TH{ f{LD{NKRAIS M{THOD Tt Eft Functional Integration for more than fifty years. Today he leads seminars and training sessions in the United States and throughout the world. His book was authorized by Dr. Feldenkrais. Basic ~@,iMm 1-leallhlAllernalive Meciicine u.s. 5 14.95/CAN. 523.95 The information contained in this book is based upon the research and personal and professional experiences of the author. It is not intended as a substitute for consult ing with your physician or other healthcare provider. Any attempt to diagnose and treat an illness should be done under the direction of a healthcare professional. The publisher does not advocate the use of any particular healthcare protocol but believes the information in this book should be available to the public. The pub lisher and author are not responsible for any adverse effects or consequences result ing from the use of the suggestions, preparations, or procedures discussed in this book. Should the reader have any questions concerning the appropriateness of any procedures or preparation mentioned, the author and the publisher strongly suggest consulting a professional healthcare advisor. Basic Health Publications 8200 Boulevard East North Bergen, NJ 07047 1-201-868-8336 This book is published in association with the K. S. Giniger Company, Inc., Publishers, 250 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10107. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ryvverant,1{ochanan, 1922- The Feldenkrais method: teaching by handling / 1{ochanan Ryvverant; illustrations by Daniela Mohor. p.;cm. Originally published: San Francisco: Harper & Row, c1983. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-59120-022-9 1. Feldenkrais method. [DNLM: 1. Manipulation, Orthopedic-methods. 2. Kinesthesis. 3. Massage-methods. 4. Neuromuscular Diseases-therapy. WE 541 R998f 1983a1 I. F eldenkrais, Moshe, 1904- II. Title. RC489.F44R98 2003 616.7'0622-dc22 2003015302 First Basic Health Publications Printing September 2003 Copyright © 1983 by Yochanan Rywerant All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other wise, without the prior written consent of the copyright owner. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Contents Foreword, vii Preface, ix Acknowledf:flnents, X111 Introduction, 1 PART I: Manipulation and Teaching 1. Manipulation as Nonverbal Communication between Teacher and Pupil, 9 2. The Approach to Communicative Manipulation, 19 PART II: The Basic Technique 3. The Unit of Communicative Manipulation (The Manipulon), 29 4. A Classification of Manipulons, 45 5. The Various Modes of the Pupil's Response: The Limbic and Cortical Levels of Control, 57 PART III: Further Technical Considerations 6. Some Physical Principles Involved in Functional Integration, 89 7. Increasing Efficiency: Directions of Movement, Timing, and the Teacher's Own Body Awareness, 99 PART IV: Working Through Sessions 8. The Form of the Manipulatory Session, 109 9. Schematic Outlines of a Few Model Sessions, 115 10. A Few Typical and Often-Encountered Manifestations of Inefficient Neuromotor Organization, 145 11. Additional Do's and Don'ts for a Future Practitioner, 175 PART V: Illustrative Case Histories 12. The Story of Hanoch's Return to the Flute, 181 13. Improving the Ability to Perform, 191 14. Remarks on Pain, Function, and Structure, 199 15. Reflections on the Creative Process, 205 Notes, 211 Bibliography, 213 Index, 215 Foreword Yochanan was a teacher of physics in one of the best schools ofIsrael. He was at that twenty-eight years running. Later he joined the Feldenkrais School. He worked thirteen and a half years within close quarters in the same room in which I worked. He has his own "handwriting" like all the others. Everyone learns the method without imitating his teacher. Yochanan is not imitating any body. The book in front of you should be reread several times. That way you are likely to get most of the goodness of the book. Good luck! -M. Feldenkrais Tel Aviv, Israel Vll Preface The Feldenkrais Method: Teaching by Handling is a momentous publica tion, because it makes accessible a unique form of human education. The book is a presentation of the system of Functional Integration devised by the Israeli scientist Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. The Feldenkrais system is a way of handling the body by communicating specific sensa tions to the central nervous system in order to improve the functions of the motor system. Functional Integration is unique in that it evokes changes in the human brain at a level heretofore thought unachievable by any known therapeutic technique; muscular tonicity-even spasticity-is actually modified, the range of movement is enhanced, movement becomes more coordinated, and the overall efficiency and comfort of muscular functioning is increased. In The Feldenkrais Method: Teaching by Handling, Yochanan Rywerant has devised a framework for understanding an immensely subtle and elusive technique for human change. Rywerant has successfully created the archetectonics for understanding a major area of human cybernetic functioning and, in so doing, has effectively established the vocabulary for a new area in the field of nonverbal communication. Feldenkrais, the inventor of this new area of Functional Integration, is also its most bril liant practitioner, as well as its most