Who was Frederick Matthias Alexander?
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The Alexander Technique was developed by Mr Frederick Matthias Alexander in the late 1890s until 1955 when he died. It has continued to be taught by teachers around the world.
From Voice Loss to Learning to be in Charge of his Movements and Overcome Habit The Technique was born out of Alexander's own dysfunction (he was an actor that kept losing his voice on stage). He resolved his problem by experimenting with a hypothesis that it was something he must be 'doing' when on stage that he wasn’t doing off-stage to cause the problem. Self-observation, experimentation and a lot of perseverance when at first he did not seem to be able to overcome his patterns of tightening were what led him to eradicate his dysfunction for good and develop a method to teach to others. Discovering a Universal Principle of Movement Through this he discovered a universal principle about how the human body is organized and a new way of developing the constructive use of consciousness in the realm of movement that is available to us all. He saw his work on a much grander scheme that just pain prevention (although he helped many, many people with pain and had Harley Street doctors referring patients to him). You can see this when you reflect on the titles of his four books: o Man's Supreme Inheritance o Constructive, Conscious Control of the Individual o The Use of the Self o Universal Constant in Living They are not easy reads for a modern reader - and not necessarily ones I would recommend starting with (see the Free Resources Page for my recommended books list) but of course they are the closest thing we have to the Technique as he understood it. |
FM Alexander in his later years
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Here are some of his supporters in his day:
Actors
Sir Henry Irving (considered the greatest Shakespearean actor of his time)
Doctors
Many doctors, including Peter MacDonald, later to become chairman of the BMA, endorsed his work and sent patients to him
In 1939, a group of physicians wrote to the British Medical Journal urging that Alexander’s principles be included in medical training.
Eminent thinkers
George Bernard Shaw
Aldous Huxley (who included a portrayal of Alexander in one of the characters in his book Eyeless in Gaza)
Scientists
A number of scientists also endorsed his method, recognising that Alexander’s practical observations were consistent with scientific discoveries in neurology and physiology. The most eminent of these was:
Sir Charles Sherrington, today considered the father of modern neurology.
Politicians
Sir Stafford Cripps
Lord Lytton
Religion
William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury,
Education
Esther Lawrence, principal of the Froebel Institute
George Bernard Shaw
Business
Joseph Rowntree
"Mr Alexander has done a service to the subject [of the study of reflex and voluntary movement] by insistently treating each act as involving the whole integrated individual, the whole psychophysical man. To take a step is an affair, not of this or that limb solely, but of the total neuromuscular activity of the moment, not least of the head and neck."
Sir Charles Sherrington 1857-1952,
Neurophysiologist,
Nobel Prize for Medicine 19
Actors
Sir Henry Irving (considered the greatest Shakespearean actor of his time)
Doctors
Many doctors, including Peter MacDonald, later to become chairman of the BMA, endorsed his work and sent patients to him
In 1939, a group of physicians wrote to the British Medical Journal urging that Alexander’s principles be included in medical training.
Eminent thinkers
George Bernard Shaw
Aldous Huxley (who included a portrayal of Alexander in one of the characters in his book Eyeless in Gaza)
Scientists
A number of scientists also endorsed his method, recognising that Alexander’s practical observations were consistent with scientific discoveries in neurology and physiology. The most eminent of these was:
Sir Charles Sherrington, today considered the father of modern neurology.
Politicians
Sir Stafford Cripps
Lord Lytton
Religion
William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury,
Education
Esther Lawrence, principal of the Froebel Institute
George Bernard Shaw
Business
Joseph Rowntree
"Mr Alexander has done a service to the subject [of the study of reflex and voluntary movement] by insistently treating each act as involving the whole integrated individual, the whole psychophysical man. To take a step is an affair, not of this or that limb solely, but of the total neuromuscular activity of the moment, not least of the head and neck."
Sir Charles Sherrington 1857-1952,
Neurophysiologist,
Nobel Prize for Medicine 19
