Feldenkrais's books: Reviewes written for Amazon.com in 2003
1. Early 50's: The Potent Self and Body and Mature Behaviour.
The Potent Self
When was this book written? "Before, during and after [...] 'Body and Mature Behavior', which was published in 1949" (quoted from the Editor's Note to the 1985 softcover edition). Already then Moshe was writing for the general reader, but at that time he decided not to publish this book before attaining the recognition of the scientific community.
The book's uniqueness among the author's other books is the emphasis indicated in the title: the nature of human sexuality, its hindrances and its potential. In this context his ideas acquire an additional sense of urgency. Like in all his writings, Moshe's perspective is unusually wide. Yet the style is highly concentrated.
We all know the "admirable saying 'Love thy neighbor as thyself' [...] Yet there is also room for the symmetrical saying". There is danger of such forms of love for the other which are in fact a compulsive expression of the anxiety in social relationships. What are the limits of human capacity? "Impotent rage and impotent love have a great deal in common. In both, the desire to do is excessive... in both cases ... "ought to" ... is more pronounced than "want to". This leads a discussion of Spontaneity (as contrasted with compulsive action): "At root of all anxiety ... lies inner compulsion". Where is the borderline between automatic (reflex) response and free (learned) choice of action? Individual freedom is tamed by society. Society may punish heavily for deviations from its demands. "... we should not consider frigidity in women and impotence in men as physiological deficiencies, but as the result of successfully achieving a mistaken education". We are dependent. We strive at maturity. Maturity means reducing dependence. The game is not easy. A non-optimal result in maturation is always reflected in posture. "POSTURE is misleading; it suggests fixity", but in fact it describes "the use of the entire self in achieving and maintaining ... configuration and position". There follows a discussion of Body and Mind. "What is needed is a positive method of directing oneself... in short, the physiology of doing". "The cmpetent adult's action is so simple that he can never understand the complexity that bewilders the incompetent person".
It is at this points that the author introduces a discussion of correct posture and specific demonstrations of his method (which made him so famous). Then again Moshe turns to the wider aspect of "physiology and social order". In this context he underlines an aspect of sexuality which is "rarely recognized": the "regulation of the sympathetic-parasympathetic balance". A rare discussion and instruction of what is required for the improved co-ordination of abdomen, pelvis and head is one of the highlights of the book.
Moshe concludes with "a little philosophy": "Our object is to discover what it is that you really want". Some short examples of case histories follow.
To review Moshe's books is no easy task. If I have not succeeded in making you eager to read the book, try the book itself. Like all the Master's books it is this special mixture of a companion and instructor, rich in insights which have lost nothing of the originality with the years.
Body and Mature Behaviour
"I contend that rigidity [...] i.e., the adherence to a principle to the utter exclusion of its opposite, is contrary to the laws of life." Thus wrote Feldenkrais in this book in 1949, when he was 45 years old, already an expert in Judo and with a PhD in physics. In those years he settled for some time in Britain after having emigrated from Russia, where he was born, to Palestine, and then traveling to France, where he spent a few years studying science and training in Judo. The book presents the essence of his phenomenally wide perspective about re-opening the path for personal development. He puts himself alongside the great masters searching for methods for cure from ailments, both physical and mental. His motto is learning, which he considers "the uniqueness of Man". Learning in the deep, dynamic, sense of perpetually creating and utilizing new options for experience and action. Continuous learning requires that we shall not forget that "...the principles we learn are themselves ephemeral and not absolute". Here are the foundations of his approach presented to the intelligent reader. To read the book you must be willing to deal with a style of writing which, however demanding, goes straight into all topics which Moshe considered vital to his method. A condensed description of the conditions of our existence, touching upon such topics as neurology, prehistory, child development, individual-society relationships, and more. A rare discussion of gravitation and the anti-gravity mechanism is followed by a discussion of the effects of emotion (especially anxiety and the attitude to sexuality) on posture and on personal patterns of movement. Here you can read one of Moshe's earlier presentations of the ideas that guided him through the development of his unique method and technique of therapy and instruction by direct contact with the nervous system. The aim is to re-tune it toward a gradual development of a personal style of action characterized by more freedom and elegance. If you are really interested in Moshe's ideas written in the personal, concentrated, somewhat arid style of his younger years, this book will be an exciting addition to your library for many years to come.
