Recently I got around to reading an old classic in my field – Bodymind by Ken Dychtwald. Published in 1977 when my parents were just hitting it off, Bodymind is:
“an exploration of the vital body and mind connection. Integrating ancient knowledge with the pioneering (and now not so) contemporary work of Wilhelm Reich, Moshe Feldenkrais, Fritz Pearls…etc”
The book is still a pretty good introduction to the field of somatics and bodymind phenomena and is an entertaining read. What it lacks compared to more modern books is quite interesting as it shows the shift in times. Here are the main three that stand out for me:
Rigour
In Bodymind evidence is seen as a purely personal affair with iridology, reflexology, chakras, meditation, yoga, Alexander Technique etc being viewed as equals. This is not my experience or what the evidence would suggest. In the modern world the like of Jon Kabat-Zinn have added a rigour and research base that was not present at the time of the books writing. Mmmm, smell the incense from the 70’s:-)
Integration
The book doesn’t really integrate the different approaches rather throws them together. Wilber and the integral crowd have really moved things forward in this regard.
Conversation with the Mainstream
The business folks that I work with would be turned off by this book as it is in the wrong language. The difference between my generation and most of my teachers’, is that we’ll talk with anyone and are coming in from the “alternative” to help people who don’t have dreadlocks.
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Ken Dychtwald is now mainly associate with healthy aging and by the looks of his web picture (right) he’s gone corporate too – no judgement here (and very in keeping with this blog). I also don’t want to be too hard on the book as it was pioneering and ahead of the time when it was written and still worth a look today.
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Somatics So What: Good book, AND glad things have changed.