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{{Short description|Pseudoscientific approach to psychotherapy}}
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{{Neuro-linguistic programming}} {{Neuro-linguistic programming}}
'''Neuro-linguistic programming''' ('''NLP''') is a set of techniques, ] and ]s that adherents use primarily as an approach to ]. It is based on the idea that mind, body and language interact to create an individual's perception of the world and that perceptions, and hence behaviors, can be changed by the application of a variety of techniques; in particular, "modeling" which involves the careful reproduction of the behaviors and beliefs of those who have achieved 'excellence'. The early focus of NLP was the study of the underlying patterns in the language and techniques of noted and successful therapists in ], ] and ]. The patterns discovered were adapted for general communication and effecting change.


'''Neuro-linguistic programming''' ('''NLP''') is a pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development and ], that first appeared in ] and ]'s 1975 book '']''. NLP asserts that there is a connection between neurological processes, language and acquired behavioral patterns, and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tosey |first1=Paul |last2=Mathison |first2=Jane |title=Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming |publisher=Centre for Management Learning & Development, School of Management, University of Surrey. |url=http://www.som.surrey.ac.uk/NLP/Resources/IntroducingNLP.pdf |access-date=12 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103020411/http://www.som.surrey.ac.uk/NLP/Resources/IntroducingNLP.pdf |archive-date=3 January 2019}}</ref>{{sfn|Dilts|Grinder|Bandler|DeLozier|1980|p=2}} According to Bandler and Grinder, NLP can treat problems such as ]s, depression, ]s, ]es, ],{{efn|name=nscc}} ], the ],{{efn|name=nscc|Note that, in a seminar, {{harvnb|Bandler|Grinder|1982|p=166}}, said that a single session of NLP combined with hypnosis could eliminate certain eyesight problems such as myopia and cure the common cold (op.cit., pp. 169, 174).}} and ]s,<ref>Archived at {{cbignore}} and the {{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media |people=Bandler, Richard |year=2008 |title=What is NLP? |medium=Promotional video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vlcsFJyEXQ |access-date=1 June 2013 |quote=We can reliably get rid of a phobia in ten minutes – every single time. |publisher=NLP Life}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Grinder|Bostic St. Clair|2001|loc=Chapter 4: Personal Antecedents of NLP}}.</ref> often in a single session. They also say that NLP can model the skills of exceptional people, allowing anyone to acquire them.{{sfn|Bandler|Grinder|1975|pp=5–6}}{{efn|{{harvnb|Bandler|1993|p=vii}}: "In single sessions, they can accelerate learning, neutralize phobias, enhance creativity, improve relationships, eliminate allergies, and lead firewalks without roasting toes. NLP achieves the goal of its inception. We have ways to do what only a genius could have done a decade ago." }}
Despite its popularity<ref name="Sanghera 2005">''Look into my eyes and tell me I'm learning not to be a loser'', Financial Times (London, first edition p.9), Sanghera, Satham. </ref><ref name="Singer & Lalich 1997">{{cite | author= Singer, Margaret & Janja Lalich | title=Crazy Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? | publisher=Jossey Bass | year=1997 | id=0787902780}}</ref>
NLP continues to be controversial, particularly for use in therapy, and after three decades of existence remains scientifically unvalidated.<ref name="Devilly 2005">Grant J. Devilly (2005) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry Vol.39 p.437</ref>
NLP has been criticized for lacking a defining and regulating body to impose standards and a professional ethical code.<ref name="schütz">{{cite web | author=Schütz, P. | title=A consumer guide through the multiplicity of NLP certification training | url=http://www.nlpzentrum.at/institutsvgl-english.htm | publisher=. | accessdate=December 2006}}</ref>
==General description==
NLP was influenced by the ideas of the ] era as well as beliefs in ]. The basic ideas of NLP were developed around 1973 by ], a student, and ], a professor of ], in association with the social scientist ]. Although the underlying theoretical principles have not been supported by scientific research,<ref name="Sharpley 1987">{{cite journal | author=Sharpley C.F.| title=Research Findings on Neuro-linguistic Programming: Non supportive Data or an Untestable Theory| journal=Communication and Cognition | year=1987 | volume=Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1987 Vol. 34, No. 1 | pages=103-107,105 | url=http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?nfpb=true&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ352101&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b8005c1ac}}</ref><ref name="Druckman & Swets 1998" /> a number of its techniques appear to have been based upon existing therapeutic techniques.<ref name="Sharpley 1987">{{cite journal | author=Sharpley C.F.| title=Research Findings on Neuro-linguistic Programming: Non supportive Data or an Untestable Theory| journal=Communication and Cognition | year=1987 | volume=Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1987 Vol. 34, No. 1 | pages=103-107,105 | url=http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?nfpb=true&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ352101&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b8005c1ac}}</ref>


NLP has been adopted by some ]s as well as by companies that run seminars marketed as ] to businesses and government agencies.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dowlen |first=Ashley |title=NLP – help or hype? Investigating the uses of neuro-linguistic programming in management learning |journal=Career Development International |date=1 January 1996 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=27–34 |doi=10.1108/13620439610111408}}</ref><ref name="von Bergen-1997" />
NLP is applied mostly as a personal development system presented in group trainings, seminars, or individual client/practitioner consultations. It is also applied as a therapy in itself or as an adjunct by therapists in other disciplines. NLP practitioners deal with personal issues ranging from reframing negative beliefs, to dealing with stage fright and simple ], to ], ], or ]. More generally they deal with peak performance assistance in business or sports and communications and motivation. Professionals in other fields take up NLP as professional training for coaching, consulting, counseling and therapy.<ref name="schütz">{{cite web | author=Schütz, P. | title=A consumer guide through the multiplicity of NLP certification training | url=http://www.nlpzentrum.at/institutsvgl-english.htm | publisher=. | accessdate=December 2006}}</ref> NLP and its techniques have been widely adopted for use in ], adult learning, and management and sales training, often being mixed with ] and other applications outside of mainstream, like ].


