalt Psychotherapy, and about the research of another psychotherapist, Eugene Gendline, University of Chicago, who was aware that we are psychophysical organisms. We are given a brief account of the latest research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology.
We are also introduced to Arnold Beissner’s concept of “The Paradoxical Theory of Change”. Maunder thinks that this theory has interesting implications for the Alexander Technique. The word “let” of “let the neck be free” in the original formulation of directions leads him to believe that Alexander instinctively knew about this theory. In this chapter and the following we are introduced to this psycho-physical aspect of the work which Alex Maunder has called “Psycho- Physical Rebalancing”, which is illustrated via case study John.
Finally, we read how the principles of inhibition, direction and non-doing can provide us with a good foundation for our meditative practices and spiritual disciplines, whatever they may be.
Maunder suggests that the Alexander work can be broadened out into the area of the mental, emotional and spiritual and that it is a new development. Many teachers may already be aware of this potential and, by teaching the Alexander principle, facilitate far-reaching change in the individual. They may also know their limitations and the boundaries of the Technique, medically as well as psychologically. While many ideas are interesting and certainly worth exploring further, I would agree with him that training and supervised experience in this area are required. Reading his short biography on the back sleeve I do not see any indication that he himself had any training in this field? However, there are Alexander teachers who have undergone and are currently undergoing further training in the fields of psychology and psychotherapy.
© Dorothea Magonet. Reproduced with permission.
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This edition © Mouritz 2005. All rights reserved. |
