“Dasein ist Mitsein: To be There is to be With” — Excerpts from Stanley Keleman’s Article

I am preparing to teach at the Feldenkrais conference and I reread this article by Stanley Keleman. It resonates deeply with me and my work as a Feldenkrais practitioner.

“… to be present is a somatic act. It includes feeling, thinking, and behavior. To be present somatically means to be present also with one’s social and personal body shapes.”

“Being there bodily is a palpable emotional pulse. There are tides of bodily shapes, gestures that wax and wane, expressions that appear and disappear. These somatic- emotional intensities form the way we are present socially and intimately.”

“To be there is to be with, Dasein Ist Mit Sein. …This means to be there with ourselves and with the forces in ourselves. When we can be bodily there, we alter the way we are present. Sharing ourselves with other people, we are there with them, for them, and together. The task is to be able to be in one’s own body, to be present with one’s responses, and at the same time to be receptive to another person.”

“Receptiveness—responsiveness—has somatic structure. It is a bodily attitude.”

“The principle of formativeness, of formative psychology, is to receive and to shape what is received.”

“Dasein and Mit Sein—to be there, to be there with, to be there together. This formula brings a transcendent quality to psychological practice. In the therapeutic situation, we actively receive; we are engaged in an act of genesis. We receive what is given and help to give it body. This process of forming a somatic self with another is the basis for living in the world of work and the world of love..”

Stanley Keleman – Dasein Ist Mit Sein

Stanley Keleman Founder & Director Private Appointments Consultations Seminars – Lectures 510-845-8373 skeleman@aol.com Center for Energetic Studies Center Press 2045 Francisco Street Berkeley, California 94709 510-845-8373 510-841-3884 (fax) center@centerpress.com Being there bodily is a palpable emotional pulse. There are tides of bodily shapes, gestures that wax and wane, expressions that appear and disappear.