Reading Alexander: A Collection of the Excerpts from the Writings  of F.M. Alexander excerpted from his four books (1) Man's Supreme Inheritance (1918) (2) Constructive Conscious Control     of the Individual (1923) (3) The Use of the Self (1932) (4) The Universal Constant in Living (1941)

(1) "Mankind is now faced with new, unexpected, and tremendous problems.
An all-important one is that of human relations, for the solution of this problem
calls for knowledge of the means whereby human reactions can be changed,
controlled, and gradually improved."


(2) "...throughout his long career man has been content to make progress
in acquiring control of nature in the outside world, without making like
progress in acquiring its essential accompaniment, the knowledge of how
to control nature within himself—that is to say, how to control his own
reactions to the outside world."


(3) "...in most fields of activity man's craze is for speed and the short view,
because he has become possessed by the non-stop attitude and outlook: he
is a confirmed end-gainer, without respect to the nature of the means whereby
he attempts to gain his desired end, even when he wishes to employ new means
whereby he could change his habits of thought and action."


(4) "...He may claim to be an advocate of freedom of thought and action, and
may even be a person who acts up to his theory in his daily living; but he cannot,
in consequence, claim to be able to put into practice that greatest of all attainments—
freedom in thought and action—until he has gained that knowledge of the means
whereby he can command the best use and functioning of himself in activity,
which is essential to change of reaction in the basic sense. This demands the
employment of a technique which makes possible the gaining of experience
in KNOWING HOW TO STOP (prevention—inhibition) when dominated
by the influence of impulsive uncontrolled reaction."

"Oh, what a fall was there my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourished over us."

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

   The combined efforts of men and women in many parts of the world have
resulted in the production of the atomic bomb. This means that they have
succeeded in harnessing energy which, when released, can cause devastation
on a scale not previously experienced. As a human achievement the atomic
bomb is hailed with huzzahs; as a means of destruction it is viewed with horror;
as a possible means of the destruction of civilization it is universally feared.
Only as a possible aid in supplying future needs of mankind, and thus tending
to improve his way of life, is it welcomed by many. But apart from and above
all these considerations and possibilities, it will be welcomed by people who
now see that the advent of the bomb will force mankind to cry a HALT in
many directions, particularly by those people of foresight who have long
sense realized that it has become essential to cry a universal halt: this, in order
that a change can be made in human reactions and in the relations of human
beings with each other, based as these are on a way of living that has become
unbalanced, and is becoming more so, with increasing rapidity the world over.


   Mankind is now faced with new, unexpected, and tremendous problems. An
all-important one is that of human relations, for the solution of this problem calls
for knowledge of the means whereby human reactions can be changed, controlled,
and gradually improved. Unfortunately, comparatively few people have ever come
in contact with such knowledge. Had this been otherwise, sufficient people might
have been so influenced in foresight and outlook by the crisis of 1914-1918, and
the rapidly following world crisis of 1939-1945, could have been prevented. But
all of this, as we shall see, was inevitable when we remember that throughout his
long career man has been content to make progress in acquiring control of nature
in the outside world, without making like progress in acquiring its essential
accompaniment, the knowledge of how to control nature within himself—that
is to say, how to control his own reactions to the outside world. Up to now he
has been so engrossed with the making of changes in the means whereby he
could acquire what he considered necessary to his need in inanimate things, that
he failed to give equal thought to the means whereby he can change and control
his animate self. Consequently, as time has gone on, his achievements in controlling
nature in the outside world have been discounted by a disintegration within his
psycho-physical organism, so that he continually errs in his judgment of relative
values and fails in his relations with his fellow-men. Meanwhile he is becoming
less and less able to change and control his reactions, even when he attempts to
do this by the use of means of which he approves and which he tires as best he
can to put into practice. The urgency for directing attention to exploring this field
of activity is obvious when we consider that, on account of his one-sided develop-
ment, man has created in the bomb a Frankenstein monster which, if not handled
wisely, will prove a constant danger to all, because he has not developed that self-
awareness and control of his reactions that is needed if he is to keep control over
that monster which he has created. As it is, he appears stunned and bewildered by
this, his latest discovery, and is afraid to trust himself or his fellow-men with the
knowledge that led to his discovery, lest they should react to it in a way that would
bring irreparable destruction on the world. There is implied in this a frank admission
of the present unsatisfactory nature of man's reaction in general, in this should prove
a "blessing in disguise" if he realizes that this nature must be changed and improved
if in the future he is to escape the harmful effects which have resulted in the past from
his attempts to meet adequately the demands involved in adapting himself to the constant,
and progressively more rapid, changes in the world outside of himself. Such a change
in the nature of human reaction is essential if mankind is not to remain saddled with
frustrating static and obsolete beliefs, ideas, conceptions, and relative values which
have long sense outlived their usefulness. Obsolete indeed as were many of our ideas,
conceptions, beliefs, and so on before the advent of the present crisis, the past few
years have completely altered the foundations of our previous ways of life, and it
has become a matter of prime necessity to re-examine the pedigree of all such ideas,
conceptions, and beliefs with which our overt activities are associated.


