Technology and Us

The best ergonomic design will do nothing to prevent RSI if we are using ourselves badly. And if we are using ourselves well, we can function without undue strain even in difficult, awkward situations. Ergonomic solutions are not useless but they are only a part of the solution.

So how can you learn to use yourself more efficiently? Is there a proven method one can learn?

The work of F. Matthias Alexander, today commonly referred to as the Alexander Technique, is just such a method. It has a long history of helping people with precisely the sort of stress-related issues that more and more people today are facing. The whole question of how we use ourselves is precisely what Alexander spend his life's work on. Indeed his third book was titled "The Use of the Self".

The introductions to this and two other books by Alexander were written by Professor John Dewey. Dewey was America's most famous philosopher and a leading proponent of the school of philosophy known as Pragmatism. He was also very influential in the development of American education in the first part of the last century. He is sometimes called "The father of American education."

Dewey knew from firsthand experience that Alexander's ideas and teaching method (today carried on my thousands of teachers worldwide) was of the utmost importance to us all as we faced the challenges of rapid technological change.

In his 1932 introduction to "The Use of the Self" he wrote:

"In the present state of the world, it is evident that the control we have gained of physical energies, heat, light, electricity, etc., without having first secured control of our use of ourselves is a perilous affair. Without the control of our use of ourselves, our use of other things is blind; it may lead to anything."

"If there can be developed a technique which will enable individuals really to secure the right use of themselves, then the factor upon which depends the final use of all other forms of energy will be brought under control. Mr. Alexander has evolved this technique."

This wasn't just an abstract notion with Dewey. In his book "Freedom to Change", the late Frank Pierce Jones of Tufts University wrote of a conversation he had with Dewey a few years before he died:

"(Dewey) said that he had been taken by (the Alexander Technique) first because it provided a demonstration of the unity of mind and body. He

Go To Page: 1 2 3