How did Alexander Technique originate?

Born in Tasmania in 1869 F. M. Alexander was the eldest of eight children. He was a sickly child, but by the time he was eight-years-old he was well enough to be tutored by a village school master and spent a lot of time out of doors, where he developed a love of nature and animals, particularly horses, an interest that never left him.  

After starting out as a clerk in a tin-mining company and studying accountancy, he decided that he would like to become a professional actor. After three years of saving he managed to move to Australia to pursue his dream and became very successful. Unfortunately he started to experience problems with his voice, he became hoarse when he spoke and would lose his voice, which was deeply worrying. His friends told him that there was also an audible sucking in of breath when he spoke. F. M. visited his doctor who told him to take some time off and not to speak for a while. He followed his doctors orders, but as soon as he started to use his voice again, the same thing happened. He returned to the doctor, who couldn’t find anything the matter, so he asked his doctor if it could be anything that he was ‘doing’. The doctor replied that this could indeed be a distinct possibility. When F. M. returned home he started to observe himself in the mirror and noticed that when he spoke he pulled his head back and contracted the muscles in his neck and back so tightly that it affected his voice.

By observing what happened when he spoke in mirrors for many months probably years, Alexander established that the relationship between the head, neck and back was essential not just for a better voice, but for ease of movement and general well being. He realised that the mind and body had to work together, that they were indivisible. 

In 1904 he came to London to share his findings, his discoveries still form the basis of the technique today.  

It is now a huge melting pot of ideas, but the principles remain the same, the most important being described as the ‘primary control’ – the relationship of the head, neck and back working together as a whole. 

He wrote four books on his discoveries, not entirely bed time reading as the language now appears old fashioned, but the  principles of the Technique are laid out clearly in his books if one takes the time to decipher some of the language. They are in chronological order, Man’s Supreme Inheritance, Constructive Conscious Control of the Self, The Use of the Self and The Universal Constant in Living.

If this description of the Alexander is a bit dry, it is important to remember that those who knew him described him as good fun, with a twinkle in his eye. He was known to be fond of good food and wine and betting on horses. Not only was he an actor, but he was a brilliant observer of people, without his superb observational skill, the Technique would not exist.