F. Matthias Alexander

This article is about F. M. Alexander. For Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, see Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis.

F. M. Alexander

Frederick Matthias Alexander (20 January 1869 – 10 October 1955) was an Australian actor who developed the educational process that is today called the Alexander Technique – a form of education that is applied to recognize and overcome reactive, habitual limitations in movement and thinking.

Early life

Alexander was born on 20 January 1869, at Alexandria on the northern bank of the Inglis River, near the present-day town of Wynyard, Tasmania. He was the eldest of ten children born to John Alexander, a blacksmith, and Betsy Brown. His parents were the offspring of convicts transported to what was then called Van Diemen's Land for offences such as theft and destroying agricultural machinery as part of the 1930 Swing riots. Throughout his life Alexander was understandably evasive about his ancestry, claiming Scottish descent and upgrading the status of his forebears. Alexander was born prematurily, and his survival due to his mother's determination and care. As a result, he was her favourite child, and they remained close throughout his life. His relationship with his religious, hard-working father was less strong, and Alexander, with other family members, were later to become estranged from him. However, he later credited his father with teaching him to be alert and observant.

The family moved from Alexandria to Wingard in 1870, and Alexander, though not strong physically, enjoyed rural activities such as fishing and shooting, and learned a love of horses, riding and horse racing. Alexander grew up in an evangelical Protestant household; the Sabbath was strictly observed, and his father, apparently a heavy drinker, seems to have taken a pledge of temperance in 1879. Despite later claims that he had been sceptical since his childhood, Alexander was profoundly influenced by his Christian upbringing: his speech as an adult was peppered with biblical quotes, and he had been imbued a strong sense of right and wrong, self-discipline and personal responsibility. Education was not a priority for many local parents, but Betsy Alexander was determined that her children should be educated. Alexander first attended a Sunday school, and later the government school. Alexander was precocious, sensitive and attention-seeking, and as such made a difficult pupil. However, his teacher, a Scotsman named Robert Robertson, proved sympathetic, and acted as something of a father figure; he excused Alexander from daily school attendance and instead gave him lessons in the evening. As well as a basic education, Robertson gave Alexander a life-long love of Shakespeare, theatre and poetry. Alexander was physically not suited to manual labour: he would later stated that an otherwise idyllic boyhood has been marred by the severe internal pains that he experienced, generally after physical exertion. At 15, Alexander became a pupil-teacher assistant to Robertson, with the goal of a career as a schoolmaster.

At age sixteen, he visited an aunt and uncle in Waratah, a town serving the tin-mine at Mount Bischoff. While there, he was offered a well-paying job by the mining company. On the advice of his parents, he accepted the job despite the disappointment it caused Robertson. According to Alexander's later account, his work at the mining company was appreciated by his employers; he took on additional jobs as a life insurance agent and a collector of rates, and was able to save a ₤500, a considerable sum at the time. In his spare time, he pursued interests in horse racing and began learning the violin. He also participated in a local amateur dramatics society, playing several roles and meeting members of touring professional companies. These included the pianist with one company, Robert Young and his aspiring actress wife, Edith, who was later to marry Alexander himself.

Melbourne

In 1889, after three years in Waratah, Alexander decided to leave Tasmania to follow his aunt and uncle to Melbourne where they had moved the year before. He sought as he later put it "a wider scope of activity, not only in gaining a livelihood but in the fields of art and education in the fullest sense." He spent his first three months in the city devoting himself to culture, and spending his savings on visiting theatres and art galleries and attending concerts. According to his own account, he determined to "train myself for a career as a reciter to take a position meanwhile in the office of some company." He worked in a series of clerical jobs and took lessons from teachers such as an English actor James Cathcart, and an Australian elocutionist Fred Hill. He was inspired by the Melbourne theatrical performances Sarah Bernhardt, later claiming to have attended each one of her performances.

