• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Sydney City Alexander Technique

  • About
  • The Alexander Technique
  • Teacher training course
  • News
  • Contact

What we’re reading: Freedom to change

3 March 2019   Simon Fitzgibbon

Freedom to change was originally published under the title of Body Mechanics in Action. This was at the insistence of the publisher who felt it was a more marketable title than Freedom to Change, the title the author intended. The author Frank Pierce Jones (1905-1975) taught for over 30 years and carried out extensive scientific experiments in his pursuit of understanding the mechanisms underlying the Alexander Technique.

The book was published posthumously in 1976

This is one of my favourite books in the AT bibliography and, in fact, I read it for the first time before ever having a lesson. Not only does it provide a clear introduction to the principles of the Alexander Technique, there is also the added bonus of many interesting historical details the Technique’s development, fruit of the author’s close association with the Alexander brothers. (Jones trained with both F. M. and A.R. Alexander from 1941 to 1944). Of particular interest is the detail about A.R. Alexander, Jones’ primary teacher, detail you’d be hard pressed to find elsewhere.

But of course, the book is best known for its summaries of Jones’ most important research into the mechanisms of the Technique. It is amazing how broad his enquiry was and the ingenious ways he developed to collect data with the limited (by today’s standards) technology available to him. The research was carried out primarily in the 1950s and 1960s and so some of the work is limited or superseded as one should expect. There is however much that is still useful and it is a joy to imbibe some of the passion of a man who put so much thought and effort into what was for many years our primary source of research into the Technique.

You can purchase a copy here.

Filed Under: What we're reading

Read more …

  • An uncommon touch – Andrea Beesley 1945-2020
  • Reawakening
  • Lockdown
  • What we’re reading: Freedom to change

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Visit the training course

Prospective trainees and post-grad students are welcome at any time. Just let us know.

Contact us

Footer

Contact

  • Contact form
  • Phone
  • Map

Navigation

  • The Alexander Technique
  • Teacher training course
  • News

Members

  • Login
  • Library

Can’t find what you’re looking for?

Copyright © 2021 Sydney City Alexander Technique ·

Privacy Policy