The Art of Seeing
First edition cover
| |
Author | Aldous Huxley |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Subject | Health |
Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
Publication date
| 1942 |
Media type | |
Pages | 142 |
ISBN | 0-916870-48-0 |
OCLC | 644231 |
The Art of Seeing is a 1942 book by Aldous Huxley, which details his experience with and views on the controversial Bates method, which according to Huxley improved his eyesight.
Contents
[hide]Huxley's own sight[edit]
In the preface to the book, Huxley describes how, at the age of sixteen, he had a violent attack of keratitis punctata which made him nearly completely blind for eighteen months, and left him thereafter with severely impaired sight. He managed to live as a sighted person with the aid of strong spectacles, but reading, in particular, was a great strain.[1] In 1939 his ability to read became increasingly degraded, and he sought the help of Margaret Corbett, who was a teacher of the Bates method. He found this immensely helpful, and wrote “At the present time, my vision, though very far from normal, is about twice as good as it used to be when I wore spectacles, and before I had learned the art of seeing”.
The book is not an autobiography, however. Although his own history fuelled his interest in vision, and there are references in passing throughout the book to his own case, it is written as a general study of the art of seeing as he came to understand it.[citation needed]
His aim in writing[edit]
Huxley writes that his aim in writing the book was
Unlike many other texts on the Bates method, Huxley's book contains no diagrams of the eye, and very little description of its physiology.
The supposed incurability of visual defect[edit]
According to Huxley, the prevailing medical view is that
He quotes Matthew Luckiesh, Director of General Electric’s Lighting Research Laboratory who wrote:
Huxley goes on to stress that when legs are imperfect, the medical profession make every effort to get the patient walking again, and without crutches if at all possible. "Why should it not be possible to do something analogous for defective eyes?"
Sensing+Selecting+Perceiving=Seeing[edit]
He goes on to analyse the whole process of visual perception, using ideas and vocabulary taken from the philosopher C. D. Broad. He sums the analysis up as follows:
- Sensing is not the same as seeing.
- The eyes and the nervous system do the sensing, the mind does the perceiving.
- The faculty of perceiving is related to the individual’s accumulated experiences, in other words, to memory.
- Clear seeing is the product of accurate sensing and correct perceiving.
- Any improvement in the power of perceiving tends to be accompanied by an improvement in the power of sensing and of the product of sensing and perceiving which is seeing.
Variability[edit]
Huxley goes on to discuss the factors which bring about variation – general health or lack of it, tiredness, boredom, emotional states. But whereas these are in general transitory, glasses, if worn, are to a fixed prescription.
Relaxation[edit]
The majority of the book is devoted to the specific techniques of the Bates method, all designed to bring about "relaxation". There is "passive relaxation", a state of complete repose, which has its place. But there is also "dynamic relaxation", which is "that state of the body and mind which is associated with normal and natural functioning".
Right at the end of the book there is a mention of F. M. Alexander, whose Alexander technique for posture is perhaps analogous to that of Bates for eyes.
Criticism of the book[edit]
The established ophthalmological and optometric professions have not been convinced. For example, Stewart Duke-Elder wrote
He concluded by saying,
Martin Gardner described The Art of Seeing as "a book destined to rank beside Bishop Berkeley’s famous treatise on the medicinal properties of ‘tar-water’"[4]
Philip Pollack commented
References[edit]
- ^ ab Huxley, Aldous (1942). The Art of Seeing. Harper and Row. ISBN 0-916870-48-0.
- ^ Duke-Elder, Stewart; Book (1943). "The Art of Seeing". British Medical Journal: 365–366. (Reprinted in Arch. Ophth. 30, 582, 1943.) quoted by Elwin Marg in "Flashes" of clear vision and negative accommodation with reference to the Bates method of visual training. American Journal of Optometry and Archives of American Academy of Optometry, Monograph no. 128, April 1952
- ^ Duke-Elder, Stewart (22 May 1943). "Aldous Huxley on Vision". British Medical Journal. 1 (4298): 635–636. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4298.635-a. PMC 2282772 .
- ^ Gardner, Martin (1957). Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-20394-8.
- ^ Pollack, Philip (1956). The Truth about Eye Exercises. Philadelphia: Chilton Company.
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