A Review of Daniel’s Book: “Alexander Technique: Original Writings of F.M. Alexander”

A REVIEW BY JEAN M.O FISCHER

“Alexander Technique: Original Writings of F.M. Alexander – Constructive Conscious Control”
by Daniel McGowan” (You can download the book for free here.)

The abbreviated title of Alexander’s book, used both in McGowan’s title and in his foreword is indicative of this abridgement of Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual.  Modern readers are not in the practice of reading either long sentences or long arguments and McGowan has shortened both.

McGowan writes that he has kept his editing to a minimum: in particular he has replaced ‘orders’ with ’directions’ (are the two interchangeable?) and ‘means whereby’ with ‘means’. ‘Political correctness’ has been observed in the editing: ‘man’ has been changed to ‘human’, ‘he’ is frequently changed to ‘he or she’ or just made neutral by a word like ‘teacher’, ‘pupil’ or ‘the individual.’

McGowan’s abridgement is sensitive and discerning.  In the instructions for hands on the back of a chair the direction to ‘order the neck to relax’ (page 124) is changed to ‘not to stiffen the neck’, and it is fair to regard them as being synonymous in this context. Of course any editing is influenced by the editors understanding and this is no exception.  For example, where Alexander writes of the opportunity for the teacher ‘to secure …for the pupil certain experiences (page 124), McGowan writes of the opportunity for the teacher ‘to pass on’…to the pupil certain experiences (p117).  To ‘pass on’ or ‘to secure for’ are different things, but such differences may only be relevant to teachers. A similar example is to be found when Alexander writes that the teacher ‘with his hands will command for him (the pupil) the actual  performance of the movement  (p.126) which McGowan has edited to ‘with his hands will do the actual movement for the pupil’ (pp. 118).

It is important, however, for teachers to know that Alexander wrote ‘to pull gently  with the arms’ (p. 130 my italics) — McGowan omits ‘gently’(p.122) —and that the fingers are kept straight from their first joint of the fingers to their tips (p.128 in the original, my italics; italicised words omitted by McGowan.  Details like these, however, will not detract from an understanding of the principles and procedures described by Alexander.

Leaving aside the question of whether an abridgement is needed, I have no doubt that this is the best possible that one could ask for.

Jean M.O Fischer