The Evil Allergy of Abstraction

Beware of people talking in abstract terms.

About anything. 

About people, nations, hobbies, medical practice.

I will start by NOT writing about it in abstract – instead, giving some examples…

A study in Israel rated the performance of two groups of radiologists in accurately analysing an x-ray. The first group saw only the x-ray. The second group saw the x-ray, together with a picture of the person’s face.

The radiologists who did better were the ones that saw the face.

Instead of an abstract x-ray of a broken arm – they also saw who owned that broken arm. This simple removal of abstraction improved their performance.

Mahatma Gandhi’s 241-mile walk to the Arabian Sea town of Dandi in 1930 was a wonderful example of taking an abstraction – English domination of trade over India - and making it personal. Gandhi illustrated the domination’s practical effect on salt ! of all things.

“We were bewildered and could not fit in a national struggle with common salt,” remembered Jawaharlal Nehru, later India’s first prime minister.

The Alexander community also suffers from an allegy of abstraction.

When you train as a teacher at BodyChance you gain many new skills:

- a personal improvement in your health and well-being; together with
- a deep appreciation of the structure and function of your movement;
- which gives you the skills to observe and analyse movement of your students
- and an ability to use your hands to communicate sensory information

It is this last one – the ability of touch – which is prone to distration.

It is a remarkable skill, and unique to Alexander. It is based on Alexander's Discovery of head/spinal co-ordination, and effects most people in a delightful way – more ease, freedom and lightness is experienced while moving. Musicians even hear the quality of their music improves.

Because it is so remarkable, my training school in London in the 1970s tended to look upon touch – or “hands-on” as it is still called these days – as a skill that should be developed independently of teaching.

Now touch is not related to the specific problem of a student, by as a more general skill that needs practising.

Therefor, we would practice “hands-on” on each other, without really considering if it was necessary to touch a person in this way or not.

In those days, I even heard of training schools that invited non-training students to come into class so that trainees could practise “hands-on”. 

They called these people “bodies” as in:

“Are there any bodies coming in today to practise on?”

URGH!

It gives me shivers down the spine to hear people referred to as “bodies”. It reminds me of pornography, another area where people are objectified by the funtion they service for others, rather than by who they are as people.

Abstracion is poisioness to authentic connection.

When you study to be a teacher at BodyChance you will never be given any opportunities to practice “hands-on”. Instead, you will be asked to assist help someone with a specific problem – just as the radiologists did with their x-ray – so your skills develop in relation to the need of an actual person.

A final word – whenever a student starts complaining in abstraction – request that they give you a specific example. Ask them to talk about real people in a real situation.

This is one quick way to start breaking down prejidice and fixed ideas.