1910: Man’s Supreme Inheritance (MSI)
1923: Conscious Constructive Control of the Individual (CCCI)
1932: The Use of the Self (US)
1941: The Universal Constant in Living (UCL)
1995: Articles and Lectures (A&L)
“I should like in passing to point out that the theory
and practice of my system are influenced by no particular religion nor school
of philosophy, but in one sense may be said to embrace them all” (MSI 3).
On
Changing Through Prevention and Non-Doing
“It
is what man does that brings the
wrong thing about, first within himself and then in his activities in the
outside world, and it is only by preventing this doing that he can ever begin to make a real change” (MSI xi)
“The technique
is based upon the inhibition of the habitual wrong use – i.e. the refusal to
react to a stimulus in the usual way” (UCL 83)
“All those who wish to change something in
themselves must learn to make it a principle of life to inhibit their immediate
reaction to any stimulus to gain a desired end” (US 105)
“In my work we are concerned primarily with
non-doing in the fundamental sense of what we should not do in the use of ourselves in our daily activities; in other words,
with preventing that habitual misuse of the psycho-physical mechanisms which
renders these activities a constant source of harm to the organism” (UCL 99)
“… a form of non-doing which must not be
confused with passivity, and which is fundamental because it prevents the self
from doing itself harm by misdirection of energy and uncontrolled reaction”
(UCL 101)
On
Awareness vs Habits of Mind and Body
“The majority
of people fall into a mechanical habit of thought quite as easily as they fall
into the mechanical habit of body which is the immediate consequence” (MSI 47)
"In
re-educating the individual, therefore, the first effort must be directed to
the education of the conscious mind” (MSI 124)
"The centre and backbone of my theory and practice,
upon which I feel that I cannot insist too strongly, is that THE CONSCIOUS MIND
MUST BE QUICKENED” (MSI 33)
"The
brain becomes used to thinking in a certain way, it works in a groove, and when
set in action, slides along the familiar, well-worn path; but when once it is
lifted out of the groove, it is astonishing how easily it may be directed”.
(MSI 65)
On
Thinking, Feeling, and Sensing
“All so-called mental activity is a process
governed by our psycho-physical condition at the time when the particular
stimulus is received” (CCCI 77)
“We get into
the habit of performing a certain act in a certain way, and we experience a
certain feeling in connection with it which we recognize as ‘right’. The act
and the particular feeling associated with it become one in our recognition”
(CCCI 99)
“In our conception of how to employ the different parts [of our
organism] in the acts of everyday life we are influenced chiefly by sensory
processes (feeling). Thus we may
receive a stimulus through something we hear, something we touch, or through
some other outside agency; in every case, the nature of our response, whether
it be an actual movement, an emotion or an opinion, will depend upon the
associated activity, in action and reaction, of the processes concerned with
conception and with the sensory and other mechanisms responsible for the
“feeling” which we experience. This associated activity is referred to
throughout my work as sensory
appreciation” (CCCI 42-43)
“Sensory appreciation includes all sensory
experiences which are conveyed through the channels of sight, hearing, touch,
feeling, equilibrium, movement, etc., and which are responsible for
psycho-physical action and reaction throughout the organism” (CCCI 43)
“We have to
recognize that our sensory peculiarities are the foundation of what we think of
as our opinions, and that, in fact, nine out of ten of the opinions we form are
rather the result of what we feel than what we think” (CCCI 107)
“The fundamental shortcoming underlying all
human psycho-physical defects, imperfections, and peculiarities is an imperfect
and often delusive sensory appreciation, and until those conditions are
restored in which the sensory appreciation (sense register) becomes again a
more or less reliable guide, all exercises are a positive danger” (CCCI 82)
"The establishment of a reliable
sensory appreciation must be the foundation of education of children and of
adults in what we call the act of learning and learning to do, or in the
performance of all the activities which make up the daily round of occupations
and recreations” (CCCI 82)
Against Posture, and For A Dynamic Central Control of Head-Neck-Back
“This led me
to discover a particular relativity of the head to the neck and the head and
neck to the other parts of the organism as a whole, and that the motivation for
this use was from the head downwards (…)” (UCL 114)
“… a
recognition of the existence of a central (primary) control which influences
indirectly the manner of the working of the postural mechanisms (…).
Unfortunately, the influence of misdirection of the central (primary) control
upon the working of the psycho-physical mechanisms has not been recognized”
(UCL 108)
“’Correct positions’ or ‘postures’ find
no place in the practical teaching technique employed in the work of
re-education advocated in this book. A correct position or posture indicates a
fixed position, and a person held to a fixed position cannot grow, as we
understand growth. The correct position today cannot be the correct position a
week later (...)” (CCCI 124)
“There is no such thing as a right
position, but there is such a thing as a right direction” (A&L 194)
On
Intelligence, and On Happiness
“I should like
to urge here that we must beware of placing an exaggerated value upon
intelligence which manifests itself only in some specific sphere. Judgement
must always be made upon the human creature’s intelligent activities on a
general basis in the process of living and all-round usefulness” (CCCI 181,
footnote)
“In a
civilization such as ours, where unrest, unhappiness and lack of interest in
the real things of life are strikingly manifested by mankind, all our efforts
should be to enable the human creature to retain the interest and satisfaction
exhibited by the healthy child when employing his organism successfully”
(CCCI196).
“Unfortunately,
we have been taught that all the ordinary, most necessary, and therefore most
oft-repeated acts of life should be automatic and unconscious; for this reason
they have become indifferent. The psycho-physical condition here indicated is
one that induces stagnation in the organism, and, as it is a condition which
becomes more and more pronounced with advancing age, we gradually lose the
capacity to take conscious interest in and derive pleasure from the normal and
useful activities of life in the sphere of doing, hearing, seeing, etc. Small
wonder, then, that sooner or later, we seek satisfaction in less normal and
less useful activities, and create undue and harmful demand for specific
excitements and stimulations or for some other specific pleasure!” (CCCI198)
"Someone has
said, in referring to the monotony of the environment in which the human
creature lives and moves, that monotony is the deathbed of existence. But what
of the monotony within the human
creature’s psycho-physical self, a monotony caused by the gradual cessation of
those sensations concerned with new experiences which have accompanied growth
and mobility within the organism since birth? This is, indeed, monotony in its
most harmful form, for it goes hand in hand with an increasing degree of
stagnation throughout the whole psycho-physical organism” (CCCI199)