There is no ] supporting the claims made by NLP advocates, and it has been called a ].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Science and Pseudoscience in Social Work Practice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nE9FCQAAQBAJ&q=nlp&pg=PA166 |publisher=Springer Publishing Company |date=2015 |isbn=978-0-8261-7769-8 |first1=Bruce A. |last1=Thyer |first2=Monica G. |last2=Pignotti |pages=56–57, 165–167 |quote=As NLP became more popular, some research was conducted and reviews of such research have concluded that there is no scientific basis for its theories about representational systems and eye movements.}}</ref><ref name="Sharpley-1987" /><ref name="Witkowski-2010">{{cite journal |last=Witkowski |first=Tomasz |title=Thirty-Five Years of Research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP Research Data Base. State of the Art or Pseudoscientific Decoration? |journal=Polish Psychological Bulletin |date=1 January 2010 |volume=41 |issue=2 |doi=10.2478/v10059-010-0008-0|quote=All of this leaves me with an overwhelming impression that the analyzed base of scientific articles is treated just as theater decoration, being the background for the pseudoscientific farce which NLP appears to be. Using "scientific" attributes, which is so characteristic of pseudoscience, is manifested also in other aspects of NLP activities... My analysis leads undeniably to the statement that NLP represents pseudoscientific rubbish|doi-access=free }}</ref> Scientific reviews have shown that NLP is based on outdated metaphors of the brain's inner workings that are inconsistent with current neurological theory, and that NLP contains numerous factual errors.<ref name="von Bergen-1997">{{cite journal |last=von Bergen |first=C. W. |last2=Gary |first2=Barlow Soper |last3=Rosenthal |first3=T. |last4=Wilkinson |first4=Lamar V. |title=Selected alternative training techniques in HRD |journal=Human Resource Development Quarterly |year=1997 |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=281–294 |doi=10.1002/hrdq.3920080403}}</ref><ref name="Druckman-2004">{{cite journal |last=Druckman |first=Daniel |title=Be All That You Can Be: Enhancing Human Performance |journal=Journal of Applied Social Psychology |date=1 November 2004 |volume=34 |issue=11 |pages=2234–2260 |doi=10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb01975.x}}</ref> Reviews also found that research that favored NLP contained significant methodological flaws, and that there were three times as many studies of a much higher quality that failed to reproduce the claims made by Bandler, Grinder, and other NLP practitioners.<ref name="Sharpley-1987">{{cite journal |last=Sharpley |first=Christopher F. |title=Research findings on neurolinguistic programming: Nonsupportive data or an untestable theory? |journal=Journal of Counseling Psychology |date=1 January 1987 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=103–107 |doi=10.1037/0022-0167.34.1.103}}</ref><ref name="Witkowski-2010" />
==Concepts and methods==
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is based on the idea that with our senses we are only able to perceive a small part of the world. Our view of the world is filtered by our experience, beliefs, values and assumptions. We act and feel based on our perception of the world rather than the real world.
NLP teaches that language and behaviors (whether functional or dysfunctional) are highly structured, and that this structure can be 'modeled' or copied into a reproducible form.<ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1979">{{cite book | author=Bandler, R., Grinder, J. | title=Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming | location=Moab, UT | publisher=Real People Press. | year=1979 | | pages=149(pp.15,24,30,45,52) | id=0911226192}}</ref> Using NLP a person can 'model' the more successful parts of their own behavior in order to reproduce it in areas where they are less successful or 'model' another person to effect belief and behavior changes to improve functioning. If someone excels in some activity, it can be ] how specifically they do it by observing certain important details of their behaviour.<ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1975a">{{cite book | author=Bandler, Richard & John Grinder | title=The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy | location=Palo Alto, CA | publisher=Science & Behavior Books | year=1975}}</ref> NLP embodies several techniques, including hypnotic techniques, which proponents claim can effect changes in the way people think, learn and communicate.<ref name="Dilts et al 1980">{{cite book | author=Dilts, R.B., Grinder, J., Bandler, R., DeLozier, J.A. | title=Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Volume I - The Study of the Structure of Subjective Experience | publisher=Meta Publications | date=1980 | id=ISBN 0916990079 | pages=284(pp.3-4,6,14,17)}}</ref>


