Chapter 1 Introduction

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) was initially developed in the 1970’s by John Grinder (1.1.1), a linguist and Richard Bandler (1.1.2), a mathematician and student of psychology. According to de Luynes (1995), “NLP embraces an attitude based upon a curiosity about people and how they do the things they do, supported by a methodology - a way of thinking about people and the process of communication – and a technology, to obtain well-defined and ecological results”. NLP theorists believe that people’s internal representation (thoughts and images) determine their repertoire of choices and behaviors. Identifying patterns in those internal representations and consciously changing or manipulating them can lead to specific behavioral outcomes (Grey, 1991). Bandler defines NLP as "an attitude, backed by a methodology, which leaves a trail of techniques".

The Development of NLP

John Grinder and Richard Bandler, working at Santa Cruz University in the 1970’s believed that psychotherapy research overemphasized pathology not paying enough attention to what 1

people did right and enabled them to function well. In an effort to focus in excellence and learn more about effective treatment, they embarked on a study of three outstanding clinicians: Virginia Satir (gestalt therapy) (fig. 1.2.1), Fritz Perls (family systems therapy) (fig. 1.2.2) and Milton Erickson (clinical hypnosis) (fig. 1.2.3). They found that the styles of these clinicians had certain commonalities. All three deemed gifted

with intuition (a great ability to read their clients) and intervention and response skills. Drawing on a variety of disciplines including cybernetics, linguistics, behaviorism, family and systems theory, personality theory and communication, Bandler and Grinder sought ways to teach those skills that all the master therapists possessed. Their findings highlighted the following: ∗ Methods for operationalizing the intuitive skills of excellent therapists ∗

The discovery that people who function well pay much more attention to their outcomes than they do to analyzing and discussing the problem; once the problem has been clarified, they put their energy into defining in detail an ideal resolution.

Both findings are integral to NLP. Bandler and Grinder’s first book, The Structure of Magic (1975), presents the result of their research on excellence. It reflects three essential concepts in this model (de Luynes, 1995): 1. Neuro. All behavior is the result of neurological process.

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2. Linguistic. Neutral process are represented, ordered and

sequenced into models and the strategies through language and communication systems. 3. Programming. The components of a system are organized of

programmed to achieve specific outcomes (refer to fig. 1.2.4). According to NLP, people learn to react in certain ways to specify situations and develop automatic patterns, or programs, in both their neutral system and their language. These programs constitute most of people’s daily responses to themselves, others and their environment and from the personality (refer to fig. 1.2.5). When these programs were originally put into place, they worked more successfully than any other approach in a person’s repertoire. Over time, however, these automatic responses become deeply entrenched. People generally do not stop to evaluate them or seek to change them unless they conclude that the responses are causing them difficulties.

The primary goal of NLP is to help people become conscious of their internal representations of reality and the ways in which those representations are reflected in their linguistic patterns. According to NLP, people experience internal and external events through sensory modes. Change is made primarily through the sensory modes, leading to modification of linguistic patterns. NLP is a phenomenological approach

. According to NLP, people

are responsible for the response they receive to a communication. For example, Anita suggested to her friend Jennifer, who had recently been diagnosed with cancer, that Jennifer should lose weight and eat 3

more healthy foods to improve her immune system. Anita intended to be helpful and express caring; however, Jennifer experienced her message as hurtful and intrusive and responded by avoiding contact with Anita. Regardless of Anita’s good intentions, Jennifer’s response to the message determined its meaning. Although Anita did not desire the response she received from Jennifer, her message was the cause of the response. Anita was operating according to deeply ingrained internal representations of friendship, illness, helping and her role in relation to her friends, which led her to communicate, both verbally and nonverbally, in ways that Jennifer saw as belittling and unsupportive. If clinicians practicing NLP were to work with Anita, they might help her become more aware of her internal representations and how they contribute to responses as well as the nature of her communication.

CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 4

Assumptions

NLP is an optimistic approach that assumes a possible view of people and world. The following are some of its basic assumptions (de Luynes, 1995; Issacson, 1990; Sterman, 1990): ∗ People have the resources they need to make changes. ∗ People always make the best choice available to them at the time. ∗ All behaviors serve a purpose, but that purpose may be unconscious. ∗ No one is wrong or broken; by finding out how a person functions now, change can be facilitated. ∗ There is no such thing as failure; only feedback; all responses can be used. ∗ An organism naturally moves towards well-being. ∗ Mind and body are part of the same system; changing the body can change the mind and changing the mind can change the body. ∗ Anything can be accomplished by breaking tasks into small-enough chunks. ∗ The world is a place of abundance that provides the resources and opportunities for continued growth and development. ∗

People already have all resources they need in their lifetimes; they just need help in accessing those internal resources.

Presuppositions 5

NLP is based entirely on certain presuppositions and the attitude you have when you use these presuppositions. Presuppositions could be considered base beliefs. They are the internal, mental environmental structure we build that directs our conscious attention span. These form the environment from which all NLP techniques take form. They are as follows: 1. 'The map is not the territory' or 'The menu is not the meal'. What we see, hear, and feel is not reality, but our brain's interpretation of it. Everything you think, see, hear or feel is created by your brain in response to real external stimuli. We say that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. In reality we know that the sun is stationary. But through our five senses we feel that it rises in the East. Reality exists. We just never get to experience it firsthand. So our brain creates a virtual reality for us—a map. Just like a map of your town. The map is not the town, but it is similar and if you want to get to the corner store the map tells you how to get there—it's useful. 2. People respond according to their 'maps'. The human mind has a special capability to give meaning to things. As we grow up in the world, we experience things and give meaning to them according to the map that we have. 3. Individual skills function by developing and sequencing representational systems. We have five senses or antennae by which our brain receives information. Once our brain converts that information into something it can work with, we start sorting the information to give it a structure. There are five representational systems: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory. Everything we do has a sequence to it. Before you decide to buy a 6

car, you may picture yourself driving that car, then you may say to yourself, "this car seems to be ideal for me", then you may get a good feeling about the car and you buy it. This would be called a buying strategy and it consists of the three major representational

systems—seeing, hearing and feeling or visual (V), auditory (A) and kinesthetic (K). 4. Respect each person's model of the world. Now that you know that we operate in a virtual reality of our own creation, you can respect that every other person on the planet is doing the same. The difference is you now know you are working through a map. Most people think everything they think and feel is REAL. Respect that. Rapport is created when you can step into that person's model of the world. Leading is when you gently expand their map of the world. 5. Person and Behavior describe different phenomena. When you were three years old, maybe you sucked your thumb. Does that make you a thumbsucker today? You are more than the behavior you produce and have the ability to change them at any time. What you DO and what you ARE are two different things. 6. Every behavior has utility and usefulness—in some context. All behavior functions from positive intentions. This presupposition separates behavior from the person. A problem like stammering would have had some positive intentions when it was first developed. Maybe it saved that person from something.

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7. We cannot NOT communicate. Even if we don't say a word, our internal thought processes affect our body in such a way that our message gets out. 8. The way we communicate affects perception and reception. How many ways can you say "You're the best"? Use different tonalities, voice tempos, tones. Change the way you stand, the focus of your eyes, and your posture. The words are the same, but the way you communicate them can make a radical difference.

9. The meaning of your communication lies in the response you get. It forces you to take full responsibility for RESULTS in your communication. If you get a response you don't like, then you need to change something in your communication. Again, everyone is functioning through HIS or HER model of the world. If you communicate to everyone using your model only, you will not get the response you want. NLP is all about results—if one thing doesn't work, TRY SOMETHING ELSE. You communicate because you are looking for a response from another person. Keep shifting and changing the way you communicate until you get the response you want. 10. The one who sets the frame for the communication controls the communicating. When you use a camera, you don't take a picture of everything around you. The lens 'frames' the specific scene you want to focus on. Whoever sets this frame in any 8

communication will control that particular communication. Just see the following scenario: You: It is so cool and nice in the park. Let's take a walk there. (Framepark is a cool and nice place). Your fiancée: It's going to be too dark when we get there. (New frame —dark is not good). You in a seductive voice: Well, that will be nice. That way no one can see us. (Reframe—dark is good). 11. The person with the most flexibility exercises the most influence in the system also known as the Law of Requisite Variety. Simply keep trying new things until you get the results you want. 12. Resistance indicates lack of rapport. With the proper amount of rapport you can convince someone to do almost anything. You can literally change the way they map their entire world. If you are getting resistance on any level (verbal or nonverbal), you need to step back into their map of the world for a minute and regain rapport.

