In 1988 I promoted as medical anatomist in training at the University of Maastricht’s in the Netherlands on the doctoral thesis The organization of the morphological substrate of proprioception in the lateral elbow region of the rat. In this thesis the concept is presented that was developed as to the architecture of connective tissue and muscle tissue in the so-called locomotion system in the 70s and the 80s of the last century by my colleagues Henk van Mameren en Jan Drukker. In this concept it is argued that also for proprioception and its organization the concept of architecture is far more functional and logical than the usual and regular thinking in anatomical discrete entities like ligaments, bones, muscles and joints. In fact it came out to be a pledge for the view that the regional description of the substrate of proprioception is more functional and appropriate than the description of the substrate related to anatomical structures.

Many years later when I in the first decennium of this century and in the framework of my project Embryo in Motion became acquainted with amongst others osteopathy and craniosacral therapy,  I learn about the concept of a certain Andrew Taylor Still about the connective tissue in the human body considering the connective tissue as a kind of organic system usually indicated shortly as ‘the Fascia’.  As a regular medical anatomist one usually is not informed about this view and this concept. Thinking in architectural terms may be considered as a kind of complementary view in relation to the analytical thinking in separate and discrete entities and structures as the classical regular so-called scientific anatomy is used to practice. The more holistic embryology that I presented in my courses brought me to the point to recognize in the so-called ‘mesoderm’ the dimension which Andrew Taylor Still functionally and philosophically connects with ‘the Fascia’.

In 2009 I got the opportunity to present my in the meantime subdued and lost view of 1988 as to functionality of the architecture of connective tissue in the process of proprioception in the locomotion system anew in the context of the second International Congress on Fascia Research in Amsterdam. There I introduced a more phenomenological view as to the organization of the connective tissue and the so-called mesodermal germ layer which in this context and considered in this way becomes more the organ or the system of our ‘innerness’.

This view was recognized by the present researchers and practicing therapists and also appreciated as practically applicable. After that a series of articles has been written by me in which this concept of architectural and holistic consideration of the connective tissue is developed further.

On this website some of my articles about fascia and proprioception can be downloaded as also can be done with some PowerPoint presentations that I presented on various international congresses.

READ WATCH      EN           NL          DE           IT           FR         RUS        ES         POR