Methodology Institute, London School of Economics.
Sociol Health Illn. 2011 Feb;33(2):252-65. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2010.01283.x. Epub 2011 Jan 17.
Traditionally, forms of body work such as Alexander Technique have been excluded from mainstream biomedicine and healthcare, despite attempts by practitioners to have the work accepted within the medical community. Using data from a UK-based study of Alexander Technique which combined participant observation, interviews with 17 teachers and pupils, and analysis of historical texts, this article examines the relationship of the Alexander Technique to the field of healthcare, looking at its embodied practices, and contrasting these with the discourses in which it is framed. Applying Foucault's concept of 'techniques of the self', the article examines Alexander Technique's physical practices as a form of embodied knowledge, and goes on to look at its use of particular ideas about nature and evolution as guiding authorities, its emphasis on holism through its conception of the 'self', and how it has been positioned in relation to biomedical approaches. The article argues that while the embodied practice of Alexander Technique has much to offer to mainstream healthcare, the discourses and knowledge systems in which it is embedded make it unlikely to receive mainstream medical acceptance.
传统上，尽管从业者试图让该工作被医学界所接受，但诸如亚历山大技术等身体工作形式仍然被排除在主流的生物医学和医疗保健之外。本文使用了一项基于英国的亚历山大技术研究的数据，该研究结合了参与者观察、对 17 名教师和学生的访谈以及对历史文本的分析，考察了亚历山大技术与医疗保健领域的关系，研究了其身体实践，并将其与框架内的论述进行了对比。本文运用福柯的“自我技术”概念，考察了亚历山大技术的身体实践作为一种体现知识的形式，并进一步探讨了它如何将关于自然和进化的特定观念作为指导权威，通过其“自我”的概念强调整体性，以及它如何与生物医学方法相关联。本文认为，尽管亚历山大技术的身体实践对主流医疗保健有很大的贡献，但它所嵌入的论述和知识体系使其不太可能被主流医学界所接受。
