Case Studies discussed in Re-Education Article by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

Case study one:

Mr. B. was in a mental institution for three years, where he had analysis and later was given electric shock treatment.  He left the institution when no further improvement could be reasonably foreseen.  When he was reeducated by our method to make only a few more or less normal breathing movements, he dreamt that he was in the bathroom, the walls of which suddenly feel apart, exposing him oto onlookers.  This dream continued for ten consecutive nights until a complete change in breathing took place.  A marked beneficial change in the person’s behaviour occurred during those days, the forerunner of still further improvement.

Case Study two:

Professor Z., who was one of the first psychiatrists to associate himself with my method, has published a remarkable case of a patient in one of this wards, about whom no useful clues were obtained after one hundred sessions of psychotherapy.  At the weekly meeting of the medical staff, the somatic approach was suggested,.  The person was put in an embryo-like position and a certain degree of relaxation and improved breathing brough about.  After four sessions a sufficient amount of significant information was obtained, providing a definite course of treatment.  This example shows that for purposes of diagnosis, assuming the oneness of mind and body and working on the body provides a new outlook which reveals relations between apparently unrelated facts.

Old age, for instance, begins with the self-imposed restriction on forming new body patterns.  First, one selects attitudes and postures to fit an assumed dignity and so rejects certain actions, such as sitting on the floor  or jumping, which then soon become impossible to perform.  The resumption and reintegration of even these simple actions has a marked rejuvenating effect not only on the mechanics of the body but on the personality as a whole.