== Early development ==
===Internal 'maps' of the world===
According to Bandler and Grinder, NLP consists of a ] termed ''modeling'', plus a set of techniques that they derived from its initial applications.{{sfnm|1a1=Bandler|1a2=Grinder|1y=1975|1p=6|2a1=Grinder|2a2=Bostic St. Clair|2y=2001|2loc=Chapter 2: Terminology}} They derived many of the fundamental techniques from the work of ], ] and ].{{sfn|Bandler|Grinder|1979|p=8}} Bandler and Grinder also drew upon the ] of ], ] and ] (particularly ]).{{sfn|Bandler|Grinder|1975|p=6}}<ref name="Stollznow-2010" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Wake |first=Lisa |title=Neurolinguistic psychotherapy: a postmodern perspective |year=2008 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-415-42541-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8wIy20m_u9kC}}</ref>
NLP calls each individual's perception of the world their 'map'. NLP teaches that our mind-body (neuro) and what we say (language) all interact together to form our perceptions of the world, or maps (programming). Each person's map of the world determines feelings and behavior. Therefore, impoverished - and unrealistic - maps can restrict choices and result in problems.
As an approach to personal development or therapy it involves understanding that people create their own internal 'map' or world, recognizing unhelpful or destructive patterns of thinking based on impoverished maps of the world, then modifying or replacing these patterns with more useful or helpful ones. There is also an emphasis on ways to change internal representations or maps of the world in order to increase behavioral flexibility.<ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1979" /><ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1983">{{cite book | author=Bandler, Richard & John Grinder | title=Reframing: Neurolinguistic programming and the transformation of meaning | location=Moab, UT | publisher=Real People Press. | year=1983 | pages=appendix II,p.171}}</ref><ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1975a" />


Bandler and Grinder say that their methodology can codify the structure inherent to the therapeutic "magic" as performed in therapy by Perls, Satir and Erickson, and indeed inherent to any complex human activity. From that codification, they say, the structure and its activity can be learned by others. Their 1975 book, ''The Structure of Magic I: A Book about Language and Therapy'', is intended to be a codification of the therapeutic techniques of Perls and Satir.{{sfn|Bandler|Grinder|1975|p=6}}
===Modeling===
{{main|Modeling (NLP)}}
"Modeling" in NLP is the process of adopting the behaviors, language, strategies and beliefs of another or understanding the pattern of one's own behaviors in order to model aspects of oneself. The founders, Bandler and Grindler started by analysing in detail and then searching for what made successful ]s different from their peers. The patterns discovered were adapted for general communication and effecting change.<ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1979">{{cite book | author=Bandler, Richard & John Grinder | title=Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming | location=Moab, UT | publisher=Real People Press | year=1979 | pages=15,24,30,45,52.}}</ref> As an approach to learning it can involve modeling exceptional people. NLP modeling methods are designed to unconsciously assimilate the tacit knowledge to learn what the master is doing of which the master is not aware.<ref name="Jacobson 1994">Jacobson, S. (1994) Info-line: practical guidelines for training and development professionals, ''American Society For Training and Development'' Alexandria, VA </ref> As Bandler and Grinder state "the function of NLP modeling is to arrive at descriptions which are useful."<ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1979"/> Einspruch & Forman 1985 state that "when modeling another person the modeler suspends his or her own beliefs and adopts the structure of the physiology, language, strategies, and beliefs of the person being modeled. After the modeler is capable of behaviorally reproducing the patterns (of behavior, communication, and behavioral outcomes) of the one being modeled, a process occurs in which the modeler modifies and readopts his or her own belief system while also integrating the beliefs of the one who was modeled."<ref name="Einspruch & Forman 1985"/>


Bandler and Grinder say that they used their own process of modeling to model Virginia Satir so they could produce what they termed the Meta-Model, a model for gathering information and challenging a client's language and underlying thinking.{{sfn|Bandler|Grinder |1975|p=6}}<ref name="Clancy-1989" /> They say that by challenging linguistic distortions, specifying generalizations, and recovering deleted information in the client's statements, the transformational grammar concept of surface structure yields a more complete representation of the underlying deep structure and therefore has therapeutic benefit.<ref>John Grinder, Suzette Elgin (1973). "A Guide to Transformational Grammar: History, Theory, Practice." Holt, Rinehart and Winston. {{ISBN|0-03-080126-5}}. Reviewed by Frank H. Nuessel, Jr. ''The Modern Language Journal'', Vol. 58, No. 5/6 (September–October 1974), pp. 282–283</ref><ref name="Bradley-1985">{{cite journal |first1=E. Jane |last1=Bradley |last2=Biedermann |first2=Heinz-Joachim |title=Bandler and Grinder's neurolinguistic programming: Its historical context and contribution |journal=Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training |date=1 January 1985 |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=59–62 |doi=10.1037/h0088527 |issn=0033-3204 |oclc=1588338}}</ref> Also derived from Satir were anchoring, future pacing and representational systems.<ref name="Spitzer-1992">{{cite journal |last=Spitzer |first=Robert |title=Virginia Satir & Origins of NLP |journal=Anchor Point Magazine |issue=July |page=? |year=1992 |url=http://www.social-engineer.org/archives/NLP/NLP-Satir395.pdf |access-date=5 June 2013}}</ref>
===Meta model===
{{main|Meta model (NLP)}}
In NLP the Meta-model is a set of specifying questions or language patterns designed to challenge and expand the limits to a person's model or 'map' of the world. When a person speaks about a problem or situation their choice of words, (or ‘indicators’), will distort, generalize, and delete portions of their experience. By listening to and responding to these language patterns the practitioner seeks to help the client to recover the information that is under the surface of the words. A therapist who ’listens’ on the basis of their existing belief systems may miss important aspects. The NLP meta-model, being based on the verbal patterning of ] and ], is intended to facilitate detecting the indicators of limiting beliefs and restrictive thinking. The questions in the meta-model are designed to bring clarity to the clients language and so to their underlying restrictive thinking and beliefs.