2. Late 60's and early 70's: Awareness through Movement and The Case of Nora
Awareness through Movement
This book was first published in Hebrew in the late 60s. At that time Moshe was 55 years old or so. He had already published a translation into Hebrew of Bruck's book about the autosuggestion method of the sensational Que, his own guide for unarmed combat, a couple of textbooks for Judo and his scientifically oriented "Body and Mature Behaviour" (1949). He had already written - but not published - a book aimed at a more popular presentation of his theory - The Potent Self (Published only in 1985). It was around that time that he began training the first generation of future practitioners of his method. It seems that he felt the time was ripe for his method to develop not solely under his own hands, that the method matured, so to say, to the degree of beginning a gradually more and more independent life of itself.
The 12 lessons presented in the book were selected from as many as a thousand lessons which were given at Moshe's institute in Tel Aviv. In short, it was the first presentation of his mid-life years' ideas to the wide public. The book was very successful and was soon translated into French, German, Swedish, and, of course, English.
At the time of publication Moshe already had a very extensive experience in both private sessions and group lessons. For the an exposition of the first detailed description he waited yet another 10 years. Then he published "The Case of Nora" - intended to be the first in a series, a project which was not continued.
Admittedly, Moshe's writing is never "popular" in its style. It is best read slowly, almost sentence by sentence. He refers (usually un-explicitly) to many writers and a variety of theories, mixing them like ingredients into his personal concept of the conditions, attitudes and techniques aimed at revitalizing individual growth and development into maturity.
About one third of the book is dedicated to a general discussion. The other two thirds present the 12 lessons. However, theoretical considerations are interwoven in the lesson part. Nowadays many hundreds of authentic lessons can be obtained from a variety of sources, on audio and video cassettes and on CDs. However, the careful juxtaposition of the instructions alongside with theoretical explanations shed a unique light on this text.
As for the theory part, it is neatly divided into subtitles, so that the ideas are very conveniently organized, and as simple to read as can be concerning a concentrated presentation of an unusually original thinker whose perspective is uniquely wide.
Self image - is the first concept dealt with. As the German psychiatrist Shilder had written in the 20s - and must have impressed Moshe - a scheme of our body is represented in our brain, and is the needed for all voluntary functions of the body. Did you know, for example, that some people who lost their brain scheme of the palm of the hand have gradually lost also their capacity to count? Moshe is more interested in the brain body image not as a static scheme but rather in its dynamic image, what he later termed "acture" rather than "posture". The dynamic, functional, image of the self very rarely if ever developed to its fullness. There seems always to be something new to discover. But what is it that we may want to do and do not do? What are the real limits of our free will? Where are we restricted by heredity and where by society, i.e. education? What are the relative shares of normative education by society and individual self-education? The answer can only be found by continuous self-education. Here we already find ourselves in the midst of a discussion of the balance between individual and social, the terms and prices extracted for allowing self value, the suggestion to develop an "inherent self value", the choice of drives that may be fulfilled and such which need to be inhibited, etc. Moshe's goal is to find an effective method of continuous self improvement. He weighs the pro's and con's of some other methods of healing and educating, including the psychologist's option. He mentions our various states of awareness. He was intrigued by the potential of self-suggestion and hypnosis. In his early years he was interested in the achievements of Que (whose technique is perhaps reflected in Silva's technique); in his later years he claimed that he was doing in movement what Milton Erikson was doing in words. He lists 9 arguments in favour of using movement as a means for self-improvement and re-education. He was certainly inspired by Freud's psychoanalytical theory: in some aspects he created a physical parllel to it, involving his clients with a renewed experience of movements from the origins of development in infancy. His aim of course is to re-open the path for growth for the whole personality, the physical process being just a medium which lends itself most easily to effective change.
A short discussion of the neurological framework follows. What is unique in human potential which differentiates the human being from the rest of the living world? Ability for abstraction, fine differentiation, continuous learning, the variety of individual experiences (as expressed among other things in language and art) - these are key concepts. Awareness is discussed in terms of co-ordination between intention and action. The finale soars high: Moshe believed that human awareness is still in its infancy, on the doorstep to the emergence of the mature human species. The process required is "harmonizing the various 'components' to one unified whole". In those moments in which an awareness finds a common denominator for feeling, sensation, movement and thinking, then Man - Woman - feels an organic union within itself and in the cosmos. Then loneliness is overcome.
