ALEXANDER HYPOTHESES
Compiled by Joe Armstrong
Boston, 1998
1. That, in humans, there can be either an integrated (normal) or an unintegrated (abnormal) working of the postural mechanisms with regard to their supportive function in response to gravity at any given moment both in motion and at rest.
2. That the supportive function of the postural mechanisms in response to gravity is governed primarily by the use of the neck, head, torso, and limbs in sequential relation to each other.
3. That in the majority of adults their postural mechanisms are working in an unintegrated (abnormal) way as a result of each individual's habitual and, generally, subconscious tensional patterns of carriage and reaction in combination with the accumulated and often chronic muscular, ligamental, and tendinous tightnesses resulting from those patterns of carriage and reaction being repeated over time.
4. That the degree of integration of the postural mechanisms has a fundamental influence, for good or ill, on many other aspects of a person's functioning (whether classified as primarily "physical" or primarily "mental") and that this factor must be taken into account if any attempts at improving health or well-being, correcting defects, changing habits of behavior, and performing activities or acquiring skills which are dependent upon superlative psychophysical coordination are to be complete.
5. That restoration and re-education of the integrated (normal) working of the postural mechanisms is nearly impossible for people to achieve unaided, due to the faulty (and largely subconscious) proprioceptive and kinesthetic judgment associated with the habituation to the unintegrated (abnormal) working of their postural mechanisms.
6. That the integrated (normal) working of the postural mechanisms can be restored and re-educated by a teacher who has acquired the appropriate manual skills of (a) assessing the conditions of a person's postural and movement mechanisms, of (b) redistributing chronic patterns of tightness into a balanced state of tonus, and of (c) facilitating the neck-head-torso-limb dynamic required to elicit and sustain the supportive function of the postural mechanisms in relation to gravity from moment to moment whether that person is in motion or at rest.
7. That with this skilled manual assistance and the appropriate verbal instruction from a teacher, people can gain the ability to recognize and inhibit any tensional responses that interfere with the integrated (normal) working of their postural mechanisms, and they can also learn to reliably facilitate and maintain the integration for themselves through specific ideo-kinetic directives given sequentially to their neck, head, torso, and limbs in response to any stimuli which tend to evoke automatic or habitual patterns of reaction. And these same ideo-kinetic directives can also serve to transform built-up, chronic patterns of tightness into a balanced condition of tonus which can best integrate with the supportive function of the postural mechanisms in relation to gravity from moment to moment.
8. That the manual skill of assessing the conditions of and assisting in the restoration and re-education of the integration of another's postural mechanisms involves a type of tactile contact which is dependent entirely upon a high degree of integration of the facilitator's own postural mechanisms during the time of actual manual contact and guidance, rather than upon any sort of contact involving direct, local muscular efforts of the facilitator's hands and arms (which generally produce only local and non-integrating alterations in the student).
9. That training to become a competent facilitator of the integrated (normal) working of the postural mechanisms in others usually requires a number of years' daily restorative and re-educative work at the hands of other very experienced facilitators. In some cases, this training may require even more time, depending upon the degree of unintegrated (abnormal) conditions present in the trainee, both in terms of chronic muscular tightnesses and in terms of habitual patterns of carriage and reaction in motion and at rest.
10. That the ideo-kinetic activity involved in developing and maintaining a constructive conscious control of an integrated (normal) working of one's postural mechanisms provides a basis for achieving a constant "psychophysical unity" in living which serves to counteract the effects upon us of most current approaches to improving human behavior and functioning that perpetuate the mind/body dichotomy created by separating human activity into so-called "physical" and "mental" categories.
Created on ... September 12, 2000