In contrast, the Milton-Model—a model of the purportedly hypnotic language of Milton Erickson—was described by Bandler and Grinder as "artfully vague" and ]ic.{{sfn|Bandler|Grinder|1982|p=240}} The Milton-Model is used in combination with the Meta-Model as a softener, to induce "trance" and to deliver indirect therapeutic suggestion.{{sfn|Bandler|Grinder|1981}}
In business or therapy, the meta-model might be used to help a client elaborate the details of problems, proposals and objectives by asking about the important information that has been left out. For example, a person states that "we need to make a decision", a response could be to ask who will be actually be doing the deciding and how exactly the process of deciding (from decision) would take place. The word we does not specify who is doing the action. Also, the word 'decision' is a process which had been turned into a abstract noun. In that statement there was also an implied necessity (from need) which could also be challenged to find out if it really is a necessity.<ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1975a"/>


Psychologist ] writes that Chomsky's theories "appear to be irrelevant" to NLP.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |editor1-last=Cautin |editor1-first=Robin L. |editor2-last=Lilienfeld |editor2-first=Scott O. |title=The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology, Volume II |date=2015 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-4706-7127-6 |page=759 |chapter=Controversial Therapies |doi=10.1002/9781118625392.wbecp515}}</ref> Linguist ] describes Bandler's and Grinder's reference to such experts as ]. Other than Satir, the people they cite as influences did not collaborate with Bandler or Grinder. Chomsky himself has no association with NLP, with his work being theoretical in nature and having no therapeutic element. Stollznow writes, "ther than borrowing ], NLP does not bear authentic resemblance to any of Chomsky's theories or philosophies—linguistic, ] or political."<ref name="Stollznow-2010">{{cite journal |last1=Stollznow |first1=Karen|author-link=Karen Stollznow|year=2010 |title=Not-so Linguistic Programming |journal=] |volume=15 |issue=4 |page=7 |url=http://www.skeptic.com/magazine/archives/vol15n04.html |access-date=1 June 2013}}</ref>
===Milton model===
{{main|Milton model}}


According to ], a researcher in the field of hypnosis, "the major weakness of Bandler and Grinder's linguistic ] is that so much of it is built upon untested hypotheses and is supported by totally inadequate data."{{sfn|Weitzenhoffer|1989|p=304}} Weitzenhoffer adds that Bandler and Grinder misuse ] and mathematics,{{sfn|Weitzenhoffer|1989|pp=300–301}} redefine or misunderstand terms from the ] ] (e.g., ]),{{efn|{{harvnb|Weitzenhoffer|1989|pp=304–305}}: "I have chosen ] to explain what some of the problems are in Bandler and Grinder's linguistic approach to Ericksonian hypnotism. Almost any other linguistic concept used by these authors could have served equally well for the purpose of showing some of the inherent weaknesses in their treatment."}} create a scientific façade by needlessly complicating Ericksonian concepts with unfounded claims,{{efn|{{harvnb|Weitzenhoffer|1989|p=307}}: "As I have mentioned in the last chapter, any references made to left and right brain functions in relation to hypnotic phenomena must be considered as poorly founded. They do not add to our understanding of nor our ability to utilize hypnotic phenomena in the style of Erickson. Indeed, references such as Bandler and Grinder make to these functions give their subject matter a false appearance of having a more scientific status than it has."}} make factual errors,{{efn|{{harvnb|Weitzenhoffer|1989|p=306}}: "This work , incidentally, contains some glaring misstatements of facts. For example, ] and ] were depicted as contemporaries!"}} and disregard or confuse concepts central to the Ericksonian approach.{{efn|{{harvnb|Weitzenhoffer|1989|p=306}}: One of the most striking features of the Bandler/Grinder interpretation is that it somehow ignores the issue of the existence and function of suggestion, which even in Erickson's own writings and those done with Rossi, is a central idea."}}
The ''']''' is a form of hypnotherapy based on the language patterns for hypnotic communication of ], a noted hypnotherapist.<ref name="Barretta 2004">Norma Barretta (2004) Review of Hypnotic Language: Its Structure and Use. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. Bloomingdale: Jan 2004. Vol.46, Iss. 3; pg. 261, 2 pgs</ref> It has been described as "a way of using language to induce and maintain trance in order to contact the hidden resources of our personality".<ref name="OConnor & Seymour 2002">{{cite book | author=Joseph O'Connor, John Seymour | title=Introducing NLP | location=London | publisher=HarperCollins | year=2002 (first published 1990) | url=http://www.reiters.com/index.cgi?ISBN=1855383446&f=p | id=1855383446}}</ref> The milton model has three primary aspects: Firstly, to assist in building and maintaining rapport with the client. Secondly, to overload and distract the conscious mind so that ] can be cultivated. Thirdly, to allow for interpretation in the words offered to the client.<ref name="Pruett 2002">Pruett, Julie Annette Sikes (2002) The application of the neuro-linguistic programming model to vocal performance training D.M.A., The University of Texas at Austin, 151 pages; AAT 3108499 </ref>


More recently, Bandler has stated, "NLP is based on finding out what works and formalizing it. In order to formalize patterns I utilized everything from linguistics to ] ... The models that constitute NLP are all formal models based on mathematical, ]al principles such as ] and the mathematical ]."<ref>{{cite web |last=Bandler |first=Richard |title=NLP Seminars Group – Frequently Asked Questions |website=NLP Seminars Group |url=http://www.purenlp.com/nlpfaqr.html |year=1997 |access-date=8 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130622080317/http://www.purenlp.com/nlpfaqr.html |archive-date=22 June 2013}}</ref> There is no mention of the mathematics of holography nor of holography in general in Spitzer's,<ref name="Spitzer-1992" /> or Grinder's<ref>{{harvnb|Grinder|Bostic St. Clair|2001}}.</ref> account of the development of NLP.
;1. Rapport


