Moshé Feldenkrais
Encyclopedia
Moshé Pinchas Feldenkrais (Hebrew
: משה פנחס פלדנקרייז, May 6, 1904 – July 1, 1984) was an Israeli physicist and the founder of the Feldenkrais Method
, designed to improve human functioning by increasing self-awareness through movement.
town of Slavuta
. In 1918, he left his family, then living in Baranovichi
, Belarus
, to emigrate to Palestine
. There he worked as a laborer before obtaining his high-school diploma in 1925. After graduation, he worked as a cartographer
for the British survey office. During his time in Palestine he began his studies of self-defense, including jiu jitsu
. A soccer injury in 1929 would later figure into the development of his method.
During the 1930s, he lived in France
where he earned his engineering degree from the École Spéciale des Travaux Publics
, and later his Doctor of Science
in engineering
at the Sorbonne
where Marie Curie
was one of his teachers. During this time he worked as a research assistant to nuclear chemist and Nobel Prize
laureate Frédéric Joliot-Curie
at the Radium Institute
. In 1933, he met Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo
, who encouraged him to continue his study of Asian martial arts. He became a close friend of Kano, and corresponded with him regularly. Kano chose him to be one of the doors through which the East attempts to meet the West. In 1936, he earned a black belt
in judo, and later gained his 2nd degree black belt in 1938. He was a co-founding member of the Jiu Jitsu Club de France, one of the oldest Judo clubs in Europe, which still exists today. Frédéric, Irène Joliot-Curie
, and Bertrand Goldschmidt took Judo lessons from him during their time together at the institute.
Just as the Germans were about to arrive in Paris in 1940, Feldenkrais fled to Britain with a jar of "heavy water
" and a sheaf of research material with instructions to deliver them to the British Admiralty War Office
. Until 1946, he was a science officer in the Admiralty
working on Anti-submarine weapon
ry in Fairlie, Scotland. His work on improving sonar
led to several patents. He also taught self-defense techniques to his fellow servicemen. On slippery submarine decks, he re-aggravated an old soccer knee injury. Refusing an operation, he was prompted to intently explore and develop self-rehabilitation and awareness techniques through self-observation which later evolved into the method. His discoveries led him to begin sharing with others (including colleague J. D. Bernal
) through lectures, experimental classes, and one-on-one work with a few.
After leaving the Admiralty, he lived and worked in private industry in London. His self-rehabilitation enabled him to continue his judo practice. From his position on the international Judo committee he began to study judo scientifically, incorporating the knowledge he gained through his self-rehabilitation. In 1949, he published the first book on the Feldenkrais method, Body and Mature Behavior: A Study of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation and Learning. During this period he studied the work of G.I. Gurdjieff, F. Matthias Alexander
, Elsa Gindler
and William Bates. He also traveled to Switzerland to study with Heinrich Jacoby
.
In 1951, he returned to the recently formed Israel
. After directing the Israeli Army
Department of Electronics for several years, in 1954 he settled in Tel Aviv
where he began to teach his method full-time. In 1957, he gave lessons in the Feldenkrais method to David Ben-Gurion
, the Prime Minister of Israel, enabling him to stand on his head in a yoga pose.
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and into the 1980s he presented the Feldenkrais method throughout Europe and in North America
(including an Awareness Through Movement program for human potential trainers including at Esalen Institute
in 1972). He also began to train teachers in the method so they could, in turn, present the work to others. He trained the first group of 13 teachers in the method from 1969–1971 in Tel Aviv. Over the course of four summers from 1975–1978, he trained 65 teachers in San Francisco at Lone Mountain College
under the auspices of the Humanistic Psychology Institute
. In 1980, 235 students began his summer teacher-training course at Hampshire College
in Amherst, Massachusetts
. After becoming ill in the fall of 1981, after teaching two of the planned four summers, he stopped teaching publicly. He died on July 1, 1984. There are well over 2000 practitioners of his method teaching throughout the world today.
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
: משה פנחס פלדנקרייז, May 6, 1904 – July 1, 1984) was an Israeli physicist and the founder of the Feldenkrais Method
Feldenkrais method
The Feldenkrais Method is a somatic educational system designed by Moshé Feldenkrais . The Feldenkrais method aims to improve movement repertoire, aiming to expand and refine the use of the self through awareness, in order to reduce pain or limitations in movement, and promote general well-being...
, designed to improve human functioning by increasing self-awareness through movement.
Biography
Feldenkrais was born in the UkrainianUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
town of Slavuta
Slavuta
Slavuta is a city in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast of western Ukraine, located on the Horyn River. Serving as the administrative center of the Slavutsky Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast, and is located approximately 80 km from the oblast capital,...
. In 1918, he left his family, then living in Baranovichi
Baranovichi
Baranovichi , is a city in the Brest Province of western Belarus with a population of 173,000. It is a significant railway junction and home to a state university.-Overview:...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, to emigrate to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. There he worked as a laborer before obtaining his high-school diploma in 1925. After graduation, he worked as a cartographer
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
for the British survey office. During his time in Palestine he began his studies of self-defense, including jiu jitsu
Jujutsu
Jujutsu , also known as jujitsu, ju-jitsu, or Japanese jiu-jitsu, is a Japanese martial art and a method of close combat for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses no weapon, or only a short weapon....
