I heartliy recommend Norman Doidge’s book ‘The Brain That Changes Itself’. It is full of interesting stories on the discovery of the plasticity of the brain – the stories of the scientists themselves, their experiments and the courage of patients with brain disorders. Of course Alexander understood plasticity of the brain yonks before through his personal experiments – he called the work a science after all- and it saddens me a little that he is rarely referred to in the general neuroscience world. However it’s also nice to read about the anatomy of the brain and how it functions, confirming the importance of inhibition and direction in his Technique. The book is available from www.waterstones.com £6.99 Penguin 2008.
One of my students, Margaret , attends a diabetic clinic once a year. On each visit her height is measured. Her height used to be 1.6 meters. Last year the clinic measured her at 1.57. She has been coming to a small group class with me since September. Half way through our session last week she said ‘Can I share something with you?’ And it was then she annouced that on recent visit to the clinic her height was measured at 1.63!! ‘I’ve never been that before!’ . She may not reach the height of Johnny in the picture but 6cm is pretty good going after 2 months…
No he doesn’t have Alexander lessons as far as I know, but his ‘use’ is pretty Alexandrian, isn’t it? And a great example of how change can occur. I hope he gets that basketball court to maintain his ‘up’, ( or an on-house AT teacher) otherwise I predict his height might lessen and a ‘two term in office’ stoop might manifest.
I’d love to think Alexander helped my student Peter win the Arvon Poetry Foundation prize this year with Shoreditch Orchid, but again, think that was all his own doing. The Daily Telegraph have it on line and there’s a link to it from www.arvonfoundation.org or google the title and there are loads of sites with it on. Congratulations Peter I love it! This is a picture of a bee or spider orchid I took last April in a field above Patitiri in Alonnisos. Maybe it will be an orchid like this that one day will grow in Shoreditch….