Alexander continued to suffer periods of ill-health, and was advised by his doctor to leave Melbourne for healthier climes. Three months of seaside air of Geelong helped him recover his health, and he returned to the city. Little information exists about much of Alexander's years in Melbourne, but from November 1891 onwards, newspapers began to report to his participation in amateur dramatic recitals, and give them positive reviews. However, Alexander began to suffer from hoarseness, and at times after performing could hardly speak. Friends also noted audible "gasping" during his recitations. As described forty years later in his book "The Use of the Self", advice from doctors and voice trainers did not have the necessary results, so he began a process of self-examination with mirrors into his speaking habits to see if he could determine the cause. With time, he found that by using "conscious control" of actions, by inhibiting wrong movements rather than trying to "do" correct ones, and by focussing on the "means whereby" rather than "the end to be gained", his vocal problems and longstanding respiratory problems disappeared. The evidence from other publications of Alexander, however, suggests that these insights came to Alexander over a much longer period and in a less systematic fashion than he described in 1932, with some terms and procedures not appearing in his writings until as late as 1924.

The Australian Building, Melbourne, to the left, where FM Alexander taught his technique.

Freed from his vocal problems, Alexander gave up his clerical jobs and embarked on a career as a professional reciter and voice teacher. He commenced in early 1894 with a tour of his native Tasmania, which included an unhappy visit to his family. His parents' financial situation was precarious, and they had been deeply affected by the death of an infant son in 1893; his father turned to alcohol as a result. According to Alexander, father and son quarrelled, with John Alexander expressing disapproval of his son as a "vagabond and strolling player", and there is no record of them ever meeting again. Otherwise, the tour was a success, with excellent press reviews and a performance before the Governor of Tasmania in Hobart, a concert in which Robert and Edith Young, whom he had met years earlier at Watarah, also appeared. The trio developed a close friendship. Besides giving recitals, he also gave "elocution lessons". In early 1895, he set out for New Zealand where he visited various cities, giving recitals to excellent reviews and voice lessons to several prominent individuals, including Frederic Villiers and the Mayor of Auckland. Despite being advise to go to America to seek his fortune, he returned to Melbourne, with the intention of teaching his new method there. In 1896, Alexander rented teaching rooms in a landmark building on Elizabeth St, known as the Australian Building. He advertised his voice lessons in the press and with pamphlets, claiming both to develop the voice and to "cure" stuttering and throat ailments. In his pamphlets his pupils, in the early days mainly clergymen, enthusiastically testified to improvements in their voice and general health, and doctors reported that patients sent to him had improved. Within the year, Alexander invited a younger brother Albert Redden (known as A.R) to join him as his assistant; he was followed by a sister, Amy, who came initially to receive help for medical problems, but was then also trained in the work. Back in Tasmania, Alexander's father was drinking heavily, and the family's economic situation was bleak; towards the end of the year, Alexander's mother and three of his siblings arrived in Melbourne, never to return. Alexander devoted himself mainly to his teaching and practice, with an occasional recital. In 1899, Alexander moved in with his old friends Robert and Edith Young and formed something of a menage à trois, with Edith and Alexander's affair accepted by Robert. The trio organized theatrical entertainments in Melbourne and then in Sydney where Alexander, and later the Youngs, moved in 1900. Due in part to Edith Young's ambitions as a professional actor, from 1901 to 1903 Alexander and the Youngs produced a series of Shakespearean plays, starring Alexander and Edith, and with Alexander's students in the lesser roles. Alexander spent most of his time on the money-losing plays and Shakespeare classes and little time teaching his method. However, in 1902, his approach impressed a leading Sydney surgeon, W. J. Stewart McKay, who helped him with referrals and became a close friend. Perhaps as a result, Alexander's method (and advertising) focussed more on medical issues, including tuberculosis. McKay also encouraged Alexander to develop his medical knowledge by attending classes at the medical school, but he proved a poor student. McKay recommended Alexander go to London, and offered to give him introductions to leading doctors there. Alexander was in debt, but his financial problems were alleviated when he won a ₤750 horseracing bet which allowed him to buy a passage to England, pay off some of his debts, provide some support for his female relatives, and a small sum to start him off in London. He sailed from Melbourne in April 1904, and was not to return.