13. Humans have the ability to learn from just ONE experience. Humans can associate anything to anything and do it instantly if the state of mind at the time is intense. That's how phobias are formed.

The Process of Facilitating Change

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Isaacson (1990) described NLP as a systems model that seeks to change behavior by identifying conscious and unconscious internal representations and patters and intervening, both verbally and nonverbally, through the sensory modes. By increasing and expanding people’s internal representations, NLP enables them to construct a repertoire of internally generated choices that are effective in eliciting and dealing with desired outcomes in a wide variety of life situations. To maximize their effectiveness, people are encouraged to use all aspects of themselves, including the rational mind, intuition, the emotions and the body. Thus, people acquire the ability to consider situations from different perspectives and develop multiple descriptions that increase their appreciation of various interpretations and responses other people make. Bandler and Grinder (1975) have described a six-step process of change via NLP, illustrated here with the example of Anita, introduced previously: 1. Identify the pattern to be changed. Anita grew up in a family that expressed little empathy but overemphasized advice and viewed illness as a weakness. Anita internalized the views of her family and applied them to her friends. 2. Establish communication with the part of the person responsible for the pattern. Once established, use sensory systems as well as internal and external representations to begin to change the pattern.

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Anita accessed and explored her internal representations of illness, her image of herself as a friend, her auditory and visual processing of information, and her linguistic style. 3. Determine the positive function of the pattern and separate the pattern from that function since all behaviors serve some positive function. In Anita’s family, giving advice was one of the acceptable ways to connect with and show concern for another person, the original purpose of Anita’s behavior towards Jennifer. However, Anita was able to separate pattern from function by reorganizing that her behavior no longer accomplished its goal. 4. Access a creative part of the person and generate new behavior to accomplish the positive function. Using her creative strengths, Anita was able to develop some skills at empathy and communication of warmth and concern, which she perceived as more likely to accomplish her goal of connecting with and expressing caring and support for her friends. 5. Connect the new response with the relevant context for

change, using all representational sensory modes to reinforce the change, and ask the creative part of the self if it is willing to take responsibility for changing the new alternative behavior when appropriate. Techniques such as reframing allowed her to view her new behaviors as meeting her friends’ needs rather than communicating pity, which was how she visualized herself looking Jennifer in the eye, listening carefully to her concerns and communicating heartfelt caring. Anchoring helped Anita link her new response to context for change. 11

An anchor, clasping her hand helped Anita easily retrieve this scenario and the good feelings. 6. Do an ecological check, asking whether any part of the person objects to using the new alternative behaviors. If answer is yes, return to step 4 for revision of the behaviors.

Anita reported that the new behaviors were appealing that she was eager to try them out in context. She believed enough in the value of the planned change to be convincing in her verbal and nonverbal communications. These six steps reflect a very simplified and streamlined version of NLP. This is a complex approach that draws heavily on broad range of theories.

Strategies

NLP uses an extensive array of strategies to promote change. Many have a neurological basis and are consequently very different from those used by other approaches to treatment. Brief overviews of some of the most important interventions in NLP are (refer to fig. 2.4.1): ∗

Rapport between client and clinician is essential, as it is in most approaches to treatment.

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Pacing enhances rapport by sharing the client’s view of the world, emphasizing language and sensory modalities that reflect the client’s preferences (Lankton, 1980). For example, a clinician might say to a client who uses the visual modality more than others, “Can you

visualize yourself engaged in the new behavior?” To a client who emphasizes the auditory modality, the clinician might say, “I hear what you are saying.” ∗

Feedback and monitoring, both verbal and nonverbal, are integral parts of NLP, helping people become conscious of slight changes in their physiological and mental reactions and continue to fine-tune their actions and reactions.

