Body of Life

By Thomas Hanna

Book Overview

In this classic book on bodywork education, Thomas Hanna builds on the theoories of Functional Integration, a method that applies gentle physical manipulation to fine-tune the nervous system and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394423836
• ISBN13: 9780394423838
• Release Date: March 1980
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 203 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An excellent overview

This is a clear, easy-to-read introduction to the body-mind theory behind Hanna's "Somatics" system, and how the system works in practice. The anecdotes he tells are engaging, and I especially liked his insistence that the process is a collaboration: the practitioner isn't a "healer" so much as a teacher, and healing takes place because the sufferer re-learns how to use the forgotten parts of his/her body. I also found his explanation of the "soma" concept very enlightening: too many thinkers (even those of the "New Age" persuasion) promote the view that we are spirits trapped in bodies and that we should hence adopt a "mind over matter" philosophy. Hanna, by contrast, insists that the two are interdependent and that what happens to one affects the other -- in both directions. He points out that this idea is reflected in Zen Buddhism, yoga, and other Eastern philosophies. (Western thinkers have tended to misunderstand it, possibly because of the mind-vs-body dichotomy in Christian thought, but Hanna clarifies the matter nicely.) I also found his explanation of the Feldenkrais system and its relationship to other methods of bodywork (such as Alexander) very useful. Although some of the research he cites is a little outdated now, nothing he says is (to my knowledge) contradicted by recent studies. Despite its age, this is still a very useful book for anyone interested in the mind-body relationship.