READING ABOUT THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE


Just as such skills as riding a bicycle are learned through direct experience, so is the Alexander Technique. 
Its history and principles can be described in words but the learning occurs
through having the experience to associate with them. 
That's what happens in lessons.



Books by F. M. Alexander

Alexander wrote four books in which he detailed
how his work evolved, the concepts that grew from it, and
their import and applications:



Man's Supreme Inheritance: Conscious Guidance and Control
in Relation to Human Evolution
in Civilization * (1910, 1918)

Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual
* (1923)

The Use of The Self
(1932)

The Universal Constant in Living
* (1941)


*Available through Mouritz, largest publisher of books on the AT

Mouritz

Recommended introductory books

There are dozens of books introducing the Alexander Technique.
The following are personal recommendations - each author an experienced teacher.

Body Learning
Michael Gelb
...
How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live
Missy Vineyard
...
The Alexander Technique: A Skill for Life
Pedro de Alcantara
...
Freedom to Change
(First published in 1976 as Body Awareness in Action )
Frank Pierce Jones

Results of 25 years of original scientific research into this work.
Jones relates the story and development of the AT and explains some of
the underlying mechanisms that govern human functioning, including how
the conscious mind activates anti-gravity reflexes.

xx
Books about the AT are widely available in bookstores, libraries and online.  Other sources:



High-quality books exploring various aspects of the AT by small presses

Curiosity Recaptured: Exploring Ways We Think and Move
Fifteen essays on the application of the AT to daily life, foreword by Robertson Davies

Thinking Aloud and The Act of Living
Transcriptions of talks given by Walter Carrington,
trained by Alexander in 1939 and one of the world's foremost teachers and director of the longest-established training course for teachers

(Tributes to Walter at his Memorial Service in 2005 with photos)

An Examined Life
Marjory Barlow, F.M. Alexander's niece, talks about her seven decades of experience with the AT

Living the AT Vol. I and II
Interviews of senior teachers of the AT describing applications of the AT to aging



Mouritz

A specialist publisher of high-quality books on the Alexander Technique with a comprehensive website.
In addition to new editions of three of Alexander's four books, books published by Mouritz include:

Articles and Lectures: compilation of all of Alexander's known lectures and writings not included in his books as well as early articles on the AT

The Philosopher's Stone: a unique collection of diaries and notes from pupils' lessons with F. M. Alexander c.1918 - 1953

F. Matthias Alexander - The Man and his Work: memoirs of training in the Alexander Technique from 1931-34 by Lulie Westfeldt: the only teacher from Alexander's first teacher training course to write about her experiences both as a student and then as a teacher for 26 years

Personally Speaking: interviews with Walter Carrington in which he shares insights into the history and teaching of the AT

More Talk of Alexander:  36 articles selected by Dr. Wilfred Barlow on various facets of the AT including education, psychology, theology, art, science and medicine by such contributors as: Aldous Huxley, John Dewey and Nobel-prize winner Nikolaas Tinbergen.  First published in 1978.



  

Jill Geiger, AmSAT, STAT

teaching the Alexander Technique since 1990
Newton, MA

617 527 7373
bjill@verizon.net