London

Early advertising material for Alexander's services in London

Alexander arrived London in June 1904, and quickly acquired a fine wardrobe, a manservant, and a smart address at the Army & Navy Mansions in Victoria Street. As he later said "In those days, you just couldn't get on here [London] unless you appeared to be the right sort." Armed with letters of recommendation from Dr. McKay and others Australian doctors, he quickly gained important supporters in the London medical community. A key contact and mentor was the ENT surgeon R.H. Scanes Spicer, who took lessons and promoted Alexander's method and referred him pupils. Given Alexander's love of the theatre, he was particularly delighted when Spicer asked him to see the actress Lily Brayton, who had lost her voice. A successful treatment led to introductions to other theatrical luminaries including Brayton's husband Oscar Asche, Henry Irving, Herbert Beerbohm Tree and George Alexander. The first three were supportive, but having taken a lesson George Alexander accused his teacher of "practising extortion" when given the bill. Nevertheless, after two years, Alexander's practice was booming, and with a rate of 4 guineas an hour, Alexander was doing well financially. He likely remitted some of his earnings to Australia to help support his mothers and sisters, and to repay his debts, but he was able to live well. He developed a taste for the finer things in life, including food, wine and cigars, and was a regular patron of London's best restaurants. He rode his horse daily, fox-hunted periodically, and pursued his life-long interest in horse racing.

Alexander produced a series of pamphlets in order to explain his discoveries about respiration and the voice as well as descriptions of successful cases. Alexander was not a good or clear writer, but these works mark Alexander's developing ideas and the first mentions in print of such important concepts in the Alexander Technique as "conscious control", "antagonistic action", the whispered "ah", the unreliability of self-perceptions and sensations, "inhibition" and the "means whereby". Edith Young travelled to England soon after, arriving in September 1904. Letters from her ailing husband Robert suggest that he encouraged her to follow Alexander, and urge him to take care of and be faithful to her. Alexander had hoped that Edith would help him with his teaching, but she was more interested in a stage career, and was scornful of his work. Motivated by concerns about respectability and perhaps about what she might reveal about his past, Alexander installed her at a distance in the suburb of Streatham. However, Michael Bloch, Alexander's biographer, speculates that "for some years she may have been the one person before whom he never had to pretend, with whom he was able to reminisce about his old life and friends in Australia, and who offered him intimate comforts." Throughout his life, Alexander was a private man who enjoyed social company, but who was not a party-goer and who did join clubs or societies. Rather than close friendships, he tended to have disciples and supporters. And in 1909, as also happened frequently throughout his life, Alexander fell out a friend and supporter, in this case Dr. Spicer. In a series of papers, Spicer, who clearly believed that Alexander lacked medical knowledge, claimed corrections of posture and respiration for the medical profession rather "untrained amateurs and ignorant quacks", while Alexander responded with pamphlets accusing Spicer of plagiarism and distortion. As a consequence of this dispute, Alexander finally produced a long-contemplated book, which was eventually produced in three parts: Man's Supreme Inheritance in October 1910, an Addenda in March 1911, and Conscious Control in October 1912, and combined in 1918 into one volume. In 1911 he moved a short distance to continue practising at 16 Ashley Place, with the help of two teachers, Ethel Webb and Irene Tasker. From the start of the First World War in 1914, in order to maintain a constant practice, most years until 1924 he spent the autumn and winter in the United States.

In 1914 Alexander married Edith Page, an Australian who was the widow of one his best friends, Robert Young, and in 1924 he bought their home 'Penhill', a house with 20 acres (81,000 m²) of grounds, at Bexley in Kent, where he started the "little school" for children where his method was made fundamental to the school curriculum. It was not a happy marriage and he and Edith had no children. However Alexander had a son with Gladys Johnson, the caretaker of Penhill: Gladys, known as 'Jack.' Jack had married Owen Vicary, Edith's nephew, and after Jack and Owen had separated in 1925 and Edith had moved out of Penhill in 1929, Alexander and Jack became close; their son was born in 1931 and passed off as Owen's son, named John Vicary.

