F. Matthias Alexander

Frederick Matthias Alexander ( born January 20, 1869 in Wynyard, Tasmania, † October 10, 1955 in London) was an Australian drama teacher and the founder of the eponymous Body Therapy Alexander Technique.

Once as a young reciter and stage actor he was persistent voice problems and no doctor could help him, Alexander developed 1888-1898 a method for holistic training and reorientation of movement and action patterns. The method of its underlying finding was that the use of the body determines or influences its function. He also spoke out against a clear separation of mental and physical functions. The apparent effectiveness of his method caught the attention of his contemporaries and confirmed him in the desire to share its technology to others. His further life took him to England in 1904 and after 1914 in the United States. He taught his technique, formed in the first teachers and wrote four books about his method.

• Man's Supreme Inheritance ( Man's ultimate Heritage), 1910
• Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual ( Constructive conscious control of the individual ), 1923
• The Use of the Self ( The Use of the Self ), 1932
• The Universal Constant in Living ( The universal constant in life ), 1940