On the matter of the development of NLP, Grinder recollects:
The first aspect, building ''']''', or empathy, is done to achieve better communication and responsiveness. NLP teaches 'mirroring' or matching body language, posture, breathing, predicates and voice tonality. Rapport is an aspect of 'pacing' or tuning into the client or learners world. Once pacing is established, the practitioner can 'lead' by changing their behavior or perception so the other follows. O'Connor & Seymour in "Introducing NLP" describe rapport as a 'harmonious dance', an extension of natural skills, but warn against mimicry.<ref name="OConnor & Seymour 2002">{{cite book | author=Joseph O'Connor, John Seymour | title=Introducing NLP | location=London | publisher=HarperCollins | year=2002 (first published 1990) | url=http://www.reiters.com/index.cgi?ISBN=1855383446&f=p | id=1855383446}}</ref> Singer gives examples of the pantomime effect of mere mimicry by some practitioners which does not create rapport.<ref name="Singer & Lalich 1996">{{cite book | author= Singer, Margaret & Janja Lalich | title = Crazy Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? | publisher = Jossey Bass | date = 1996 | id = ISBN 0787902780}}</ref>


{{blockquote|text=My memories about what we thought at the time of discovery (with respect to the classic code we developed—that is, the years 1973 through 1978) are that we were quite explicit that we were out to overthrow a ] and that, for example, I, for one, found it very useful to plan this campaign using in part as a guide the excellent work of ] ('']'') in which he detailed some of the conditions which historically have obtained in the midst of ]s. For example, I believe it was very useful that neither one of us were qualified in the field we first went after—psychology and in particular, its therapeutic application; this being one of the conditions which Kuhn identified in his historical study of paradigm shifts.<ref>{{cite web |last=Grinder |first=John |others=Interviewed by Chris Collingwood and Jules Collingwood |title=1996 Interview with John Grinder PhD, co-creator of NLP |website=Inspiritive |url=http://www.inspiritive.com.au/grinterv.htm |date=July 1996 |access-date=8 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130428225949/http://www.inspiritive.com.au/grinterv.htm |archive-date=28 April 2013}}</ref>}}
;2. Overloading conscious attention


The philosopher ] responded that Grinder has not understood Kuhn's text on the ], ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions''. Carroll replies: (a) individual scientists never have nor are they ever able to create ''paradigm shifts'' volitionally and Kuhn does not suggest otherwise; (b) Kuhn's text does not contain the idea that being unqualified in a field of science is a prerequisite to producing a result that necessitates a ''paradigm shift'' in that field and (c) ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' is foremost a work of ''history'' and not an instructive text on ''creating'' paradigm shifts and such a text is not possible—extraordinary discovery is not a formulaic procedure. Carroll explains that a ''paradigm shift'' is not a planned activity, rather it is an outcome of scientific effort within the dominant paradigm that produces ] that cannot be adequately accounted for within the current paradigm—hence a ''paradigm shift'', i.e. the adoption of a new paradigm. In developing NLP, Bandler and Grinder were not responding to a paradigmatic crisis in psychology nor did they produce any data that caused a paradigmatic crisis in psychology. There is no sense in which Bandler and Grinder caused or participated in a paradigm shift. "What did Grinder and Bandler do that makes it impossible to continue doing psychology ... without accepting their ideas? Nothing," argues Carroll.<ref name="Carroll-2009">{{cite web |last=Carroll |first=R. T. |author-link=Robert Todd Carroll |publisher=] |url=http://skepdic.com/neurolin.html |title=Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) |access-date=25 June 2009 |date=23 February 2009}}</ref>
The second aspect of the milton model is that it uses ambiguity in language and non-verbal communication. This might also be combined with ''vagueness'', which arises when the boundaries of meaning are indistinct. The use of ambiguity and vagueness distracts the conscious mind as it tries to work out what is meant which gives the unconscious mind the opportunity to prosper.


=== Commercialization and evaluation ===
;3. Indirect communication
By the late 1970s, the ] had developed into an industry and provided a market for some NLP ideas. At the center of this growth was the ] at ]. Perls had led numerous ] seminars at Esalen. Satir was an early leader and Bateson was a guest teacher. Bandler and Grinder have said that in addition to being a therapeutic method, NLP was also a study of communication and began marketing it as a business tool, writing that, "if any human being can do anything, so can you."<ref name="Clancy-1989">{{cite journal |last1=Clancy |first1=Frank |last2=Yorkshire |first2=Heidi |year=1989 |title=The Bandler Method |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DOcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22 |journal=] |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=22–28 |issn=0362-8841 |access-date=26 April 2024 |via=}}</ref> After 150 students paid $1,000 each for a ten-day workshop in ], Bandler and Grinder gave up academic writing and started producing popular books from seminar transcripts, such as ''Frogs into Princes,'' which sold more than 270,000 copies. According to court documents relating to an intellectual property dispute between Bandler and Grinder, Bandler made more than $800,000 in 1980 from workshop and book sales.<ref name="Clancy-1989" />