The first training course was started at Ashley Place in September 1930. and continued alongside his own practice until 1940. When the war came he lived and worked in the United States from 1940 until 1943, which was a difficult time as his teachers were disappearing into the services. Fearing that the technique would be lost, he returned to London in 1943 and successfully restarted the training course.

Libel case

It was this libel case, a drama drawn out over a period of some seven years, which dominated the last decade of Alexander's life.

Background

In 1935, Irene Tasker, one of Alexander’s first students, arrived in Johannesburg, deciding to teach the technique in South Africa. Her address to the annual conference of the Transvaal Teachers Association on the subject initially attracted much interest from teachers, soon spreading to others, and she set up a school to teach the Alexander Technique to children. In 1942 her work attracted the attention of Dr Ernst Jokl, Director of Physical Education to the South African Government, and a writer on the physiology of exercise. Jokl asked Tasker to demonstrate the Technique to him, which she did (with witnesses, including Norman Coaker who later gave evidence in the court case) but declined to give him a course of lessons, instead suggesting that he go to see Alexander himself. Jokl, not being able to go to London, read Alexander’s books. In April the next year, in an address to the annual conference of the Transvaal Teachers Association, its President praised the Alexander Technique and criticized the established regime of physical education then given to children. Jokl, seeing this address as an attack on his profession, responded in a paper called 'The Relationship between Health and Efficiency' which he read to the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. He then had his paper published in ‘’Transvaal Educational News’’, with a reply defending Alexander’s work. In March 1944 Jokl wrote an article in the South African government journal Manpower (Afrikaans Volkskragte) entitled 'Quackery versus Physical Education' which described the Technique as, among other things, 'a dangerous and irresponsible form of quackery'. In August of that year Alexander was shown the article by Tasker, and responded with a letter to the South African High Commissioner in London asking for a public withdrawal of the remarks and an apology. Having had no reply a year later Alexander then issued a writ for libel against Jokl, Eustace H. Cluver and Bernard Maule Clarke (the co-editors of Manpower) suing for £5000 damages for alleged defamation. Alexander was dismayed that the South African authorities announced the case would be defended, but however he expected a case to be won quickly.

Examination in London

As witnesses on both sides were British, it was easier for evidence on both sides to be presented before a Commission in South Africa House in London, but due to delays this did not happen until July 1947. Alexander and Jokl attended all the hearings. Alexander's witnesses included Duncan Whittaker, Dr Peter Macdonald, Lord Lytton, Sir Stafford Cripps, Dr Dorothy Drew, his personal physician J. E. R. McDonagh, and his friend Andrew Rugg-Gunn FRCS. Jokl's witnesses were Nobel Prizewinners Edgar Adrian and Sir Henry Dale, Brigadier Wand-Tetley, heart specialist Dr Paul Wood, bacteriologist Dr Freddie Himmelweit, Sir Alfred Webb-Johnson, Samson Wright, Lieut-Col S. J. Parker and Robert Clark-Turner. The trial was scheduled to be in South Africa in the autumn of 1947, but there was delay due to the defence counsel Oswald Pirow having another matter to deal with, and the case was re-scheduled to the following March.

Alexander's stroke

Alexander wanted to go, and booked a stateroom in a Union Castle liner for himself. But that was not to happen. He was worried about the case, distraught over the death of his friend Lord Lytton in October 1947, and that autumn he had a fall which may have contributed to his having a stroke in December. A week later he had another stroke, was left with the paralysis of his left hand, leg and face, and doctors had little hope for him. He had to cancel his trip to South Africa. However, he made a remarkable recovery within a month, it was said by applying his own technique to himself. He wrote to Irene Tasker in South Africa, in a clear hand, telling her how much better he was.

In Court in Johannesburg

In February 1948 three of his medically qualified students, Dr Wilfred Barlow, F.R.S., Dr Dorothy Drew M.R.C.S (Eng), L.R.C.P (Lon) and Dr Mungo Douglas flew to Johannesburg to give evidence to the Court. Douglas did not give evidence: his place was taken by Norman Coaker, K.C. who lived in South Africa and, like Jokl, had seen Irene Tasker. There was great interest in the case. The papers reported all the proceedings, and every day the court was crowded.

