FELDENKRAIS THE MAN
Who invented the Feldenkrais Method?
DR. Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc. (1904-1984), was a distinguished scientist, physicist, engineer and, indeed, inventor. He earned his D.Sc. in Physics from the Sorbonne and was a close associate of Nobel Prize Laureate Frederic Joliot-Curie at the Curie Institute in Paris, where they conducted research together. He was also a respected Judo instructor (and one of the first Europeans to receive a blackbelt) and author of many books on the subject. Living in England in the 1940s, Feldenkrais found himself unable to walk after suffering a serious knee injury. He began an intense exploration into the relationship between bodily movement and healing, feeling, thinking, and learning. As a result, he restored his ability to walk and made revolutionary discoveries culminating in the development of the method that bears his name.
More about Moshe
Having developed this system, Dr Feldenkrais found himself teaching at universities in North America, Israel, the Sorbonne in Paris and throughout Europe. Amongst his enthusiastic pupils were prominent individuals such as Professor Karl Pribram (Stanford University neurophysiologist and Nobel Prize nominee), Margaret Mead (world-renowned anthropologist) and David Ben-Gurion (Israel's first prime minister and named one of Time magazine's 100 most important people of the 20th century).
In his foreword to the German edition of Moshe's book, "Body and Mature Behaviour", Robert Schleip (PhD in Human Biology, MA in Psychology and Feldenkrais practitioner) relates an anecdote about Pribram. Nobel prizewinning neurophysiologist, Salvador Luria, instigated a meeting of leading neuroscientists to discuss a new surgical procedure for epilepsy. Pribram realised that the intervention was not necessary; that the same outcome could be reached without invasive surgery. He left the room and returned with a copy of "Body and Mature Behaviour", the source of his inspiration.
Whilst even now in the 21st century, other scientists have been exploring how to incorporate their knowledge of neuroplasticity into rehabilitation, Moshe was taking advantage of the neuroplasticity of the nervous system over 60 years ago.
FELDENKRAIS THE MAN
Who invented the Feldenkrais Method?
Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc. (1904-1984), was a distinguished scientist, physicist, engineer and, indeed, inventor. He earned his D.Sc. in Physics from the Sorbonne and was a close associate of Nobel Prize Laureate Frederic Joliot-Curie at the Curie Institute in Paris, where they conducted research together. He was also a respected Judo instructor (and one of the first Europeans to receive a blackbelt) and author of many books on the subject. Living in England in the 1940s, Feldenkrais found himself unable to walk after suffering a serious knee injury. He began an intense exploration into the relationship between bodily movement and healing, feeling, thinking, and learning. As a result, he restored his ability to walk and made revolutionary discoveries culminating in the development of the method that bears his name.
More about Moshe
Having developed this system, Dr Feldenkrais found himself teaching at universities in North America, Israel, the Sorbonne in Paris and throughout Europe. Amongst his enthusiastic pupils were prominent individuals such as Professor Karl Pribram (Stanford University neurophysiologist and Nobel Prize nominee), Margaret Mead (world-renowned anthropologist) and David Ben-Gurion (Israel's first prime minister and named one of Time magazine's 100 most important people of the 20th century).
In his foreword to the German edition of Moshe's book, "Body and Mature Behaviour", Robert Schleip (PhD in Human Biology, MA in Psychology and Feldenkrais practitioner) relates an anecdote about Pribram. Nobel prizewinning neurophysiologist, Salvador Luria, instigated a meeting of leading neuroscientists to discuss a new surgical procedure for epilepsy. Pribram realised that the intervention was not necessary; that the same outcome could be reached without invasive surgery. He left the room and returned with a copy of "Body and Mature Behaviour", the source of his inspiration.
Whilst even now in the 21st century, other scientists have been exploring how to incorporate their knowledge of neuroplasticity into rehabilitation, Moshe was taking advantage of the neuroplasticity of the nervous system over 70 years ago.