Frederick Matthias Alexander

Frederick Matthias Alexander (born January 20, 1869 in Wynyard , Tasmania , † October 10, 1955 in London ) was an Australian acting teacher and the founder of the body therapy named after him Alexander technique .

Life

After he had persistent voice problems as a young reciter and stage actor and no doctor could help him, Alexander developed a method for holistic training and realignment of patterns of movement and action between 1888 and 1898.

The underlying assumption of his method was that the use of the body determines or influences its function. He also spoke out against a clear separation of mental and physical functions.

His further life took him to England in 1904 and from 1914 to the USA. He taught his technique, trained his first teachers in it and wrote four books on his method.

Publications

• Man's Supreme Inheritance, 1910
  • German A legacy of evolution to mankind of inestimable value , BoD, 2018, ISBN 978-3-7528-5113-7 .
• Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, 1923
  • German Conscious control during the construction and remodeling of people , BoD, 2018, ISBN 978-3-7460-8016-1 .
• The Use of the Self, 1932
  • Deutsch The use of the self. Karger, Basel, Freiburg 2001, ISBN 3-8055-7170-4 .
• The Universal Constant in Living, 1940
  • German The universal constant in life. Karger, Basel, Freiburg 2001, ISBN 3-8055-6826-6 .

literature

• Winfred Barlow. The Alexander Technique. Health and quality of life through proper use of the body. Kösel publishing house. Munich. 1989.
• Michael Roe: Frederick Matthias Alexander . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Volume 7. Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1979, ISBN 0-522-84108-2 (English).

Web links

• Literature by and about Frederick Matthias Alexander in the catalog of the German National Library
• Alexander biography on whonamedit.com