Frederick Matthias Alexander was een Australische acteur die het educatieve proces ontwikkelde dat tegenwoordig bekend staat als de Alexandertechniek. Deze vorm van onderwijs wordt toegepast om reactieve, gewoontgevormde beperkingen in beweging en denken te herkennen en te overwinnen. De Alexandertechniek helpt individuen om meer vrijheid en efficiëntie te bereiken in hun handelingen en waarnemingen. De principes ervan vinden toepassing in een breed scala aan activiteiten, van artistieke bezigheden tot het dagelijks leven.
"Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual," F. M. Alexander's second book, expands on his first work, arguing that our actions are often driven by feelings rather than reason. It offers practical methods for regaining conscious control over movements and thoughts, emphasizing sensory appreciation in various contexts like education and happiness.
Whoever hesitates to utter that which he thinks the highest truth, lest it should be too much m advance of the time, may reassure himself by looking at his act DEGREES from an impersonal point of view. . . . It is not for nothing that he has in him these sympathies with some principles and repugnance to others. He, with all his capacities, and aspirations, and beliefs, is not an accident, but a product of the time. He must remember that while he is a descendant of the past he is a parent of the future; and that his thoughts are as children born to him, which he may not carelessly let die. Herbert S