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Leading people from one sensory channel to another promote awareness and give them experiences and useful tools. As Lankton (1980) described this strategy,

A therapist might, for instance, be matching a client who was representing a difficult problem kinesthetically. At an appropriate moment, with enough rapport built, the therapist may pace and lead the client from the kinesthetic channel to visual one by remarking, “I certainly know how you feel about being unable to get perspective and were able to see things clearly?” ∗

Calibrating links a person’s internal state with his or her external behavior and makes sure that the two are consistent. Close attention to language and sensory channels, as

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expressed by the client and used by the clinicians, is important in helping people align verbal and nonverbal messages. ∗

Reframing is enhanced by calibrating. Reframing is the process of creating “a framework in which all parts of the system is aligned towards achieving the desired outcomes” (Dilts, 1983). It gives people a different and typically more integrated perspective.

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Anchoring associates a stimulus of clasping her hands was linked to the experience of clearly communicating concern and caring to her friends. When she clasped her hands (the anchor), the learning that she had acquired about better ways to communicate became accessible to her because of the link between those skills and the anchor.

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Eye movements reflect the way in which people process data. According to Grey (1991),

“For most normally organized people, upward eye movements reflect visual processing, lateral eye movement reflects auditory processing and downward movements represent either kinesthetic processing or indicate that the client is talking within. For most right-handed people, an eye movement up and to the left is a signal that they are attempting to access a visual memory. Movement up and to the right usually signals that the client is constructing a visual image. Auditory patterns follow the same left-right pattern, left for remembered, right for constructed”

NLP therapists pay close attention to people’s eye movements. They use this information to identify the sensory channels that people are 14

using, facilitate their effort to match their clients’ sensory modalities, and enhance the process of calibration (refer to fig. 2.4.2). ∗

The meta-model in NLP is a heuristic set of questions intended to elaborate and clarify information as well as challenge and expand the limits to a person's model of the world. It responds to the linguistic distortions, generalizations, and deletions in the speaker's language.

Application and current status

The literature provides examples of the application of NLP to a wide variety of people and groups. For example, it has been used to treat substance use disorders (Streman, 1990), help people deal more effectively with traumatic experiences (Lankton, 1980), and improve family functioning. Although NLP has been available to clinicians for more than 20 years, it has not increased, perhaps as a result of its connection in people’s mind to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, a newer and apparently very powerful tool. The concepts and tools of NLP are compelling and may well have considerable value to clinicians, but more research is needed to establish the value of this approach.

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Uses

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Psychotherapy In contrast to mainstream psychotherapy, NLP does not concentrate

on diagnosis, treatment and assessment of mental and behavioral disorders. Instead, it focuses on helping clients to overcome their own self-perceived, or subjective, problems. It seeks to do this while respecting their own capabilities and wisdom to choose additional goals for the intervention as they learn more about their problems, and to modify and specify those goals further as a result of extended interaction with a therapist. ∗ Interpersonal communications and persuasion While the main goals of NLP are therapeutic, the patterns have also been adapted for use outside of psychotherapy including business communication, management training, sales, sports, and interpersonal influence. ∗

For some, the techniques, such as anchoring, reframing, therapeutic metaphor and hypnotic suggestion, were intended to be used in the therapeutic setting.

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Outside of psychotherapy, the meta model, for example, is seen by some as a promising business management communication technique.

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Evaluation of NLP

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NLP is not a science. It was not developed using the standard scientific method in the sense that its basic assumptions, models, and theories have, for the most part, never been tested scientifically.

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Particular factors of difficulty in studying NLP are: .

Lack of definition

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Strong basis in client feedback and individualized (and potentially multiple approaches)

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Lack of paradigm belief in "works/doesn't work", or "solution A solves problem B"; rather, NLP believes in a willingness to explore problem spaces.

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Strong reliance upon metaphorical process: it is not clear what is intended to be taken literally, and what is merely a convenient metaphor to be interpreted by the brain. Within NLP, communication is often taken to be metaphorical in nature, and both responsive to and described by metaphor-that is, the brain will as often respond to a metaphorical description as a literal one.

