A new study is being posted on many Alexander Technique websites.  And, for those of us who have known this work for a while, we might say, “duh!”

The specific study being cited is – “Assessment of Stresses in the Cervical Spine Caused by Posture and Position of the Head” by Kenneth k. Hansraj, MD Chief of Spine Surgery, New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, published in SURGICAL TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL XXV.(abstract accessed at https://cbsminnesota.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/spine-study.pdf)

When I read the abstract, while I was in agreement with its conclusions - 

 Loss of natural curve of the cervical spine s leads to incrementally increased stresses about the cervical spine. These stresses may lead to early wear, tear, degeneration, and possibly surgeries. While it is nearly impossible to avoid the technologies that cause these issues, individuals should make an effort to look at their phones with a neutral spine and to avoid spending hours each day hunched over.

I was concerned by some of its content. I note several things. It is not a study of actual people – it is a modeling study - A model of the cervical spine was created with realistic values in Cosmosworks, a finite element assessment package. And the table provided with the abstract does look like only the cervical spine was included in the model.  While the whole spine is pictorially represented, what the other vertebra are doing in response to the tilting of the head doesn’t make much sense in movement. I also note that in this particular abstract, what is suggested as good posture - perhaps what they mean by neutral spine-  is hopefully something no Alexander Technique teacher would ever teach! 

The writers of the study acknowledge that this is an initial study, and I applaud their call to their own profession to consider the whole picture of cervical pain. And, I do think that if we as Alexander Technique teachers are going to reference studies to promote the work, it is a good idea to read the abstract and/or the whole study so that we can discuss it more fully.

That said, I just spent a day with my sister who teaches elementary school.  Children in her school have carpal tunnel syndrome from texting.  Little kids in pain!

What I watch over and over again are people, including children, imitating what they look at all the time – and the smaller the device, the smaller they try to become.  I have noted in other articles that there seem to be costs not only in discomfort, but also in self-image, thinking skills, and imaginative skills.  The abstract for this study does refer to these consequences as well.  (And there is information in my just-about-to-be-available book -http://www.cathymadden.net/onstage-synergy.html - on my work in this area.)  We are playing catch-up with how we humans interface with our devices – and the Alexander Technique is a fabulous tool for that catch-up. 

What is called into question is how we teach our children to interface with these devices.  While I believe that computers are poor tools for children (really, I think that developmentally 14 years old is plenty early enough to be at a computer or on a cell phone), I know that my belief prompts an uphill discussion in today’s world. What educators need now is a new approach to how movement (rather than posture) is vital in development. I am absolutely delighted when an elementary school teacher takes Alexander Technique classes, workshops, and lessons because I know that has an effect in their classrooms. And I am considering – both for myself and for the Alexander Technique profession -  ways to increase our reach to educators– they need it for themselves, they need it for their students.

Last week I spoke at the Performing Arts Lecture Series- Celebrity and Its Discontents- sponsored by the School of Drama at the University of Washington.  My subject -"Pioneering Spirit in the Celebrity of the Discontented Everyman: F.M. Alexander"

The perspective I took was that being labeled as a celebrity was a challenge to the self.  Celebrity stories provided a gateway to a discussion of how any of us respond to being labeled. Here is an excerpt from the speech -

 “For celebrity, the transition from a taken for granted belonging and solidarity with others to being separated as famous is an experiential turning point in the self.” (from David Giles Illusions of Immortality). So too in our own lives, any event may become an experiential turning point in the self. The Alexander Technique is designed to help us navigate those turning points with authenticity, cooperating with an evolving self.

“[One celebrity […} offered that, in the face of [the media attention],  ‘You constantly have to reassess who you are, take [the fame] off of you and make sure you are centered as a person.”

In actor training, I use the Alexander Technique to help actors sustain the illusion of truth in imaginary circumstance.  When a moment onstage is inauthentic, it is accompanied – in the coordination of the actors - by the characteristic overwork between head and spine.  And, since acting imitates life, the quality of our coordination in our everyman/everywoman moments also reveals to self and others…our truth.  The Alexander Technique turns out to be a powerful tool in cooperating with the evolving truth of ourselves.

The genius of the Alexander Technique, in addition to recognizing the importance of the head/spine relationship as monitor and preserver of coordination of self, is that it recognizes that knowing what we don’t want is, by itself, ineffective, in recovering an effective Use of our Self.…… We need to know what we do want – to actively research our desires - and to actively/volitionally invite ourselves to organize in service of those desires.  This return to conscious cooperation provides us with a replacement to what we may perceive as inauthentic….

The endowment of celebrity and its challenges to authentic communication is serving as an example of any interaction that causes DISCONTENT. 

Both previous speakers in the series, Odai Johnson and Ruby Blondell had referred to the adornments of celebrity – and I decided to give everyone an adornment – bow ties. At the end of the evening we used the bowties to “celebritize” ourselves.

“The moment of being set apart, of being labeled in either everyday or multi-media celebrity, is a challenge to the self – and the moment offers a choice to be a victim of the label, or to respond to the perception as a pioneer, coordinating to our own truth in the pursuit of our desires.”