Ida Pauline Rolf (May 19, 1896 – March 19, 1979) was a biochemist and the creator of the

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

practice of Structural Integration, later termed Rolfing, a type of manual therapy that claims to aligning the human body's so-called " energy field" and Earth's gravity.

Early life

Rolf was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in the

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

on May 19, 1896. She was an only child. Her father, Bernard Rolf, was a civil engineer who built docks and piers on the east coast. Rolf graduated from

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

in 1916 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. She was in the Mathematics Club, German Club, Vice President of the class of 1916, a member of the Young Women's Christian Assn., was the alternate for the Graduate Fellowship while working at the Rockefeller Foundation, Business Manager of The Barnard Bulletin, and a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

. She received Departmental Honours in Chemistry at graduation. In 1917 she began her doctoral studies at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and, concurrently, Rolf also began work at the Rockefeller Institute as a chemical researcher. In 1920, Rolf earned her PhD in biological chemistry under the supervision of Phoebus Aaron Theodore Levene, of the

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (officially known as Columbia University Roy and Diana Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons) is the medical school of Columbia University, located at the Columbia University Irvin ...

. Her dissertation was entitled "Three Contributions to the Chemistry of the Unsaturated Phosphatides", originally printed in three separate issues of "The Journal of Biological Chemistry". It was printed in its entirety as a bound book called "Phosphatides" in late 1922. She studied

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

with Pierre Bernard which influenced her development of Rolfing.

Career

After graduating, Rolf continued to work with Levene at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City. In 1918, she was promoted to assistant in the chemistry lab. In 1922, two years after having received her PhD from Columbia, Rolf was raised to associate, then the highest non-tenured position for a scientist at Rockefeller. From 1919 to 1927, she published 16 scholarly journal papers, mostly in the ''

Journal of Biological Chemistry The ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' (''JBC'') is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1905., jbc.org Since 1925, it is published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. It covers research i ...

''. Her research was primarily laboratory studies on biochemical compounds

lecithin Lecithin ( ; from the Ancient Greek "yolk") is a generic term to designate any group of yellow-brownish fatty substances occurring in animal and plant tissues which are amphiphilic – they attract both water and fatty substances (and so ar ...

and cephalin. With the exception of her doctoral dissertation, all of her published work was co-authored with Levene. In 1926, Rolf left her academic work in New York to study mathematics and atomic physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and also biochemistry at the

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (, ) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies. Th ...

in Paris, France. Rolf later developed Structural Integration. In addition to her 16 academic papers published from 1919 to 1927, she would later publish two papers in scholarly journals on Structural Integration. In the mid-1960s, she began teaching her Structural Integration method at

Esalen Institute The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American Retreat (spiritual), retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanism, humanistic alternative education. The institute played a ke ...

. Esalen was the epicenter of the

Human Potential Movement The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...

. Rolf exchanged ideas with countercultural figures including

Fritz Perls Friedrich Salomon Perls (July 8, 1893 – March 14, 1970), better known as Fritz Perls, was a German-born psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term "Gestalt therapy" to identify the form of psychotherapy that he devel ...

. In 1971, Rolf's teaching activities were consolidated under the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration.Stirling, Isabel. ''Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki'' (2006) Shoemaker & Hoard. p. 8. As of 2010, it had graduated 1536 practitioners, including some trained in Germany, Brazil, Japan, and Australia, in addition to the main program in Boulder, Colorado. In 1990, a group of senior faculty split off to found the Guild of Structural Integration, which had 628 graduates as of 2010. About two dozen schools were teaching Structural Integration in 2011.Jacobson, Eric: ''The Journal of alternative and complementary medicine''. Volume 17, Number 9, 2011, p. 778. Standards for the field of Structural Integration are maintained by a professional membership organization, the International Association of Structural Integration.Myers, Tom: ''Structural Integration. Developments in Ida Rolf´s recipe''. I. J Bodywork Movement Ther 2004, pp. 131-142.

Structural Integration

Structural Integration, later known as Rolfing, is a type of

manual therapy Manual therapy, or manipulative therapy, is a treatment primarily used by physical therapists, occupational therapists, and massage therapists to treat musculoskeletal pain and disability. It mostly includes kneading and manipulation of muscle ...

that claims to improve human biomechanical functioning.Jacobson, Eric: ''The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine''. Volume 17, Number 9, 2011, p.775. Rolf began developing her system in the 1940s. Her main goal was to organize the human bodily structure in relation to

gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

. Rolf called her method "Structural Integration", now also commonly known by the trademark " Rolfing". Structural integration is a pseudoscience and its claimed benefits are not substantiated by medical evidence. * Her publications about the therapy include: * 1978 VERTICAL - Experiential Side to Human Potential, ''

Journal of Humanistic Psychology ''Journal of Humanistic Psychology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Psychology. The journal's editor is Sarah R. Kamens. It has been in publication since 1961 Powers, Robin. Counseling and Spirituality: A ...

'' * 1973 Structural Integration - Contribution to understanding of stress, ''Confinia Psychiatrica'' * 1979 ''Rolfing: Reestablishing the Natural Alignment and Structural Integration of the Human Body for Vitality and Well-Being'',

Healing Arts Press With physical trauma or disease suffered by an organism, healing involves the repairing of damaged tissue(s), organs and the biological system as a whole and resumption of (normal) functioning. Medicine includes the process by which the cells i ...

Notes

References

*Feitis, Rosemary. 1985. Rolfing and Physical Reality. Healing Arts Press

External links

Biography and photo gallery from the Rolf Research Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rolf, Ida Pauline 1896 births 1979 deaths American women biochemists People in alternative medicine Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Barnard College alumni 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American chemists Somatic therapists Chemists from New York (state)