Customer Reviews

The Undivided Self: Alexander Technique and the Control of Stress

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This is the finest book available explaining the deeper significance of the mind/body work done by F. Mathias Alexander, creator of the Alexander Techinque. But what I liked most about reading it was its wonderfully fresh perspective on age-old human problems. For thousands of years, philoshophers have pondered the human condition from the standpoint of someone sitting under a tree. What Dimon sees is that perhaps our greatest gift is our ability to decide to get up. From his perspective, how and where we go tells us more about who we are than we might ever have thought possible. I urge anyone curious about life and eager to improve his or her own to give this book a try.

Ted Dimon has written the definitive mind/body book, explaining how it is possible to reduce stress and tension by learning to gain a greater awareness in living. He articulates his view by conceiving of mind and body as a functional system which can be brought under conscious control, making possible, not simply therapeutic improvement in health, but the potential for becoming fully conscious of action and behavior. The book also provides the foundation for a theory of stress that recognizes the possibility for education, and not treatment, as the basis for identifying the causes of stress.

Where F. M. Alexander's own writings read almost like philosophy, Dimon's book is more grounded, with the feel of a psychology textbook. It's a distinctly objective approach, an argument for the Technique with the logical impact of a medical journal.

Cautious or skeptical people who hear the success stories of others who have overcome physical problems with the Alexander Technique say, "OK, so what is the technique? How does it work?" It can be hard to get a straight answer - it's a complicated issue, and in any event the only way to really understand the Technique is to experience it for yourself with a teacher. If an intellectual introduction is what you're after, though, and if your approach to this sort of thing is more empirical, this is the book for you.

AS A PSYCHOTHERAPIST I AM ALWAYS SEEING THE DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF THE MIND AT WAR WITH THE BODY. I HAVE ALWAYS URGED MY PATIENTS TO TRY AND INTEGRATE THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE AS PART OF THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS TO RESOLVE THIS BATTLE. THEODORE DIMON, A NOTED ALEXANDER PRACTICIONER AND TEACHER (WHO HAS HIS OWN SCHOOL IN BOSTON) HAS WRITTEN A BOOK ANYONE INVOLVED IN HEALING THE MIND BODY DIVIDE MUST READ. IT WILL HELP PATIENT AND HEALER ALIKE. I URGE PEOPLE TO READ IT AND FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE.

The two of us tried to read this book but none of us has finished yet. Quite boring to be honest and the repetitions make it difficult to understand. I think that the writer has a point but he was not able to translate it into words. As a lot of books nowadays it is so full of repetitions that after a while one doesn't even know what the goal of the book is. Saying the same thing over an dover again is not a good way to keep people interested till the end of the book. Sorry, I can't recommend it!