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April 16, '47 Low figures

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BIBEAU

OUR READERS COMMENT

The Use of the Self

*To the Editor:* Leo Stein's "Ritual and Reality" in the Spring Number of THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR provides the best diagnosis that I have seen of the ills of modern man. All evidence points to the hypothesis that human beings cannot go on existing in a state of slavery to unconscious impulses and habits, relieved by only brief intervals of consciousness. It is consciousness, as Mr. Stein observes, that distinguishes man from the other animals, and it is his refusal to live a fully conscious life that keeps him in his present, unhappy condition.

In this connection, I should like to call the attention of your readers to an educational technique that makes it possible for anyone to bring a greater degree of conscious direction into all of his behavior, and to break what Edith Wharton once called "the habit of having habits." Unlike the technique developed by Mr. Stein, it is not too difficult in application to be practicable. It can be learned, in fact, by anyone who is willing to admit that his first responsibility in life is the control and improvement of himself. The technique to which I refer was developed by F. M. Alexander of London and received its clearest exposition in *The Use of the Self* (1932: with an introduction by John Dewey). By observation and experiment upon himself, following a procedure which Dewey said "met all the requirements of the strictest scientific method," Alexander discovered the integrating force that directs reflex activity throughout the human organism. By bringing the operation of this force within the sphere of consciousness and by learning how to prevent its misdirection, a person gains control of a vast and hitherto unrecognized source of energy. At the same time, he provides himself with the means for "unconditioning" reflexes and habits that prove undesirable.

Having satisfied myself that Alexander's technique can be learned and also taught to others, I have often wondered why it has not had a wider appeal among intellectuals, most of whom claim to be interested in the betterment of the world. The answer must be, as Mr. Stein suggests, that the intellectual is not willing to accept a power that entails real responsibility, but prefers to remain in his present condition as long as he can lay the blame outside himself — on his heredity, his childhood experiences, his upright posture, or whatever scapegoat is currently fashionable.

FRANK PIERCE JONES

180 Marlborough Street, Boston, Mass.