The Case of Nora
"The Case of Nora" is titled, or subtitled, in some languages "A Journey in the Jungle of the Brain". In fact, this book, modest in its dimensions, allows us to take a tiny little but invaluable journey into Feldenkrais' brain, so to say. For anyone interested in how this unusual man was thinking, it is a rare pearl among the Master's books. The text is so condensed that if you want to highlight key sentences you better get yourself a couple of markers, because you are going to highlight almost everything. Poor me, trying to review it: those of you who have read my other reviews of Moshe's books know that I try to reflect the uniqueness of each book mainly by quoting. Thus I hope my reader can get a substatial hint of what the book is about. But here - two thirds of the text are worthy of quotation in a review, so were to begin? Alas, I have already wasted too much space in this foreword... I hurry to the (Hebrew) text. The following will be almost as good as quoting (while translating), but of course I hope you will go to the origin. Moshe's own text is soooo beautiful.
The most important kind of learning is that in which quantity becomes a new quality... Often we even don't notice this kind of learning... As if without purpose... and suddenly a new form of activity emerges as if out of nowhere... Repeating and learning by rote, preaching, reward and punishment are of no use...
While waiting [some days or weeks] I thought about her [his client] a great deal, as I always do with my clients... I have no stereotype technique... Is is contrary to the principles of my theory... I gradually explore all the body functions. Structure and function are tightly connected... I imagine the nervous systems involved. I imagine a part of the body sending a stream of liquids, sometimes electrical sometimes chemical. After many transformations it ends in muscular action which results in an observable action. When my imaginary picture of the flow is stuck in one point... I ask myself: is it diffusion? Soft obstacle? Deviation? Loss of swing? Break in the continuity? Or perhaps one of the transformations was disabled?
Try to put on your shoes in every impossible way and you will be surprised to find out how unlikely is a success by chance is... How wonderful and complex is our usual way of action.... Have you asked yourselves why relaxation and reducing tension were needed prior to this kind of instruction? What is simple and well known is not always easy to understand...
In the enabling the adult's learning process it is crucial to guess the age into which the client regressed. Growth means order. It is impossible to reverse this natural order. Had I not learned to perceive minute changes I would not have been able to endure the endless repetitions required in instruction.
Spacial Orientation is an abstract concept and as such I can not treat it. I don't know how to correct the function "Spacial Orientation" but I do know how to help a person distinguish between right and left.
As long as people [who were unable to perform a certain action for many years] are not able to do it at home at their own initiative they do not feel that they have "recovered". Recovery is the reversal to the exact state to the state of functioning which satisfied her before the trauma. But life is a process, indeed - a process which can not be reversed. Improvement, unlike recovery, is knowledge acquired by us and which allows us freedom of choice, the main and special privilege of 'homo sapiens'.
THIS, I THINK, CAN GIVE YOU a hint of the nature of this book. Sometimes when reading his books it seems to me that Moshe was so overloaded with multidimensional thinking, that he had a sense of needing to compromise painfully in order to unfold his ideas on the flat dimension of a written text. In this unique book he seems to opt for a practical solution of the dilemma: he presents an introspection of a completed process, and sort of recaptures his own deliberation in retrospect.
Here he is very personal and honest. For anyone interested in his method, either as a student or as a practitioner, the specialty of the book is the "tour of the backstage" here presented. It is an excellent remedy against the illusion that there might be a handbook, or a guide, to the Feldenkrais Method. Rather, what we can try to follow is an orientation, a way of thinking, an attitude. And (have I already mentioned it?) a glimpse into the subtle issues of the "workshop" - hints about what was going on behind the "magic" of the Master's effectiveness. Surely - much of it is indeed magic, but it was magic conceived by careful, untiring and perceptive deliberation.
3. 1981 - The Elusive Obvious
The Elusive Obvious This book was published in 1981, three years before the master's death. It deals with "simple, fundamental notions of our daily life that through habit become elusive". In his foreword, Moshe says: "The material is new; it is the writer who is older". He tells us: "This book may help you to a happier road in the direction of your individuality..." It is about the "how"s of his technique (both of the individual session and his group lessons), and deliberately not about the "why"s. Some of the topics discussed are: The Human Being as an organism - what do we share with organisms in general and how are we unique? * The unique potential of a really human learning; * A discussion of the biological aspects of posture; * A rare presentation of Moshe's insights about the body pattern of anxiety. In his later years Moshe never lost his wit and his legendary perceptiveness. His insight and originality, his many sided life-experience, his deep empathy with his readers, shine more brightly and resonate more deeply than ever.
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