   To succeed in this, and to set about making the necessary changes to this end,
we shall be forced to come to a FULL STOP. This may well prove to be the most
difficult and valuable task man has ever undertaken until now, for he has gradually
been losing a reliable standard of control of reaction, and the ability to take the long
view, in his efforts to improve his conditions when he is faced with the need for
changing habits of thought and action. This should not surprise anyone who remembers
that in most fields of activity man's craze is for speed and the short view, because he
has become possessed by the non-stop attitude and outlook: he is a confirmed end-gainer,
without respect to the nature of the means whereby he attempts to gain his desired end,
even when he wishes to employ new means whereby he could change his habits of
thought and action.


   These habits of reaction which hold him in slavery are the inevitable accompaniments
of his out-of-date beliefs and the associated judgments which are too often unsound
and frustrating. He will therefore find it difficult to take the long-view outlook of his
activities which is inseparable from the ability TO STOP when faced with the need
for changing habits of thought and action. Man, controlled by impulse and instinct
at this stage of his evolution, rarely fails to react according to pattern, no matter in
what circumstances. He may claim to be an advocate of freedom of thought and action,
and may even be a person who acts up to his theory in his daily living; but he cannot,
in consequence, claim to be able to put into practice that greatest of all attainments—
freedom in thought and action—until he has gained that knowledge of the means
whereby he can command the best use and functioning of himself in activity, which
is essential to change of reaction in the basic sense. This demands the employment of
a technique which makes possible the gaining of experience in KNOWING HOW TO
STOP (prevention—inhibition) when dominated by the influence of impulsive uncontrolled
reaction. The first step in the procedure is an inhibitory (preventive) one, that of refusing
to give consent to the habitual (sub-consious) reaction, and it is the basic beginning of
the means whereby one may change and control reaction. The next step is a voluntary
one, that of consenting to employ the second procedure and also the succeeding procedures
by a continuity of conscious directions in giving consent to new procedures while still
withholding consent to the habitual reaction (the first procedure). Thus the first procedure,
which is an inhibitory act, in being linked with the other procedures, becomes the
beginning of a voluntary act which involves thinking in activity and enables us to
gradually change and improve the general use and functioning which is a manifestation
of the nature of our reaction.


By these means, as can be proved by operational verification, we are enabled in
process to bridge the gulf which has for too long separated subconsciousness
and consciousness in the control of reaction, and at the same time widen the gulf
between the human and animal stages of evolution. Full comprehension of the
need for the employment of these means could change and improve the basic nature
of man's impulsive and instinctive reactions which have developed hand in hand
with his static beliefs and outlook. Man's basic nature has not changed as it should
of done during the past centuries in respect of conscious direction of his use of
himself or in regard to his judgment and control in human relations. Hence on
every hand he is faced with the impeding effects of "emotional gusts," such as
are associated with the too common and frustrated human feelings which are
manifested in prejudice, jealousy, greed, envy, hatred and the like. These are the
outcome of reactions which ruin man's chances of establishing such relations
in national and international affairs as could lead to better understanding of what
is essential to the engendering of goodwill and peace in a world in which changing
conditions and new discoveries in the outside world make new and ever-increasing
demands for increasing change in, and control of, human reaction.

* Excerpt taken from The Universal Constant in Living (Chaterson, 1946)