Touch, Tender and Tenacious Summary and Analysis

The author reminisces about his meeting with a high school language teacher whose work ends when her left side is paralyzed. She is hospitalized and rehabilitated but cannot return to class until she experiences Feldenkrais. Moshe Feldenkrais is an Israeli physicist who discovers certain movements can lead a person with practice to move more smoothly and efficiently. He perceives the brain as a sophisticated controller of movement. The awareness of its effect can restore feeling to one who has lost a sense of connection with their body and enable movement again. His goal was to return message flow from the brain as it was before paralysis rather than increasing muscle strength.

Feldenkrais' book "Awareness Through Movement" claims reduced bodily movement is caused by lack of attention, ignorance or laziness. Alternatively, some patients learn to move...