I feel very honored to present this book by Dr. R. Louis Schultz. As one of Dr. Schultz’s protégés, I had the great privilege of learning from him and working with him intimately for fifteen years, assisting him in his lectures, demonstrations, and workshops around the globe. He immeasurably shaped my life and career, and I am honored to carry on his teachings at Village Rolfing, a private practice in New York City, that we opened together in 1998.
In the early 1970s, while working closely with Dr. Ida P. Rolf, Louis designed and implemented an anatomy program for The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration. Around this time, she asked him to consider writing his own books on fascial anatomy (he did—eventually coauthoring The Endless Web with Dr. Rosemary Feitis) and on the human pelvis. Louis told Dr. Rolf that he felt there was already significant literature on the female pelvis, but insufficient writings on the male pelvis. If he was going to write about the pelvis at all, he told her, he was going to make it about men. Dr. Rolf told him, “Fair enough.”
In preparation for the great task of writing this book, Louis sought answers to questions that went above and beyond his, or any other person’s, scientific background. He spent years collecting very intimate information from his friends, peers, clients, neighbors, and even (and often) perfect strangers. He collected this information in the form of Polaroid photographs, cassette-taped interviews, stacks of notebooks, and yellow legal pads. To some people he gave questionnaires, to others he would outright ask what he wanted to know, and then scribble down his notes in the back of a New York City taxi or while sitting in a Greenwich Village café. He became quite good at breaking the ice with strangers, before unapologetically asking them about their relationship with their pelvis. Louis would often share stories with me when he stumbled on something or someone of particular interest. Analyzing the data he collected, studying his notes, and reviewing those cassette tapes was indeed a fun chore for him.
The success of this book lies in the fact that it has contributed immensely to the chipping away of negative cultural attitudes regarding the pelvis. It has helped many men come to terms with their genitals, thereby helping them to gain confidence and achieve greater sexual enjoyment. It serves as a reminder—or better—a wakeup call to men, telling us not to fear, to be more aware of, and to mindfully exercise our pelvic floor: a region traditionally and culturally associated with being the woman’s domain. In my own practice, it has laid the groundwork for treating clients who have often felt that they had exhausted any and all options administering to such problems and concerns as impotence, premature ejaculation, fertility problems, hemorrhoids, pudental nerve syndrome, peyronies, inguinal hernias, and other pelvic dysfunctions.
Louis wished to see the day when men could demonstrate vulnerability without the fear of being diminished or devalued of their masculinity. “When little boys can cry,” he wrote, “we will have achieved much in men’s relationships.” His wise words urge us to rise above the self-afflicted constraints that result from negative cultural attitudes; potentially leading each of us to a more integrated and balanced sense of self, able to enjoy freedom of movement in our pelvises and in our bodies.
Marcelo Coutinho, advanced Rolfer
New York City, 2012