inspirational and intuitive teacher. What Rywerant has accomplished is to have taken this intuitive clarity and worked it into an ingenious intellectual framework that makes sense of the technique's elusive subtleties. He has succeeded in removing the mystery from a method that creates impressive improvements in the motor system with a remarkable economy of means. ix x / The Feldenkrais Method The two major uses of this volume are, first, as a textbook for those wishing to learn the practice of Functional Integration and, secondly, as an explanation of the cybernetic process involved in changing human movement patterns. The latter makes the learning of the Feldenkrais technique far easier than would otherwise be possible. Rywerant has constructed an explanatory superstructure for the technique that makes it clear that there are levels of human communication and transforma tion whose existence was scarcely suspected before the appearance of F eldenkrais. Rywerant's conception of the "manipulon" as a basic unit of nonver bal communication is at the heart of this cybernetic theory. And his dis cussion of the different types of manipulons gives a comprehensive description of the discrete ways in which "handling" can communicate information to the brain. His discussion of the functions of the brain and central nervous system are clear and very much to the point; this clarity allows us to understand how the manipulatory sessions have a certain prescribed form and way of proceeding. Yochanan Rywerant was born November 7, 1922, in Bucharest, Romania. He lived the bulk of his youth in the city of Cernauti until World War II. Although he had studied for eight years as a violinist, when he entered the University of Cernauti in 1939 he chose to study mathematics. However, after one year of university work, the war inter vened and Rywerant, a Jew, was shipped off to a forced labor camp. After his liberation at the end of the war, Rywerant attempted to immigrate to Palestine, which was at that time under British mandate. But before he could reach Palestine he was intercepted by the British navy and interned in Cyprus for six months in 1947. In 1948 he man aged to escape from Cyprus as a stowaway aboard a British ship bound for Palestine (now Israel), where he adroitly shimmied down a mooring line and set foot for the first time in his adopted land. . Following service with the Israeli Defense Forces, Rywerant com pleted his studies in mathematics and physics at Hebrew University, Jerusalem. In 1952 he accepted a post as physics professor in a second ary school in Givataim, a suburb of Tel Aviv. In that same year he mar ried the distinguished Israeli-born composer Yardena Alotin and the two have continued living in Tel Aviv since that time. Also in 1952 Rywerant first met Moshe Feldenkrais, who had just begun his famous series of Awareness-Through-Movement exercise Preface / xi classes in Tel Aviv. He attended these classes regularly over the next fif teen years. When in 1969 F eldenkrais decided to teach his technique of F unc tional Integration, Yochanan Rywerant was one of the fourteen mem bers of his first training group. The training was completed in 1971 after three years. But even before that time, Feldenkrais invited Rywer ant to become his first assistant in the Feldenkrais Institute on Nach mani Street. The offer was accepted. In 1973 Rywerant assisted F eldenkrais in teaching an Awareness Through-Movement class in Berkeley, California, which was when I met both men. When, in 1975, Feldenkrais accepted my invitation to offer a Functional Integration training program in San Francisco-the first in the United States-Rywerant served as his assistant. This posi tion as teaching assistant continued into the third training program offered by F eldenkrais in 1980 at Amherst, Massachusetts. Through his work at the Feldenkrais Institute, as well as his own pri vate practice, Yochanan Rywerant has become thoroughly experienced in the theory, practice, and neurophysiological foundations of Func tional Integration. Thirty years of acquaintance with Feldenkrais have imbued him with a lucid vision of the precision and care necessary for the successful practice of Functional Integration. It is this same vision that informs the pages of this book and offers the reader an authoritative account of the Feldenkrais system with all of the exactitude and subtle ty that Feldenkrais demands. Rywerant has been previously known to the reading public through his four remarkable case histories, which I had the pleasure of publish ing in Somatics magazine. These case histories appear as the last four chapters of this volume, and they illustrate fully how deliberate, precise, and effective the techniques of Functional Integration are. The won derful story of Hanoch's return to the flute displays the "miraculous" quality that so often accompanies the practice of this technique, just as it illustrates amply the ability of the human central nervous system to learn new ways of functioning far beyond what most people believe to be possible. The Feldenkrais Method: Teaching by Handling is a major work in the field of somatics, namely, the field that sees bodily functions as simulta neously a third-person objective event and a first-person subjective event of awareness. What Feldenkrais has demonstrated and Rywerant