Moshé Feldenkrais

Moshé Feldenkrais

Born Moshé FeldenkraisMay 6, 1904Slavuta, Russian Empire(present-day Ukraine)

Died July 1, 1984Tel Aviv, Israel

Citizenship Israeli

Fields Psychology, Physics,Education

Known for Founding the Feldenkraismethod

Moshé FeldenkraisFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moshé Pinchas Feldenkrais (Russian:Моше Пинхас Фельденкрайз, Hebrew:

פלדנקרייזפנחסמשה , May 6, 1904 – July 1,1984) was an Israeli physicist and thefounder of the Feldenkrais Method,designed to improve human functioningby increasing self-awareness throughmovement.

Contents

1 Biography

2 Publications

2.1 Books about the

Feldenkrais Method

2.2 Books about Jiujitsu and

Judo

2.3 Articles and transcribed

lectures

3 References

4 Sources

Biography

Feldenkrais was born in the RussianEmpire (present-day Ukraine) city ofSlavuta. In 1918, he left his family, then living in Baranovichi, Belarus, to

emigrate to Palestine.[1] There he worked as a laborer before obtaining hishigh-school diploma in 1925. After graduation, he worked as a cartographer forthe British survey office. During his time in Palestine he began his studies ofself-defense, including jiu jitsu. A soccer injury in 1929 would later figure into the

development of his method.[2]

During the 1930s, he lived in France where he earned his engineering degree

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from the École Spéciale des Travaux Publics, and later his Doctor of Science inengineering at the Sorbonne where Marie Curie was one of his teachers. Duringthis time he worked as a research assistant to nuclear chemist and Nobel Prizelaureate Frédéric Joliot-Curie at the Radium Institute. In 1933, he met JigoroKano, the founder of judo, who encouraged him to continue his study of Asianmartial arts. He became a close friend of Kano, and corresponded with himregularly. Kano chose him to be one of the doors through which the East attemptsto meet the West. In 1936, he earned a black belt in judo, and later gained his 2nddegree black belt in 1938. He was a co-founding member of the Jiu Jitsu Club deFrance, one of the oldest Judo clubs in Europe, which still exists today. Frédéric,Irène Joliot-Curie, and Bertrand Goldschmidt took Judo lessons from him duringtheir time together at the institute.

Just as the Germans were about to arrive in Paris in 1940, Feldenkrais fled toBritain with a jar of "heavy water" and a sheaf of research material withinstructions to deliver them to the British Admiralty War Office. Until 1946, hewas a science officer in the Admiralty working on Anti-submarine weaponry inFairlie, Scotland. His work on improving sonar led to several patents. He alsotaught self-defense techniques to his fellow servicemen. On slippery submarinedecks, he re-aggravated an old soccer knee injury. Refusing an operation, he wasprompted to intently explore and develop self-rehabilitation and awarenesstechniques through self-observation which later evolved into the method. Hisdiscoveries 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 positionon the international Judo committee he began to study judo scientifically,incorporating the knowledge he gained through his self-rehabilitation. In 1949, hepublished the first book on the Feldenkrais method, Body and Mature Behavior: AStudy of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation and Learning. During this period he studied thework of G.I. Gurdjieff, F. Matthias Alexander, Elsa Gindler and William Bates. Healso traveled to Switzerland to study with Heinrich Jacoby.

In 1951, he returned to the recently formed Israel. After directing the IsraeliArmy Department of Electronics for several years, in 1954 he settled in Tel Avivwhere he began to teach his method full-time. He began training Mia Segal as his

assistant and his first student in 1957.[3][4] In the same year, he gave lessons inthe 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 Feldenkraismethod throughout Europe and in North America (including an AwarenessThrough Movement program for human potential trainers including at EsalenInstitute in 1972). He also began to train teachers in the method so they could, inturn, present the work to others. He trained the first group of 13 teachers in the


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method from 1969–1971 in Tel Aviv. Over the course of four summers from1975–1978, he trained 65 teachers in San Francisco at Lone Mountain Collegeunder the auspices of the Humanistic Psychology Institute. In 1980, 235 studentsbegan his summer teacher-training course at Hampshire College in Amherst,Massachusetts. After becoming ill in the fall of 1981, after teaching two of theplanned four summers, he stopped teaching publicly. He died on July 1, 1984.There are well over 2000 practitioners of his method teaching throughout theworld today.

Publications

Books about the Feldenkrais Method

Moshé Feldenkrais, 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).

Moshé Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement: Health Exercises for

Personal Growth. New York/London: Harper & Row 1972, 1977; Toronto:

Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1972, 1977 (hardcover edition, out of print);

Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1972, 1977; San

Francisco: Harper Collins, 1990 (softcover edition).

Moshé Feldenkrais, The Case of Nora: Body Awareness as Healing Therapy.

New York/London: Harper & Row, 1977 (out of print).