A community of psychotherapists and students began to form around Bandler and Grinder's initial works, leading to the growth and spread of NLP as a theory and practice.<ref>{{cite book |title=Social Engineering |publisher=John Wiley & Sons Inc |last1=Hadnagy |first1=Christopher |last2=Wilson |first2=Paul |access-date=24 May 2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9LpawpklYogC |date= 2010 |isbn=978-0-470-63953-5}}</ref> For example, ] trained with Grinder and utilized a few ideas from NLP as part of his own ] and motivational speaking programmes.<ref>{{cite book |title=Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless |year=2006 |publisher=Crown Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-4000-5410-7 |last=Salerno |first=Steve |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lmmxX81cEmMC}}</ref> Bandler led several unsuccessful efforts to exclude other parties from using NLP.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} Meanwhile, the rising number of practitioners and theorists led NLP to become even less uniform than it was at its foundation.<ref name="Stollznow-2010" /> Prior to the decline of NLP, scientific researchers began testing its theoretical underpinnings ]ly, with research indicating a lack of empirical support for NLP's essential theories.<ref name="Witkowski-2010" /> The 1990s were characterized by fewer scientific studies evaluating the methods of NLP than the previous decade. ] attributes this to a declining interest in the debate as the result of a lack of empirical support for NLP from its proponents.<ref name="Witkowski-2010" />
The third aspect of the milton model is that it is purposely vague and metaphoric for the purpose of accessing the unconscious mind. It is used to soften the meta model and make indirect suggestions.<ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1976">Bandler, Richard & John Grinder (1976). Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Volume 1. Cupertino, CA :Meta Publications. ISBN 0-916990-01-X.</ref> A direct suggestion merely states what is wanted, for example, "when you are in front of the audience you will not feel nervous". In contrast an indirect suggestion is less authoritative and leaves an opportunity for interpretation, for example, "When you are in front of the audience, you might find yourself feeling ever more confident". This example follows the indirect method leaving both the specific time and level of self-confidence unspecified. It might be made even more indirect by saying, "when you come to a decision to speak in public, you may find it appealing how your feelings have changed." The choice of speaking in front of the audience, the exact time and the likely responses to the whole process are framed but the imprecise language gives the client the opportunity to fill in the finer details.<ref name="Zahourek 2002">Rothlyn P Zahourek. (2002) Utilizing Ericksonian hypnosis in psychiatric-mental health nursing practice Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. Philadelphia: Jan-Mar 2002. Vol.38, Iss. 1; pg. 15, 8 pgs</ref>


== Main components and core concepts ==
===Representational systems===
NLP can be understood in terms of three broad components: subjectivity, consciousness, and learning.


According to Bandler and Grinder, people experience the world subjectively, creating ] of their experiences. These representations involve the five senses and language. In other words, our conscious experiences take the form of sights, sounds, feelings, smells, and tastes. When we imagine something, recall an event, or think about the future, we utilize these same sensory systems within our minds{{sfn|Bandler|Grinder|1976|pp=3–8}}{{efn|{{harvnb|Dilts|Grinder|Bandler|DeLozier|1980|pp=13–14}}: "There are three characteristics of effective patterning in NLP which sharply distinguish it from behavioural science as it is commonly practiced today. First, for a pattern or generalization regarding human communication to be acceptable or well–formed in NLP, it must include in the description the human agents who are initiating and responding to the pattern being described, their actions, their possible responses. Secondly, the description of the pattern must be represented in sensory grounded terms which are available to the user. This user–oriented constraint on NLP ensures usefulness. We have been continually struck by the tremendous gap between theory and practice in the behavioural sciences—this requirement closes that gap. Notice that since patterns must be represented in sensory grounded terms, available through practice to the user, a pattern will typically have multiple representation—each tailored for the differing sensory capabilities of individual users Thirdly, NLP includes within its descriptive vocabulary terms which are not directly observable ."}} Furthermore it is stated that these subjective representations of experience have a discernible structure, a pattern.{{sfn|Dilts|Grinder|Bandler|DeLozier|1980|p=7}}
{{main|Representational systems (NLP)}}
In NLP, representational systems are seen as ways of perceiving the world through the senses and of storing the information from the senses in the mind. Memories are closely linked to sensory experience. When people are involved in tasks, such as making conversation, describing a problem in therapy, kicking a ball or riding a horse, their ''']''', consisting of ], ], ] (and possibly ] and ]) are being activated at the same time.<ref name="Druckman & Swets 1998" /> This can limit people's capacity or result in negative associations. Many NLP techniques rely on ascertaining and manipulating the sequences of representational systems.


