Cure vs Improvement

I've been exploring this for a long time on this blog,
and here,
in re-reading "The Case of Nora," good old Moshe Feldenkrais lays it on thick,
and with a variation I'd never really articulated,
an understanding of people's preference to be "asleep,"
although he doesn't call it that.

Watch this though:

From Case of Nora, page 51:

Nora wanted or expected cure, not improvement.

"Improvement" is a gradual bettering which has no limit.

"Cure" is a return to the previously enjoyed (practiced) state of activitiy,
which need not have been excellent or even good.

The habitual and familiar we do not question; improvement we grade.

The former is the automatic background for our system; the latter is the
foreground of our awareness.

The two are different dimensions. One is an atavistic sensation;
the other is a learned knowledge that gives us freedom of
choice---
which is the major prerogative of Homo sapiens."


That's the quote.

I've often said it like this:
people plod along at some state like negative 3, but
it feels normal.

Then they get in an accident or some such, and plummet
to negative 6.

They want to be cured, put back to negative three,
rather than slowly getting better, negative 6, negative 5, negative 4,
and on and on, plus one, plus two, plus three, and so on.