Moshé Feldenkrais, The Elusive Obvious. Cupertino, California: Meta

Publications, 1981.

Moshé Feldenkrais, The Master Moves. Cupertino, California: Meta

Publications, 1984, (softcover edition.)

Moshé Feldenkrais, The Potent Self. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985.

Harper Collins, New York, 1992, (softcover edition.)

Moshé Feldenkrais, Embodied Wisdom: The Collected Papers of Moshé

Feldenkrais. California: Somatic Resources and North Atlantic Books. 2010.

Noah Eshkol, 50 Lessons by Dr. Feldenkrais. Tel-Aviv, Israel: Alef Publishers,

1980 (written in Movement Notation).

Books about Jiujitsu and Judo


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Étienne Chiron, Jiu-jitsu. Paris, 1934 (out of print).

Étienne Chiron, Manuel pratique du Jiu-jitsu: la défense du faible contre

l'agresseur. Paris, 1939 (out of print).

Étienne Chiron, ABC du Judo. Paris, 1941 (out of print).

Moshé Feldenkrais, Practical Unarmed Combat. London: Frederick Warne &

Co., 1941. Revised edition 1944, 1967 (out of print).

Moshé Feldenkrais, Hadaka-Jime: The Core Technique for Practical Unarmed

Combat. Colorado: Genesis II Publishing, 2009. Updated Practical Unarmed

Combat with new forward by Moti Nativ.

Moshé Feldenkrais, Judo: The Art of Defense and Attack. New York and

London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1944, 1967 (out of print).

Moshé Feldenkrais, Higher Judo (Groundwork). New York and London:

Frederick Warne & Co., 1952 (out of print). Xerox copy available from

Feldenkrais Resources.

Articles and transcribed lectures

Moshé Feldenkrais, A Non-Specific Treatment., The Feldenkrais Journal, No.

6, 1991. (Lecture from 1975 Training Program, edited by Mark Reese.)

Moshé Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement., Annual Handbook for

Group Facilitators. John E. Jones and J. William Pfeiffer (eds.). La Jolla, CA:

University Associates, 1975.

Moshé Feldenkrais, Bodily Expression., Somatics, Vol. 6, No. 4,

Spring/Summer 1988. (Translated from the French by Thomas Hanna.)

Moshé Feldenkrais, Bodily Expression (Conclusion)., Somatics, Vol. 7, No. 1,

Autumn/Winter 1988-89.

Moshé Feldenkrais, Learn to Learn Booklet. Washington D.C.: ATM

Recordings, 1980.

Moshé Feldenkrais, On Health. Dromenon, Vol. 2, No. 2, August/September

1979.

Moshé Feldenkrais, On the Primacy of Hearing., Somatics, Vol. 1, No. 1,

Autumn 1976.

Moshé Feldenkrais, Man and the World., Somatics, Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring

1979. Reprinted in Explorers of Humankind, Thomas Hanna (ed.). San

Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979.


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Moshé Feldenkrais, 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.

Moshé Feldenkrais, 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.)

References

^ "Who Was Moshe Feldenkrais?" (http://www.feldenkrais.com/method

/frequently_asked_questions/#9). Feldenkrais Guild of North America.

1.

^ Reese, Mark. "About Moshe" (http://www.feldenkraislearning.com

/html/about_moshe.html).

2.

^ Hanna, Thomas. "Interview with Mia Segal" (http://www.mbsacademy.org

/blog/?p=193). Somatics Magazine, 1985-86, p. 8-20.

3.

^ Priesching, Doris. (June 6, 2010). "Alles Kann Ein Bisschen Besser Werden."

(http://derstandard.at/1271378154314/Interview-Alles-kann-ein-bisschen-besser-

werden). Der Standard.

4.

Sources

About Moshé Feldenkrais and The Feldenkrais Method

(http://www.feldenkraislearning.com/html/about_moshe.html) by Mark Reese

A Concise Biography of Moshe Feldenkrais (http://www.feldenkrais.com

/method/a_biography_of_moshe_feldenkrais/) by Mark Reese

Bibliography of the Feldenkrais Method (http://www.feldenkraislearning.com

/bibliography%20of%20the%20feldenkrais%20method.htm) compiled by

Mark Reese

Feldenkrais and Judo (http://www.judoinfo.com/feldenkrais.htm) by Dennis

Leri

Some History (http://www.feldenkrais.com.au/word%20doc

/some%20history.html) from the Australian Feldenkrais Center

Readings on the Feldenkrais Method (http://www.feldnet.com/Readings/tabid

/58/Default.aspx) Articles on the Method incl some rare ones


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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moshé_Feldenkrais&oldid=608019325"Categories: Israeli educationists New Age writers Israeli spiritual writers

Israeli Jews Ukrainian Jews Ukrainian emigrants to Israel

University of Paris alumni University of San Francisco faculty Israeli judoka

Israeli jujutsuka 1904 births 1984 deaths People from Slavuta

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