READING ABOUT THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE

Just as such skills as riding a bicycle are learned through direct experience, so is the Alexander Technique. 
Its history and principles can be described in words but the learning occurs
through having the experience to associate with them. 
That's what happens in lessons.


Books by F. M. Alexander

Alexander wrote four books in which he detailed
how his work evolved, the concepts that grew from it, and
their import and applications:


Man's Supreme Inheritance: Conscious Guidance and Control
in Relation to Human Evolution in Civilization (1910, 1918)

Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (1923)

The Use of The Self (1932)

The Universal Constant in Living (1941)


Over the years since Alexander wrote these books, many others
have been published introducing and describing his work.


Recommended introductory books

There are dozens of books introducing the Alexander Technique.
The following are personal recommendations - each author an experienced teacher.

Body Learning
Michael Gelb
...
How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live
Missy Vineyard
...
The Alexander Technique: A Skill for Life
Pedro de Alcantara
...
Freedom to Change
(First published in 1976 as Body Awareness in Action )
Frank Pierce Jones

Results of 25 years of original scientific research into this work.
Jones relates the story and development of the AT and explains some of
the underlying mechanisms that govern human functioning, including how
the conscious mind activates anti-gravity reflexes.

Books about the Alexander Technique are widely available in libraries, bookstores and online. 

Other sources:

AmSAT Books

  The book division of the American Society for the Alexander Technique which maintains a comprehensive catalog of
books, published nationally and internationally, as well as DVDs, CDs, video and audiotapes on the Alexander Technique. 

800 473 0620
info@amsatonline.org


Mornum Time Press

 A small press publishing high-quality books exploring various
aspects of the Alexander Technique. 
Founded by Jerry Sontag, a teacher of the Alexander Technique and the director of a teacher-training course, this press has published:

Curiosity Recaptured: Exploring Ways We Think and Move
Fifteen essays offering an introduction to the Alexander Technique in daily life, foreword by Robertson Davies

Thinking Aloud and The Act of Living
Transcriptions of talks given by Walter Carrington, trained by Alexander in 1939 and one of the world's foremost teachers and director of the longest-established training course for teachers

An Examined Life
Marjory Barlow, F.M. Alexander's niece, talks about her seven decades of experience teaching the AT and directing a training course for teachers

Voice and the Alexander Technique
Active Explorations for Speaking and Singing
Author Jane Heirich is an experienced teacher of both voice and the Alexander Technique

Mouritz

 A specialist publisher of high-quality books on the Alexander Technique.
Among those published to date are new editions of three of Alexander's four books, each of which includes information previously unpublished and:

Articles and Lectures: first published compilation of all of Alexander's known lectures and writings not included in his books as well as early articles on the AT

The Philosopher's Stone: a unique collection of diaries and notes from pupils' lessons with F. M. Alexander from c.1918 - 1953

F. Matthias Alexander - The Man and his Work: memoirs of training in the Alexander Technique from 1931-34 by Lulie Westfeldt: the only teacher from Alexander's first teacher training course to write about her experiences both as a student and then as a teacher for 26 years

Personally Speaking: the revised and enlarged edition of interviews with Walter Carrington in which he shares insights into the history and teaching of the AT

More Talk of Alexander:  36 articles selected by Dr. Wilfred Barlow on various facets of the AT including education, psychology, theology, art, science and medicine by such contributors as: Aldous Huxley, John Dewey and Nobel-prize winner Nikolaas Tinbergen.  First published in 1978.

The Mouritz website includes a library section containing:
a short biography of Alexander, a bibliography of his books,
archival literature and selected quotations from his writings on key concepts.

Journals for the Alexander Technique

Conscious Control publishes substantial, well-written articles
on the AT.

Direction Journal is published in Australia and serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas and research discoveries related to the AT. 


Comprehensive selections of books, CDs, DVDs, audio and videotapes sold in association with AT teaching centers.


 Alexander Books associated with London's Bloomsbury Alexander Centre

Einstein's Moon Bookshop associated with the
School for F.M. Alexander Studies in Melbourne, Australia.


  

Jill Geiger, AmSAT, STAT
teaching the Alexander Technique since 1990
Newton, MA

617 527 7373
jill@ATinstruction.com