Understanding Standing
Understanding Standing is the title of Larry Goldfarb’s doctoral dissertation, completed at the University of Illinois. In the work Larry attempts to give a modern theoretical explanation of the Feldenkrais Method (I assume that the title of Larry’s dissertation is a play on words from Heinz von Foerster’s systems theory book called, Understanding Understanding.)
I am reviewing the introduction to Larry’s dissertation for my own doctoral research and I thought that writing about his ideas on this blog would help me to more fully “get” his descriptions.
I see in Larry’s dissertation one of the first issues that comes up for anyone writing about the Feldenkrais Method. One is attempting to describe – in words – a method that is experiential and nonverbal. One way that I like to consider the issue is to think about a baby learning to crawl and walk. Watch the child over weeks and months as she learns how to organize and coordinate her movements into intentional action. How would you write about her developmental process in a way that faithfully describes the child’s process? Let’s assume that you created a reasonably accurate description. Let’s also say that you have friends and colleagues who agree that the description is accurate. Even with the label of “accurate,” have you captured the child’s experience? Have you captured her sensations and feelings? Could you use your description to improve the developmental process of another…our yourself?
That is the crux of the matter. Words and numbers rarely describe the phenomena and even when they do, they often are not useful enough to provoke change.
