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Alexander Technique Review 8.23.20

Reviews

Glynn Macdonald*

The Complete Illustrated Guide to Alexander Technique
- A practical programme for health, poise, and fitness

1998 hb + pb, 192 pages, hb, ill., 200 x 303 mm, UK, Harper Collins (Element Books). 186204225X (1862042268).

Out of print.

Review by Malcolm Williamson

First published in STATNews, vol. 5 no. 3, January 1999.

Glynn Macdonald’s second book is appealing and lavishly produced with full colour photos and illustrations on every page. It “brings together the collective experience of practitioners in the Technique from all over the world to give a fascinating and inspiring picture of this educational therapy.”

The book is divided into four main sections that intriguingly echo the titles of Alexander’s four books. The text is punctuated with supporting quotes from the arts and sciences which confirm that what Alexander was teaching in such a novel and pragmatic way was, in fact, a truth as old as history.

There is a section dealing with the scientific verification of the Alexander Technique and the quest during Alexander’s own lifetime to explain his work in scientific terms. This is interesting background reading but too dusty to impress today’s scientific world. Even in 1948 - the South African libel case - Mr. Justice Clayden thought Alexander over-enthusiastic to have cited the work of Professor Rudolf Magnus (who coined the phrase “When the head moves, the body follows.”) in support of his concept of “primary control”. Alexander had no proof that what Magnus had demonstrated in animals also applied to Man. (Conversely, he also concluded the defendants had failed to prove Alexander wrong.) Today, we still have to answer calls for scientific proof, yet the simplest and often most effective reply is still to say, “Try it and experience for yourself”!

Part Three covers an impressive array of applications for the Alexander Technique from giving birth or being born, through primary education and the performing arts. In the Sport and Recreation section the concept of “conscious exercise” is introduced to the reader. There are essays on T’ai Chi, horseriding, cycling, running, swimming, tennis, golf, skiing, working-out in the gym, gardening, building and decorating, household chores and (if you’ve still got the energy) driving.

The Fourth part is dedicated to Alexander Technique and Medicine.

Information is presented in small, easy-to-digest pieces which generally works well though sometimes content takes second place to presentation. Why are we told rather starkly on page 30 - for instance - that “We do not drive our car in the way that we drive ourselves” with no further explanation or suddenly, in a section on “Anatomy: The Structure” that “The Latin name for man is Homo sapiens - translated as the Thinking Man.” (page 40)? Presumably it’s to accommodate the page layout.

Inconsistencies in style (and quality) mean that some passages are written as basic, simple advice while others are more heavy-duty and technical: like the short paragraph on gravitational theory. Unexplained specialised terms (“muscle spindles”, page 51), Latin names and anatomical labellings (e.g. “posterior- superior wall of the rib cage”, page 43), Alexander jargon (“lengthen and widen in stature”, page 45) and non-essential details sometimes tend to fog rather than illuminate the main points being made.

When so much emphasis has rightly been placed on the “directions” for the head - “forward and up” - it is a pity when we come to the anatomical description things get into a muddle: “The bone at the base of the skull (occiput) makes a joint with the top vertebra of the spinal column (atlas), which allows the head pivotal movement between the first and the second vertebrae (axis). This joint is called the atlanto-ocipital joint and [it] enables the skull to nod...” (page 41. My italics.) Teachers will be able to fathom what the author actually means, but not so the novice student.

A statement like: “To move we need energy. The Alexander Technique believes that this energy must be correctly directed” is, in my view, problematic. Such writing undermines the attention given on earlier pages to setting the Technique in a scientific context. The Technique is not reliant on belief for its efficacy, nor is it true that a technique is capable of believing anything. This and some other statements seem illogical, though these are small details when compared with the abundance of other good material on offer.

Glynn Macdonald’s book is designed for dipping into and the reader will find something informative and inspiring on every page. At its best this is as good an introduction to the Alexander Technique as one can get or could wish for.