Alexander, Frederick Matthias

Originally from Australia, Matthias Alexander lived and worked in England.
A major work defining his method of physical education and his global approach to movement and posture, in which he defends the idea that our way of thinking and reacting to a given stimulus directly influences our way of moving, our posture and our bodily functioning in general. Self- observation and experimentation are central to this approach, whereas in the Feldenkrais Method they are rather the conditions and means of study and discovery. Moreover, the corrective (almost voluntarist) dimension of our dysfunctions is very present in his presentation, with a causal or deterministic conception in Alexander’s case, absent from Feldenkrais’s reading of human functionings whom insists on reactualised the spontaneity, serendipity in human condition, performances or behavior and action. According to Matthias Alexander, by becoming aware of unconscious patterns and learning to modify them in a controlled manner and «directive» modality, the individual can improve coordination, balance and physical well-being through the exercise of intellectuality. His technique aims to develop greater self-awareness and the ability to interrupt by use of conscious and « will power » these automatic patterns of inappropriate reaction and movement. For the history of the relationship between Feldenkrais and Alexander, see Mark Reese’s Biography of Moshe Feldenkrais, 2015, pp. 395-430.