. A soccer injury in 1929 would later figure into the development of his method.
During the 1930s, he lived in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
where he earned his engineering degree from the École Spéciale des Travaux Publics
École spéciale des travaux publics
École Spéciale des Travaux Publics, du bâtiment et de l'industrie , is a technical college in Paris, founded in 1891 by Léon Eyrolles and was officially recognized by the State in 1921. It is one of the French generalist engineering Grandes écoles...
, and later his Doctor of Science
Doctor of Science
Doctor of Science , usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D. or Dr.Sc., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries Doctor of Science is the name used for the standard doctorate in the sciences, elsewhere the Sc.D...
in engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
at the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
where Marie Curie
Marie Curie
Marie Skłodowska-Curie was a physicist and chemist famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes—in physics and chemistry...
was one of his teachers. During this time he worked as a research assistant to nuclear chemist and Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
laureate Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie , born Jean Frédéric Joliot, was a French physicist and Nobel laureate.-Early years:...
at the Radium Institute
Curie Institute (Paris)
thumb|Centre of protontherapyInstitut Curie is one of the leading medical, biological and biophysical research centres in the world.It is a private non-profit foundation operating a research center on biophysics, cell biology and oncology and a hospital specialized in treatment of cancer...
. In 1933, he met Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
, who encouraged him to continue his study of Asian martial arts. He became a close friend of Kano, and corresponded with him regularly. Kano chose him to be one of the doors through which the East attempts to meet the West. In 1936, he earned a black belt
Black belt (martial arts)
In martial arts, the black belt is a way to describe a graduate of a field where a practitioner's level is often marked by the color of the belt. The black belt is commonly the highest belt color used and denotes a degree of competence. It is often associated with a teaching grade though...
in judo, and later gained his 2nd degree black belt in 1938. He was a co-founding member of the Jiu Jitsu Club de France, one of the oldest Judo clubs in Europe, which still exists today. Frédéric, Irène Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie was a French scientist, the daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radioactivity. This made the Curies...
, and Bertrand Goldschmidt took Judo lessons from him during their time together at the institute.
Just as the Germans were about to arrive in Paris in 1940, Feldenkrais fled to Britain with a jar of "heavy water
Heavy water
Heavy water is water highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium; e.g., heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction...
" and a sheaf of research material with instructions to deliver them to the British Admiralty War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
. Until 1946, he was a science officer in the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
working on Anti-submarine weapon
Anti-submarine weapon
An anti-submarine weapon is any one of a range of devices that are intended to act against a submarine, and its crew, to destroy the vessel or to destroy or reduce its capability as a weapon of war...
ry in Fairlie, Scotland. His work on improving sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
led to several patents. He also taught self-defense techniques to his fellow servicemen. On slippery submarine decks, he re-aggravated an old soccer knee injury. Refusing an operation, he was prompted to intently explore and develop self-rehabilitation and awareness techniques through self-observation which later evolved into the method. His discoveries led him to begin sharing with others (including colleague J. D. Bernal
J. D. Bernal
John Desmond Bernal FRS was one of Britain’s best known and most controversial scientists, called "Sage" by his friends, and known for pioneering X-ray crystallography in molecular biology.-Origin and education:His family was Irish, of mixed Italian and Spanish/Portuguese Sephardic Jewish origin...
) through lectures, experimental classes, and one-on-one work with a few.
After leaving the Admiralty, he lived and worked in private industry in London. His self-rehabilitation enabled him to continue his judo practice. From his position on the international Judo committee he began to study judo scientifically, incorporating the knowledge he gained through his self-rehabilitation. In 1949, he published the first book on the Feldenkrais method, Body and Mature Behavior: A Study of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation and Learning. During this period he studied the work of G.I. Gurdjieff, F. Matthias Alexander
F. Matthias Alexander
Frederick Matthias Alexander was an Australian actor who developed the educational process that is today called the Alexander Technique – a form of education that is applied to recognize and overcome reactive, habitual limitations in movement and thinking.-Early life:Alexander was born on a...
, Elsa Gindler
Elsa Gindler
Elsa Gindler was a somatic bodywork pioneer in Germany.Born in Berlin, gymnastics teacher, student of Hedwig Kallmeyer ....
and William Bates. He also traveled to Switzerland to study with Heinrich Jacoby
Heinrich Jacoby
Heinrich Jacoby , originally a musician, was a German educator whose teaching was based on developing sensitivity and awareness. A great role in his researches played the collaboration with the colleague Elsa Gindler, whom he met in 1924 in Berlin...
.
In 1951, he returned to the recently formed Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. After directing the Israeli Army
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
Department of Electronics for several years, in 1954 he settled in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
where he began to teach his method full-time. In 1957, he gave lessons in the Feldenkrais method to David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
, the Prime Minister of Israel, enabling him to stand on his head in a yoga pose.
