The Potent Self

A classic exploration of posture, habit formation, and human development by Moshe Feldenkrais.

This article is part of the Legacy Feldenkrais Books Archive.

Intro

The Potent Self is one of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais’s most psychologically oriented works. In this book he explores the relationship between posture, emotional organization, habit formation, and human maturity.

Long before modern neuroscience began discussing embodied cognition, Feldenkrais was examining how patterns of muscular tension influence behavior, motivation, and perception.

This page presents an overview of the book along with a short excerpt illustrating Feldenkrais’s early thinking about the relationship between tension, awareness, and action.

About the Book

The Potent Self is the most psychological of Feldenkrais’s books. He explores the relationship between faulty posture, pain, emotional tension, and the patterns of behavior that shape human life.

The book examines topics such as:

• motivation and action
• habit formation
• emotional resistance
• dependence and maturity
• the connection between muscular tension and thought

Feldenkrais proposes that many human problems arise from unconscious patterns of tension and organization. By becoming aware of these patterns, people can develop greater spontaneity, freedom of action, and authentic maturity.

Key Ideas in the Book

• Human behavior is strongly influenced by patterns of muscular tension.
• Many motivations arise from tensions that are only partially conscious.
• Habit formation shapes posture, movement, and emotional response.
• Awareness allows people to identify and reorganize these patterns.
• Authentic maturity involves greater flexibility in thought and action.

Table of Contents

Editor’s Note
Foreword
Preface

Introduction: Love Thyself as Thy Neighbor

Energy
Human Capacity
Spontaneity and Compulsive Action
Motivation and Action
Resistance and Cross Motivation
Behavior and Environment
Habit Formation
The Power of Dependence and Maturity
Reward and Punishment
The Absolute and the Expedient

The Origin of Faulty Posture
Faulty Posture and Action
Body and Mind
A Clearer Picture
Action, Inhibition, and Fatigue
The Aim of Readjustment
Improving Action
Correct Posture

The Means at Our Disposal
Volition and Muscular Tension
First General Overhaul
About the Technique
Physiology and Social Order
On Sexual Apprenticeship

Clarifying Some Notions
The Vicious Circle
The Abdomen, the Pelvis, and the Head
Abdominal Control
A Little Philosophy
Cross Motivation
Premature Ejaculation
Is There a Way Out?

About the Author

The following passage illustrates Feldenkrais’s early thinking about the relationship between bodily tension and motivation.

Excerpt

Chapter 3: Motivation and Action

Urges to essential actions can be traced to body tension. We eat because we are hungry, we rest because we are tired, we dance because we are impelled to muscular activity. In each case the activity produced dissipates and relieves the tension.

Most of the essential tensions, like the ones just mentioned, are more or less strictly localized in the body, and we have no difficulty in recognizing them and producing the action that relieves them. There are, however, some tensions which are not so easily identified, and where it is more difficult to produce the action needed to dissipate them.

These other tensions are more diffused. They originate in the higher nervous centers in many different ways and are rather difficult to identify, because the sensation they produce is not connected with a definite part of the body and because they rarely repeat themselves in identical conditions.

The sensation of insecurity, for instance, can be produced in relation to many different parts of the body, in such a variety of ways that it is not always easy to recognize the tension as related to insecurity.

Closing Reflection

The Potent Self remains one of Feldenkrais’s most thought-provoking works. While written decades ago, its insights into habit, tension, motivation, and human development remain remarkably relevant.

The book explores a central Feldenkrais insight: when people become aware of how they organize themselves, new possibilities for action and understanding naturally emerge.

Related Reading

About Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
What is the Feldenkrais Method®
Research on the Feldenkrais Method®
Other books by Moshe Feldenkrais