The Potent Self: A Guide to Spontaneity

This guide explains the theory behind the author's techniques for improving the functions of the human motor system. Feldenkrais, the originator of the Functional Integration system and author of "Awareness Through Movement", focuses his analysis on the underlying emotional mechanisms that lead to compulsive and dependent physical behaviour that inhibits the individual from reaching his full potential. The book explores the fundamental human paradox, namely, that people yearn to change yet tend to remain the same. As Dr Feldenkrais explains, this resistance to self-transformation stems from the fact that most people behave as if their future is "completely and irrevocably forfeited by what they have done in the past". In this book, he shows how the past can provide building blocks for a creative future.