On 16 February the action for £5,000 damages for alleged defamation opened before Mr Justice Clayden in the Witwatersrand Division of the Supreme Court. Mr H.J. Hanson, K.C. and Mr Abram Fischer (instructed by Messrs V. C. Berrangé and Wasserzug) appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr O. Pirow, K.C. and Mr M. van Hulsteyn (instructed by the Government Attorney) appeared for the defendants. In an introductory address Mr Hanson said that Alexander's technique and ideas had received favourable comment from such eminent people as Sir Charles Sherrington, John Dewey, Aldous Huxley, Sir Stafford Cripps and others. In his books Alexander taught what he had observed in his investigation into the use and mis-use of the body. He taught people to understand their own use, to unlearn the wrong way, as in the example of a person sitting at a desk having a tendency to hunch the shoulders by tensing muscles unnecessarily. Mr Hanson told the court that Alexander had recently had a stroke and would therefore not be able to give evidence.

Dr Barlow was Alexander's first witness. He described how he had hurt his shoulder in sport at Oxford, had tried various ways of remedying it, had read Alexander's books and realised that a problem was that people who used their muscles in the wrong way could come to regard that use as the right way. He went to London, saw Alexander, became of student and later a qualified teacher of the method. He had seen for himself in St Thomas' Hospital in London how the technique could help in the treatment of bad muscular co-ordication or misuse, and quoted supporting text from recognised publications such as The Lancet, the British Medical Journal and the American Medical Association's Journal.

Mr Pirow, for the defence, proposed that his case was that the article (by Jokl and others) represented an evaluation of Alexander's four books, which claimed to set out the technique and its philosophy, and contained not only mainly testimonials and sales talk advertising the technique, but in regard to his alleged discoveries of conscious and/or primary control, claims and statements representing dangerous quackery.

Pirow was expert at persistent cross-questioning, throwing leading questions at all Alexander's witnesses. Pirow asked Dr. Barlow: "Do you seriously contend, in the matter of conscious control, that anyone following fully its principles would become entirely disease free?" Barlow: "No-one suggests that man will become immortal." "Let us leave immortality out of it, and get down to fundamentals. Are you, as a trained medical man, prepared to accept as a reasonable possibility the suggestion that by the carrying out of the exercises of psycho-physical guidance by way of conscious control, one can get complete immunity against disease?" - "It might be possible...animals living in a wild state when they come to the end of their days do not suffer from many of the prevalent diseases." "So that by following the technique man would become like an animal or buffalo?" - "I am merely giving you my impression about the diseases which affect animals." "Do you seriously suggest that, as a result of psycho-physical quidance under conscious control, resistance to infectious disease might be better?" - "Well, yes." And Barlow said it was from his own medical experience. Pirow asked what conscious control was, about inhibition and their effects, to which Barlow was able to give confident answers.

Witness Dr Dorothy Drew, a London doctor, had become a convert to the Alexander Technique because of the benefit she had found to herself after undergoing a course. She had had been injured in a car accident when she was a medical student, and during the war her health deteriorated. She had read Alexander's books in the war and became a pupil of Alexander's. At first she felt pain, but began to feel increasing benefit. Alexander's sole interest was in repairing her body mechanics, and her health had improved. She had sent about 200 patients to Alexander, supplementary to medical treatment: she always showed them his books and let them decide for themselves whether to see Alexander.

Norman Coaker, who had been present at Jokl's demonstration lesson with Irene Tasker, was the next witness for Alexander. He described how his two sons had been helped by Alexander lessons: his second son with an injury from a fall onto stone, and his elder son with chronic bronchitis.

Tasker was Alexander's last witness, and at one point she found it difficult to give evidence and face Pirow's cross-questioning. Jokl himself was the last witness for the defence. The trial finished in March, and Mr Justice Clayden delivered his judgement over a month later. Alexander was awarded £1000 damages plus costs.