Bandler and Grinder assert that behavior (both our own and others') can be understood through these sensory-based internal representations. Behavior here includes verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as effective or adaptive behaviors and less helpful or "pathological" ones.{{efn|{{harvp|Dilts|Grinder|Bandler|DeLozier|1980|p=36}}: "The basic elements from which the patterns of human behaviour are formed are the perceptual systems through which the members of the species operate on their environment: vision (sight), audition (hearing), kinesthesis (body sensations) and olfaction/gustation (smell/taste). The neurolinguistic programming model presupposes that all of the distinctions we as human beings are able to make concerning our environment (internal and external) and our behaviour can be usefully represented in terms of these systems. These perceptual classes constitute the structural parameters of human knowledge. We postulate that all of our ongoing experience can usefully be coded as consisting of some combination of these sensory classes."}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grinder |first1=John |last2=Bandler |first2=Richard |title=Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson: Volume 2 |edition=1st |year=1977 |publisher=Meta Publications |pages=11–19 |isbn=978-1-55552-053-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u_gbkgAACAAJ}}</ref> They also assert that behavior in both the self and other people can be modified by manipulating these sense-based subjective representations.{{sfnm|1a1=Bandler|1a2=Grinder|1y=1979|1pp=5-78|2a1=Bandler|2a2=Grinder|2y=1981|2pp=240-50|3a1=Hall|3a2=Belnap|3y=2000|3pp=39–40|3loc=#2 Pacing Or Matching Another's Model of the World|4a1=Hall|4a2=Belnap|4y=2000|4pp=89–93|4loc=#23 The Change Personal History Pattern|5a1=Hall|5a2=Belnap|5y=2000|5pp=93–95|5loc=#24 The Swish Pattern}}{{efn|{{harvp|Dilts|Grinder|Bandler|DeLozier|1980|p=7}}: "NLP presents specific tools which can be applied effectively in any human interaction. It offers specific techniques by which a practitioner may usefully organize and re–organize his or her subjective experience or the experiences of a client in order to define and subsequently secure any behavioural outcome."}}
===Preferred representational systems===
NLP teaches that each person has an internal ] which a practitoner can ascertain from external cues such as the direction of eye movements, posture, breathing, voice tone and the use of ]. The practitioner is taught to 'mirror' these cues for better communication. For example when someone says, "I can't ''see'' a future for myself" then an NLP practitioner might respond using visual predicates to assist the speaker to build more positive visual representations. The existence of a preferred representational system indicated by external cues has been discounted by research.<ref name="Sharpley 1984">Sharpley, C. F. (1984). Predicate matching in NLP: A review of research on the preferred representational system. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31(2), 238-248.</ref><ref name="Heap 1988">{{cite book | author=Heap, M. | title=Neuro-linguistic programming, In M. Heap (Ed.) Hypnosis: Current Clinical, Experimental and Forensic Practices | location=London | publisher=Croom Helm | year=1988 | url=http://www.mheap.com/nlp1.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Elich 1985">Elich, M., Thompson, R. W., & Miller, L. (1985). . Journal of Counseling Psychology, 32(4), 622-625. note: "psychological fad"p.625</ref>


NLP posits that ] can be divided into conscious and unconscious components. The part of our internal representations operating outside our direct awareness is referred to as the "unconscious mind".{{efn|{{harvnb|Dilts|Grinder|Bandler|DeLozier|1980|pp=77–80}}: "Strategies and representations which typically occur below an individual's level of awareness make up what is often called or referred to as the 'unconscious mind'."}}
===Submodalities===
Submodalities are the details of representational systems, such as size, brightness, volume, taste, proximity, intensity and other sensations.<ref name="Tosey & Mathison 2003">Tosey, P. Jane Mathison (2003) Neuro-linguistic Programming and learning theory: a response ''The Curriculum Journal'' Vol.14 No.3 p.371-388 See also (available online): </ref> There is a variety of techniques for changing submodalities and the associated emotional state (or 'anchor'). For example someone may see their future as 'dark and cloudy' with associated emotions, but would seek through NLP to perceive, and feel it, as 'light and clear'.


Finally, NLP uses a method of learning called "modeling", designed to replicate expertise in any field. According to Bandler and Grinder, by analyzing the sequence of sensory and linguistic representations used by an expert while performing a skill, it's possible to create a mental model that can be learned by others.{{sfnm|1a1=Bandler|1a2=Grinder|1y=1975|1p=6|2a1=Bandler|2a2=Grinder|2y=1979|2pp=7, 9, 10, 36, 123|3a1=Dilts|3a2=Grinder|3a3=Bandler|3a4=DeLozier|3y=1980|3pp=35, 78|4a1=Grinder|4a2=Bostic St. Clair|4y=2001|4pp=1, 10, 28, 34, 189, 227–28}}
===Aphorisms===
{{main|Principles of NLP}}
*The map is not the territory
*Life and 'Mind' are Systemic Processes
*Behind every behavior is a positive intention
*Rapport is necessary for effective communication
*There is no failure, only feedback
*Choice is better than no choice (and flexibility is the way one gets choice)
*The meaning of the communication is in the response
*People already have all the resources they need to succeed
*Multiple descriptions are better than one


===Techniques=== == Techniques or set of practices ==
{{further|Methods of neuro-linguistic programming}}
;Anchoring
]'' (1979). The six directions represent "visual construct", "visual recall", "auditory construct", "auditory recall", "]" and "auditory internal dialogue".]]
NLP teaches that we constantly make ''']''' (associations) between what we see, hear and feel and our emotional states. While in an emotional state if a person is exposed to a unique stimulus (sight, sound or touch) then a connection is made between the emotion and the unique stimulus. If the unique stimulus occurs again, the emotional state will then be triggered. NLP teaches that anchors (such as a particular touch associated with a memory or state) can be deliberately created and triggered to help people access 'resourceful' or other target states.<ref name="Krugman 1985">Krugman, Martin, ''et al.'', (1985): "Neuro-linguistic programming treatment for anxiety: Magic or myth?." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Aug, Vol. 53(4) pp. 526-530.</ref> .
According to one study by Steinbach,<ref name="Steinbach-1984">Steinbach, A. (1984). "Neurolinguistic programming: a systematic approach to change". ''Canadian Family Physician'', 30, 147–50. {{PMC|2153995}}</ref> a classic interaction in NLP can be understood in terms of several major stages including establishing rapport, gleaning information about a problem mental state and desired goals, using specific tools and techniques to make interventions, and integrating proposed changes into the client's life. The entire process is guided by the non-verbal responses of the client.<ref name="Steinbach-1984" /> The first is the act of establishing and maintaining rapport between the practitioner and the client which is achieved through pacing and leading the verbal (''e.g.'', sensory predicates{{Explain|date=October 2023}} and keywords) and non-verbal behavior (''e.g.'', matching and mirroring non-verbal behavior, or responding to eye movements) of the client.{{sfn|Bandler|Grinder|1979|pp=8, 15, 24, 30, 45, 52, 149}}


