About the Alexander Technique
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The Alexander Technique restores balance,
posture and freedom of movement.

It teaches practical self-management
through a constructive control of habit and reaction.

It is often used to assist with rehabilitation,
pain management and stress relief.

Alexander Biography • Articles on AT • Top of Page

*Alexander's Story...

Australian actor F.M. Alexander began his journey of discovery when he found himself challenged by a recurring throat and voice problem which was seriously affecting his reciting.

In addition to having trouble with his throat and vocal cords he was concerned that people could hear him 'gasping' and 'sucking in air' through his mouth.

He was unable to find a solution in the voice training and medical approaches of the day and the problem developed to the point of hoarseness which from occasionally culminated in a complete loss of voice.

Observing that his hoarseness diminished when he rested his voice from reciting, and worsened when he recited again, he concluded, in conversation with his doctor, that it was something he was doing in using his voice that was the cause of the trouble.

The doctor agreed, but was unable to say what it was that Alexander was doingand so Alexander began a intensive program of observation and experimentation with the assistance of a mirror to try and find out.

Beginning with his observations in a mirror, Alexander discovered several unexpected things about himself... "I saw that as soon as I started to recite, I tended to pull back the head, depress the larynx and suck in breath through the mouth in such a way as to produce a gasping sound." He discovered that these things were also present in his ordinary speaking, though in lesser degree.

With further observation, Alexander found that he could to some degree prevent the pulling back of his head, and the improvements that resulted led him to conclude that this was in some way central to the other things he had noticed. In other words, the way he used his head and neck was affecting the functioning of his vocal and respiratory mechanisms.

The Primary control...

By now Alexander had reasoned out that he needed to create a lengthening of his stature, and that in order to do this he must allow his head to release forward and up from his body. He was later to call this the "Primary control". The Primary control is usually stated as a series of connected instructions or directions, to be projected in sequence:

Let my neck be free so that

My head moves forward and up, in such a way that

My spine lengthens and my back widens, and

My knees release forwards

Different teachers may choose different words to describe this process, for example,

Move your whole head delicately up and

Allow your whole body to follow.

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How about you?

Take a moment to sense how you are sitting as you are reading this. Are you experiencing pressure, collapse, heaviness, twisting? Or are you tensing and arching your back, holding on to your neck to hold your head up? How does the way you are using your feet, relate to how you are using your pelvis, your back, your neck and your head?

Did you find you immediately wanted to change what you are doing? If so you are in good company...

Alexander said: "When anything is pointed out, our only idea is to go from wrong to right. In spite of the fact that it has taken us years to get wrong, we try to get right in a moment."

It is common experience that sigificant time and work is usually needed to successfully change an established habit.

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Alexander's Story continues...

Having reasoned out that he needed to create a lengthening of his stature, and that in order to do this he must allow his head to release forward and up from his body, Alexander proceeded to attempt to put these conditions in place while he was reciting.

He did not succeed. Even when he felt he was doing what he intended, he could see in the mirror that every attempt seemed to involve an involuntary tensing and 'downward pull' of the body.

Alexander went on to practise patiently month after month. During this period of work, it became clear that there was a condition of undue muscle tension throughout his whole body.

During his training in the use of his voice Alexander had practised certain adjustments of his body as instructed by his teachers. In particular he was tensing his legs, feet and toes and he came to see that what he was doing with these parts was exerting a most harmful general influence upon the use of himself as a whole. Alexander concluded that there was a combined wrong use of the whole of his physical-mental mechanisms. This combined misuse constituted a general habit, the 'habitual use' of myself, and was present to some degree in all his activities.

He reasoned that any attempt to use specific parts of the body differently must be seen in the context of how the whole self is used generally. He found that the attempt to use any specific part in a new way is weak in comparison with the stimulus to use the rest of the body, (indirectly employed in the activity), in the old habitual way.

This is a serious problem, because it shows that in order to change coordination, to relieve pressure or improve performance, not only is it necessary to prevent the misuse of the specific parts involved, but that first, it is necessary to prevent the general misuse of the whole body.

He realised that it was this feeling of the movement that he, like everyone else, depended upon to know whether he was doing the right thing or not. His experiments showed conclusively that his feeling,his guide to what he was actually doing, was untrustworthy.

This indeed was a blow.

Alexander Biography • The Mechanism Explained • Top of Page

How about you?

At this stage in his investigation, Alexander thought that this problem of untrustworthy sensory appreciation in relation to his coordination was peculiar to himself, but he was soon to discover that virtually everyone was using themselves on the basis of feelings that were misleading them.

As you are sitting there, without looking at your feet, try lining them up on the floor parallel and even, without touching each other. Now without moving your feet again, take a look. How did you do? If you look carefully, you are likely to find (like most people) that they are are either pointing slightly away from each other, or slightly towards each other, and that they are not exactly level with each other. Yet they feel parallel and even.

Your interpretation or appreciation of the feeling of position is dependent upon what you usually feel, that is, your habit of use, and so will vary in accordance with your habit. Alexander says: "The belief is very generally held that if only we are told what to do in order to correct a wrong way of doing something, we can do it, and that if we feel we are doing it, all is well. All my experience however, goes to shew that this belief is a delusion."

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Alexander's Story continues...

Alexander began to see the potential his discoveries were opening up. Surely, I argued, if it is possible for feeling to become untrustworthy as a means of direction, it should also be possible to make it trustworthy again.

He returned to his study of his own habitual use with renewed vigour.

This eventually proved to be the key to success in the whole process.

He stopped his immediate response, and instead considered how he was organising the whole of himself, projecting each of the organising directions for the primary control. This he practised many times before making any attempt to use the new conditions of balance in order to recite.

Yet even then, when he finally decided to move on to reciting again he failed far more often than I succeeded.

Alexander was still unable to prevent the dominance of his old habit over his consciously chosen process, and he felt, for some time, that this was a personal failing of his own. Persevering however, he began looking for proof of what was actually occurring right at the moment when he decided to act - and found that he was, at that critical point, still reverting to his old way - despite all his intentions to the contrary. He realised just how significant his earlier insight about how movement feels was. The new experience, he reasoned, would be so unfamiliar and therefore 'feel' so unnatural and wrong that he would inevitably balk at actually doing it!

He decided to work out a process by which he could give himself the experience of following the procedure through, even though it would feel wrong to do so. He describes his 'plan', based on all his experiments so far, paraphrased below:

1. inhibit any immediate response to the stimulus to speak the sentence

2. project in their sequence the directions for the primary control

3. continue to project these directions until I believed I was sufficiently au fait with them to employ them for the purpose of gaining my end and speaking the sentence.

4. while still continuing to project the directions for the new use,

I would stop and consciously reconsider my first decision, and ask myself "Shall I after all go on to gain the end I have decided upon and speak the sentence? Or shall I not? —and then and there make a fresh decision to

5. a. not to gain my original end
5. b. to change my end and do something different, say, lift my hand
5. c. to go on after all and gain my original end

In each case I would continue to project the directions for maintaining the new use.

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Success...

Alexander's Story • Alexander Biography • Articles on AT • Top of Page

Acknowledgments

Alexander's story as outlined above was, in the main, derived from the first chapter of his book "The Use of Self". Quotations and paraphrases from Alexander are included throughout but have not been indicated in the text for ease of reading. They are clearly identified in the text only version.

For a serious understanding of the process Alexander went through, I recommend reading "The Use of the Self" by F.M. Alexander.

Biographical material drawn mainly from "The Alexander Principle" by Wilfred Barlow, appendix 1.

Alexander's Story • Alexander Biography • Articles on AT • Top of Page

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