Body Learning Pt. 1

a. Summarize the life of F.M. Alexander
Frederick Matthias Alexander was born in 1869 at Wynyard, Australia. He had eight siblings and was raised on a large farm. Having been raised in this type of environment, Alexander was taught self-sufficiency from a young age. He suffered from respiratory health issues, causing him to be removed from school for private education. His two great loves became horses and theatre. When financial issues arose, Alexander was forced to move from his rural life into a mining city. Although he worked various jobs, Alexander studied music and drama himself constantly. Moving again, he was able to study dramatic and musical training under the best teachers. His recurrent illnesses and bad temper kept him from holding any sort of steady job. Alexander then decided to devote himself to be an actor and reciter. He gained an excellent reputation. His illnesses persisted with hoarseness and respiratory trouble that affected his performances. When no doctor could help Alexander with his persistent problems, he decided to find methods of fixing them on his own. He decided to observe himself in the mirror while speaking and reciting. Alexander observed that when he recited: he stiffened his neck, he depressed his larynx, and he sucked in breath with gasps. When Alexander worked to remove one of those problems, the others followed and disappeared. Once Alexander organized all his findings and began to learn more and more, he eventually began to teach it to other people. While many of his time were affected by his teachings, he is said to be ahead of his time. Now Alexander is becoming well-known, as opposed to before when he was less. Alexander taught in Sydney, London, United States, and Africa. Since Alexander was his own prodigy for his teachings, he was easily able to teach many people of his time. His fame as an actor also grew along with his methods. Alexander developed on his own  a scientific method for bodily success, which is becoming more widespread even after his death.

b. Summarize the first two operational ideas: Use and Functioning, The Whole Person (please include a quote that best captures the key idea behind each concept)
Use and Functioning is the process on control over all actions that seem to have the potential of control. It can be closely related to heredity and environment.
"If you teach an individual first to be aware of his physical organism and then to use it as it was meant to be used you can often change his entire attitude to life and cure his neurotic tendencies"
-Aldous Huxley


The Whole Person is based on understanding that the human organism always functions as a whole and can only be changed fundamentally as a whole. Alexander's technique of unity is not just theoretical, it is the process that led to his discovery he at first believed, like most other people, that 'mind' and 'body' were separate entities.
"The world seems mad in preoccupation with what is specific, particular and disconnected in medicine, politics, science, industry and education."
-Dewey