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and into the 1980s he presented the Feldenkrais method throughout Europe and in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
(including an Awareness Through Movement program for human potential trainers including at Esalen Institute
Esalen Institute
Esalen Institute is a residential community and retreat in Big Sur, California, which focuses upon humanistic alternative education. Esalen is a nonprofit organization devoted to activites such as meditation, massage, Gestalt, yoga, psychology, ecology, and spirituality...
in 1972). He also began to train teachers in the method so they could, in turn, present the work to others. He trained the first group of 13 teachers in the method from 1969–1971 in Tel Aviv. Over the course of four summers from 1975–1978, he trained 65 teachers in San Francisco at Lone Mountain College
Lone Mountain College
Lone Mountain College was a college acquired by the University of San Francisco in 1978. It was founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart as Sacred Heart Academy in Menlo Park, California in 1898 and became College of the Sacred Heart in 1921...
under the auspices of the Humanistic Psychology Institute
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
Saybrook University, a San Francisco, California based 'distance learning' institution , is geared to providing a personalized, mentored educational experience for graduate students...
. In 1980, 235 students began his summer teacher-training course at Hampshire College
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1965 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts...
in Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
. After becoming ill in the fall of 1981, after teaching two of the planned four summers, he stopped teaching publicly. He died on July 1, 1984. There are well over 2000 practitioners of his method teaching throughout the world today.
Books about the Feldenkrais Method
- Body and Mature Behavior: A Study of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation and Learning. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1949; New York: International Universities Press, 1950 (softcover edition, out of print); Tel-Aviv: Alef Ltd., 1966, 1980, 1988 (hardcover edition).
- Awareness Through Movement: Health Exercises for Personal Growth. New York/London: Harper & Row 1972, 1977; Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1972, 1977 (hardcover edition, out of printOut of printOut of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....
); Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1972, 1977; San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1990 (softcover edition). - The Case of Nora: Body Awareness as Healing Therapy. New York/London: Harper & Row, 1977 (out of print).
- The Elusive Obvious. Cupertino, California: Meta Publications, 1981.
- The Master Moves. Cupertino, California: Meta Publications, 1984, (softcover edition.)
- The Potent Self. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985. Harper Collins, New York, 1992, (softcover edition.)
- 50 Lessons by Dr. Feldenkrais. Noah Eshkol. Tel-Aviv, Israel: Alef Publishers, 1980 (written in Movement Notation).
Books about Jiujitsu and Judo
- Jiu-jitsu. Paris: Étienne Chiron, 1934 (out of print).
- Manuel pratique du Jiu-jitsu: la défense du faible contre l'agresseur. Paris: Étienne Chiron, 1939 (out of print).
- ABC du Judo. Paris: Étienne Chiron, 1941 (out of print).
- Practical Unarmed Combat. London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1941. Revised edition 1944, 1967 (out of print).
- Judo: The Art of Defense and Attack. New York and London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1944, 1967 (out of print).
- Higher Judo (Groundwork). New York and London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1952 (out of print). Xerox copy available from Feldenkrais Resources.
Articles and transcribed lectures
- "A Non-Specific Treatment." The Feldenkrais Journal, No. 6, 1991. (Lecture from 1975 Training Program, edited by Mark Reese.)
- "Awareness Through Movement." Annual Handbook for Group Facilitators. John E. Jones and J. William Pfeiffer (eds.). La Jolla, CA: University Associates, 1975.
- "Bodily Expression." Somatics, Vol. 6, No. 4, Spring/Summer 1988. (Translated from the French by Thomas Hanna.)
- "Bodily Expression (Conclusion)." Somatics, Vol. 7, No. 1, Autumn/Winter 1988-89.
- "Learn to Learn." Booklet. Washington D.C.: ATM Recordings, 1980.
- "On Health." Dromenon, Vol. 2, No. 2, August/September 1979.
- "On the Primacy of Hearing." Somatics, Vol. 1, No. 1, Autumn 1976.
- "Man and the World." Somatics, Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 1979. Reprinted in Explorers of Humankind, Thomas Hanna (ed.). San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979.
- "Mind and Body." Two lectures in Systematics: The Journal of the Institute for the Comparative Study of History, Philosophy and the Sciences, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1964. Reprinted in Your Body Works, Gerald Kogan (ed.). Berkeley: Transformations, 1980.
- "Self-Fulfillment Through Organic Learning." Journal of Holistic Health, Vol. 7, 1982. (Lecture delivered at the Mandala Conference, San Diego, 1981, edited by Mark Reese.)
Sources
- About Moshé Feldenkrais and The Feldenkrais Method by Mark Reese
- A Concise Biography of Moshe Feldenkrais by Mark Reese
- Bibliography of the Feldenkrais Method compiled by Mark Reese
- Feldenkrais and Judo by Dennis Leri
- Some History from the Australian Feldenkrais Center
- Readings on the Feldenkrais Method Articles on the Method incl some rare ones