A year later the defendants appealed against the verdict and the damages. It was dismissed with costs, and the tone of the judgment was worded more in approval of Alexander than it had been originally.

Final years

Alexander continued to work until his sudden death in 1955. His funeral was at South London Crematorium, Streatham Vale. The practice at 16 Ashley Place was taken over by one of his assistants, Patrick Macdonald.

List of Alexander's students

First-generation teachers, those who were taught by Alexander himself, giving the year when they commenced training. The first (three-year) training course was started in his rooms at 16 Ashley Place, Victoria, London, in 1931. The courses ran until his death in 1955.

Alexander was always known as "FM" to his students.

• Albert Redden Alexander, (1874–1947). FM's brother, known as AR. The first of FM's students and his assistant, staying in the US to teach.
• Max Alexander, AR's son.
• Lilian Twycross(1874–1943) An early student who taught the technique in Melbourne
• Marjory Barlow (née Mechin), (1915–2006), 1933. Daughter of FM's sister Amy, and wife of Bill Barlow.
• Dr. Wilfred "Bill" Barlow, (1915–1991), 1936. Founder of STAT in 1958.
• Marjorie "Marj" Barstow, (1899–1995), 1931. Taught the technique in the US.
• Goddard Binkley, (1920–1987), 1953. Taught the technique in the US.
• Dilys Carrington (née Jones), (1915–2009), 1955. Wife of Walter Carrington.
• Walter H. M. Carrington, (1915–2005), 1936.
• Vera Cavling, 1948.
• Eric de Peyer, (1906–1990), 1936.
• Ellen Avery Margaret "Margaret" Goldie, (1905–1997), 1931.
• Richard M. "Buzz" Gummere, Jr., (1912- ), 1944.
• Dr. Frank Pierce Jones, (1905–1975), 1941. Taught the technique in the US.
• Patrick J. "Pat" Macdonald, (1908–1992), 1932. Principal, The Alexander Foundation.
• Gurney MacInnes, 1931.
• Dr. Dorothy Stella Radcliffe Morrison (née Drew), (1908–1988), 1946.
• Charles Neil, (1917–1958), 1933.
• Douglas Richard Price-Williams, 1946. Social psychologist.
• Peter Scott, (1918–1978), 1946.
• John Skinner, (1912–1992), 1946. FM's private secretary.
• Anthony Spawforth, (1919–2003), 1951.
• Irene Stewart, 1931.
• Irene Tasker, (1887–1977), Montessori School teacher. First teacher of the technique (in 1917) after FM and AR. Taught in South Africa from 1935.
• Sir George Trevelyan, (1906–1996), 1931.
• Elisabeth Walker (née Clarke), (1914- ), 1936. Wife of Dick Walker.
• Richard "Dick" Walker, (1911–1992), 1936.
• Ethel Webb, (c.1885-1955), Montessori School teacher, at the same time (1913) as Irene Tasker.
• Lulie Westfeldt, (1895–1965), 1931.
• Catharine "Kitty" Wielopolska (Countess Wielopolska, née Merrick), (1900–1988), 1931.
• Peggy Williams, (1916–2003), 1947.
• Erika Whittaker (née Schumann), (1911–2004), 1931.
• cartoonist and illustrator Ronald Searle, an original drawing of F. M. Alexander, signed and with the comment "Ronald Searle 1953. For F. M. from the reconstituted artist, with thanks," Reproduced in F. M. Alexander's The Universal Constant in Living (Mouritz, 2000, London)
• actor H. B. Irving, son of actor Henry Irving, an autographed photo "To F. M. Alexander for his ... ? 1907"
• actress Viola Tree (1885–1938, daughter of Herbert Beerbohm Tree), an autographed full-length photo "To Matthias Alexander with many thanks from Viola Tree 1909"

Other actors who consulted him were Constance Collier, Oscar Asche and Matheson Lang.

While living and working in South Africa, Professor Raymond Dart, along with his two children, had lessons in the Alexander Technique.