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While many people benefit from NLP training sessions, there seem to be several false or questionable assumptions upon which NLP is based. Their beliefs about the unconscious mind, hypnosis and the ability to influence people by appealing directly to the 17

subconscious mind are unsubstantiated. All the scientific evidence which exists on such things indicates that what NLP claims is not true. You cannot learn to “speak directly to the unconscious mind" as Erickson and NLP claim, except in the most obvious way of using the power of suggestion. ∗

NLP claims that its experts have studied the thinking of great minds and the behavior patterns of successful people and have extracted models of how they work. "From these models, techniques for quickly and effectively changing thoughts, behaviors and beliefs

that get in your way have been developed." But studying great minds and their work might produce a dozen "models" of how those minds worked. There is no way to know which, if any, of the models is correct (Robert Todd Carroll). ∗

Research in counseling psychology found rapport to be no more effective than existing listening skills taught to counselors. Furthermore, Druckman found weak empirical support for PRS and little theoretical support in counseling psychology and the experimental literature for NLP as a technique for social influence. Sharpley concluded that most of the other techniques available in NLP were already available in counseling.

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

Visiting the library ∗ Mumbai University Library, 18

Kalina, Mumbai. ∗

Ramnarain Ruia College Library,

Matunga, Mumbai. Web resources ∗

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming)

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The Skeptic's Dictionary (http://skepdic.com/neurolin.html)

Web resources for pictures ∗

www.empoweredtolearn.com/JohnCarBios.htm (1.1.1)

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www.neuroing.com/english.htm (1.1.2)

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http://leonardomelero.blogspot.com/2007/09/las-cincolibertades-de-virginia-satir.html (1.2.1)

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http://gravitando.wordpress.com/2008/03/ (1.2.2)

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http://www.addictionrecov.org/paradigm/P_PR_S98/Erickson.html (1.2.3)

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www.mindquesthypnosis.com/why_it_works.html (1.2.4)

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www.alistermarriott.com/nlp.htm (1.2.5)

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http://www.knightsbridgeinstitute.com/syllabushypnoNLP.html (2.4.1)

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www.youlied.org/CWFIA%20Class%20Summary.htm (2.4.2)

CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION

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Attempts at scientific studies of NLP have been undertaken virtually since NLP was first formulated in the early 1970s. The central question is whether or not NLP is effective when tested with modern scientific techniques, that is, whether it can claim to be an evidencebased therapy. Due to its inherent (and historical) preference for pragmatism over theory, its lack of formal and theoretical structure, and its lack of controls over usage, NLP doesn't always lend itself well to the scientific method. Equally (as scientific researchers have pointed out), attempts have also been greatly confounded by other factors including poor scientific appreciation of the NLP process being researched, unrealistic claims by some practitioners, and often a lack of high quality experimental design (such as failure to fully consider, control and understand all key variables). This finding was supported in 1988, by Heap and Druckman, who independently concluded that most studies to that date were "heavily flawed" and that the "effectiveness of NLP therapy undertaken in authentic clinical contexts of trained practitioners has not yet been properly investigated." It seems that NLP develops models which can't be verified, from which it develops techniques which may have nothing to do with either the models or the sources of the models. NLP makes claims about thinking and perception which do not seem to be supported by neuroscience. This is not to say that the techniques won't work. They may work and work quite well, but there is no way to know whether the claims behind their origin are valid. NLP itself 20

proclaims that it is pragmatic in its approach: what matters is whether it works. Anecdotes and testimonials seem to be the main measuring devices. Unfortunately, such a measurement may reveal only how well the trainers teach their clients to persuade others to enroll in more training sessions. (Robert Todd Carroll)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY ∗

Bandler, Richard & John Grinder (1975a). The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy. Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books. ISBN 0-8314-0044-7.

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Bandler, Richard & John Grinder (1975b). Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Volume 1. Cupertino, CA: Meta Publications. ISBN 0-916990-01-X.

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Bandler, Richard & John Grinder (1979). Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming. Moab, UT: Real People Press. ISBN 0911226-19-2.

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Grinder, John & Richard Bandler (1975). The Structure of Magic II: A Book About Communication and Change. Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books. ISBN 0-8314-0049-8.

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de Luynes, M. (1995). Neuro-linguistic programming. Educational and Child Psychology, 12, 34-47.

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Seligman, S. (2001). Systems, Strategies and Skills of Psychotherapy, Prentice Hall Inc.

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