Review: Rankin-Box: Health Therapies

Home > Library > Reviews

Alexander Technique Review 8.28.25

Reviews

Denise F. Rankin-Box (ed.)

Complementary Health Therapies
- A guide for nurses and the caring professions

240+ix pages, Paperback, 1988, illustrated, index, UK, Croom Helm. 070995008X. (2nd ed. published as The Nurse's Handbook of Complementary Therapies , Paperback, Bailliere Tindall, 2001. 0702026514. In print: general.)

Contains an 18-page introduction to the Alexander Technique by Sue Thame.

Review by Nicholas Brockbank (www.dodman.org)

First published in STATNews, June 1988.

Sue Thame begins her chapter on the Alexander Technique by saying that F. M. Alexander always considered his work to be in the sphere of education rather than medicine. She goes on to say that since complementary therapy, through its adherence to a holistic outlook, operates within a wider field than orthodox medicine, a system of psychophysical re-education neeed not be thought out of place in a book such as this.

Her explanation of the Alexander Technique reads very well. She manages to put across the theory and an account of the practice in an understandable way without unduly diminishing her subject. The Technique is made to seem every bit as accessible as other methods described in the book. Admittedly the concept of “directing” which is paramount in Alexander’s work, is glossed over rather hastily; but given her intended public and the constraints of space and style, she has succeeded admirably in what must be her central aim, to show the Alexander Technique to be a practical, if demanding, system for general personal proficiency in everyday life, available to anyone who wants to use it, whether for themselves or in their work of caring for others.

The other chapters in the book, each written by a specialist in the subject, deal with the following: acupuncture, shiatsu, macrobiotic diet, reflex zone therapy, applied kinesiology, massage, youga, healing, biogfeedback, hypnosis, social skills and iridology.