The English novelist Aldous Huxley was strongly influenced by F. M. Alexander and included him as a character in the pacifist theme novel Eyeless in Gaza published in 1936.

Gertrude Stein's brother Leo called the Technique: "the method for keeping your eye on the ball applied to life".

The conservative philosopher and artist Anthony M. Ludovici was a pupil of Alexander's. Ludovici, sceptical at first, was sponsored by an admirer, Agnes Birrell, to have a course of lessons. He was the author of the first book on the Alexander Technique not by F.M. Alexander.

George Bernard Shaw was also a student of the Alexander Technique. Sir Charles Sherrington, Nobel Prize winner in physiology a strong supporter and Edward Maisel, T'ai chi ch'uan Past Grandmaster, Director of the American Physical Fitness Research Institute and a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness wrote an introduction and made the selection from F. M. Alexander's writings published as The Resurrection of the Body.

Moshé Feldenkrais had lessons with Alexander.

Politician Sir Stafford Cripps, at the time he was British Chancellor of the Exchequer, consulted Alexander. He and his wife Dame Isobel Cripps were both his supporters.

General Sir Archibald James Murray had lessons. He was Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force at the outbreak of WW1.

In 1945, Anthony Brooke, the Rajah Muda of Sarawak, had lessons with Alexander.

Alexander celebrated his 70th birthday in the company of Lord Lytton.

In 1973 Nikolaas Tinbergen devoted about half of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech to a very favorable description of the Alexander technique and its benefits, including references to scientific evaluations. Tinbergen and his family had been students of the technique.

Works

The four books of F. Matthias Alexander exist in many editions, being reprinted and revised, published in the UK and US, and not all editions are shown.

• Man's Supreme Inheritance, Methuen (London, 1910), revised and enlarged (New York, 1918), later editions 1941, 1946, 1957, Mouritz (UK, 1996), reprinted 2002. ISBN 0-9525574-0-1
• Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, Centerline Press (US,1923), revised 1946, Mouritz (UK, 2004) ISBN 0-9543522-6-2, ISBN 978-9543522-6-4
• The Use of the Self, E. P. Dutton (New York, 1932), republished by Orion Publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-7528-4391, ISBN 978-0752843919
• The Universal Constant In Living, Dutton (New York, 1941), Chaterson (London, 1942), later editions 1943, 1946, Centerline Press (US, 1941, 1986), Mouritz (UK, 2000) ISBN 091311118X, ISBN 978-0913111185, ISBN 0-9525574-4-4

Bibliography

• Bloch, Michael (2004), F.M. The Life of Frederick Matthias Alexander, Little, Brown Book Group, ISBN 978-0316860482 

Further reading

• Barker, Sarah, The Alexander Technique, Bantam Books (New York, 1978) ISBN 0-553-14976-8
• Barlow, Wilfred, The Alexander Principle, Victor Gollancz Ltd. (London, 1990) ISBN 0-575-04749-6
• The Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique Christopher Stevens The Development of the Alexander Technique and Evidence for its Effects, (STAT, 1997). An article summarising early investigations into the Alexander Technique and attempts to identify methods to measure its effects.
• Bowden, George C, F. Matthias Alexander and The Creative Advance of the Individual, L. N. Fowler & Co. Ltd. (London, 1965)
• Evans, Jackie, Frederick Matthias Alexander - A Family History, Phillimore & Co (UK, 2001) ISBN 1-860-77178-5
• STAT (Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique), The Alexander Journal (Issues 1-21 published at irregular intervals in the years 1962-2006)
• Westfeldt, Lulie, F. Matthias Alexander: The Man and his Work, George Allen & Unwin (London, 1964)

External links

• F. M. Alexander Photo Gallery
• Alexander Technique Education
• The Alexander Technique in practice
• Association of Theatre Movement Educators nearly 50 works on the Alexander Technique
• ATI Alexander Technique
• Alexander Technique for Musicians Pedro de Alcantara Working to a Principle
• Alternative Medicine and Rehabilitation The Alexander Technique