| First published in STATNews, January 1990. |
The Alexander Technique as I See It by Patrick Macdonald is a difficult book to try to review as it was not written as a book but is a collection of hitherto published and unpublished material written over a period of many years. It is, however, of great value to have these writings available and presented in a well produced book form. Credit must be given to Ted McNamara for his patient efforts in helping to make this possible.
The Alexander Technique as I See It is not an introduction to the Technique. It will be primarily of interest to teachers, students and pupils with experience. The first section is a collection of “Notebook Jottings” which have quite evidently, for the most part, come directly from teaching situations, and cover a whole range of difficulties experienced by pupils, especially with regard to the preconceived ideas they bring with them to their lessons. Other chapters include “Alexander’s Discovery” (basically a summary of Chapter 1 of The Use of the Self); “Learning the Technique” which includes clear explanations of what is meant by the directions to head, neck and back; “Why we learn the Technique”, which has some very illuminating passages on how the Technique works and a useful selection of case histories. The chapter on “Teaching the Technique” again gives insights into the nature of the forces at work, and the role of the teacher, including very practical teaching notes on how to use the hands. Mr Macdonald’s 1963 [F. Matthias Alexander] Annual Memorial Lecture on “Giving Directions, Doing and Non-Doing” is reproduced in a revised form, and there is a selection of “appreciations” written by some of Alexander’s better known pupils. The style of writing is concise, very keenly to the point and without embellishment, though not without humour. Indeed many of the ideas are presented in such a simple, direct way that one might, if not reflecting on the meaning of what is written, fail to grasp the significance of much that is there.
The essential value of the book is that it gives the reader some insight into Mr Macdonald’s understanding of the forces at work in the Alexander Technique, and in his own language. For what it is worth, I will try to give my own impressions of the key points.
The body is fluid, and its tone is controlled by small yet powerful impulses, analogous to electrical currents, which flow through it. Although there may be more, there are certainly two major forces at work; the one is contracting, heavy and relates to gravity; the other expanding, light and full of “life”. An interplay between these forces, especially along the spine, brings about the integrity of the body. The contracting force is usually present in abundance, and our efforts need to be directed towards activating the expanding force. This inner movement should not be confused by either pupil or teacher with ordinary muscular movement. It is activated by “quite a lot of mental hard work” and gradually “the words. . . turn into acts. . . of a very delicate and subtle kind”. The teacher, therefore, has to develop a high degree of sensitivity to be able to see and feel what is happening in the pupil’s body.
In the use of the hands the most common trap is to confuse the direction “forward” with an ordinary muscular forward movement of the head, which then makes it go down, whereas it is in fact an “unlocking” mechanism to further free the head from the neck, this time at the atlanto-occipital joint, so that it can be taken up by gently elongating the pupil’s spine in such a way that it is persuaded to elongate itself; this upward impulse to the head should pass along the whole spine to bring about the lengthening of the back, and be given a slight forward bias, which causes the lower back to fill out and widen. The pupil at first inhibits ordinary muscular movement, which tends to exaggerate any mal-coordination present, until the new inner movement is activated, and is then persuaded by the teacher to carry out a muscular movement while “the flow of right directions” is maintained. “Understanding is, of course, on different levels” and so we need to learn “to think in trends and tendencies, and not in fixed positions.” Our difficulty is that we are always getting in the way: “You must learn to get out of the teacher’s way, learn to get out of your own way, then learn to get out of ITS way.”
The most apparent difference between this book and many others is that it is not essentially an interpretation or explanation of source material on the Technique, or a theoretical treatise, but is experiential in the light of many years of dedicated hard work, and as such constitutes valuable source material in its own right, of which there is precious little in this field.
A very rich book which will, I am sure, mean more as one goes on learning. It is a sobering yet inspiring thought if one pauses to consider the responsibilities involved in being a teacher of the Alexander Technique, especially if one agrees with Mr MacDonald’s closing remark in the preface to his book:
“. . . that F. Matthias Alexander’s discovery and the evolution of his technique of teaching ranks higher than almost all other human achievement in any country at any time.”
© John Hunter. Reproduced with permission.
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This edition © Mouritz 2005. All rights reserved. |