Once rapport is established, the practitioner may gather information about the client's present state as well as help the client define a desired state or goal for the interaction. The practitioner pays attention to the verbal and non-verbal responses as the client defines the present state and desired state and any resources that may be required to bridge the gap.<ref name="Steinbach-1984" /> The client is typically encouraged to consider the consequences of the desired outcome, and how they may affect his or her personal or professional life and relationships, taking into account any positive intentions of any problems that may arise.<ref name="Steinbach-1984" /> The practitioner thereafter assists the client in achieving the desired outcomes by using certain tools and techniques to change internal representations and responses to stimuli in the world.{{sfn|Bandler|1985|pp=134–3}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Masters |first1=B. |last2=Rawlins |first2=M. |last3=Rawlins |first3=L. |last4=Weidner |first4=J. |year=1991 |title=The NLP swish pattern: An innovative visualizing technique |journal=Journal of Mental Health Counseling |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=79–90 |url=http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1991-19473-001}}</ref> Finally, the practitioner helps the client to mentally rehearse and integrate the changes into his or her life.<ref name="Steinbach-1984" /> For example, the client may be asked to envision what it is like having already achieved the outcome.
;Swish
The swish pattern is a process that is designed to disrupt a pattern of thought from one that used to lead to an unwanted behavior to one that leads to a desired behavior. This involves visualizing a 'cue' which used to lead to the old pattern - such as a smokers hand moving towards the face with a cigarette in it, and reprogramming the mind to 'switch' to a picture of the desired outcome, such as a healthy looking person, looking energetic and fit. In addition to visualization, auditory sound effects are often imagined to enhance the experience. <ref name="Masters et al 1991">Masters, B Rawlins, M, Rawlins, L, Weidner, J. (1991) "The NLP swish pattern: An innovative visualizing technique. Journal of Mental Health Counseling. Vol 13(1) Jan 1991, 79-90. " </ref>


According to Stollznow, "NLP also involves fringe discourse analysis and 'practical' guidelines for 'improved' communication. For example, one text asserts 'when you adopt the "but" word, people will remember what you said afterwards. With the "and" word, people remember what you said before and after.'"<ref name="Stollznow-2010" />
;Reframing
Another technique, ''']''' functions through "changing the way you perceive an event and so changing the meaning. When the meaning changes, responses and behaviours will also change. Reframing with language allows you to see the world in a different way and this changes the meaning. Reframing is the basis of jokes, myths, legends, fairy tales and most creative ways of thinking."<ref name=Joseph O'Connor">Joseph O'Connor ''NLP: A Practical Guide to Achieving the Results You Want: Workbook'' Harper Collins 2001</ref> There are examples in children's literature. ] would play ] whenever she felt down about life, to remind herself of the things that she could do, and not worry about the things she couldn't. Alice Mills also says that this occurs in ]'s story where to the surprise of the ], the beautiful creatures welcome and accept him; gazing at his reflection, he sees that he too is a swan.<ref name="Mills 1999">Alice Mills (1999) ''Pollyanna and the not so glad game.'' Children's Literature. Storrs: 1999. Vol.27 pg. 87, 18 pgs</ref>


== Applications ==
;Six step reframe
=== Alternative medicine ===
An example of reframing is found in the ''']''' which involves distinguishing between an underlying intention and the consequent behaviors for the purpose of achieving the intention by different and more successful behaviours. It is based on the notion that there is a positive intention behind all behaviors, but that the behaviors themselves may be unwanted or counterproductive in other ways. NLP uses this staged process, to identify the intention and create alternative choices to satisfy that intention.
NLP has been promoted as being able to treat a variety of diseases including ], ] and cancer.<ref name="American Cancer Society-2009">{{cite book |publisher=] |title=American Cancer Society Complete Guide to Complementary and Alternative Cancer Therapies |edition=2nd |year=2009 |isbn=9780944235713 |editor=Russell J |editor2=Rovere A |pages= |chapter=Neuro-linguistic programming |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americancancerso0000unse/page/120 }}</ref> Such claims have no supporting ].<ref name="American Cancer Society-2009"/> People who use NLP as a form of treatment risk serious adverse health consequences as it can delay the provision of effective medical care.<ref name="American Cancer Society-2009"/>


=== Psychotherapeutic ===
;Parts integration
Early books about NLP had a psychotherapeutic focus given that the early models were psychotherapists. As an approach to psychotherapy, NLP shares similar core assumptions and foundations in common with some contemporary brief and systemic practices,<ref>Rubin Battino (2002) ''Expectation: The Very Brief Therapy Book''. Crown House Publishing. {{ISBN|1-84590-028-6}}</ref><ref>Kerry, S. (2009) Pretreatment expectations of psychotherapy clients, University of Alberta (Canada)<!--, {{AAT|NR55409}}--></ref><ref name="Beyebach-1999" /> such as ].<ref>Bill O'Connell (2005) Solution-focused therapy (Brief therapy series). Sage; Second Edition </ref><ref>Windy Dryden (2007) Dryden's handbook of individual therapy. 5th edition. Sage. {{ISBN|1-4129-2238-0}} </ref> NLP has also been acknowledged as having influenced these practices<ref name="Beyebach-1999">{{cite journal |last1=Beyebach |first1=M. |last2=Rodríguez Morejón |first2=A. |year=1999 |title=Some thoughts on integration in solution-focused therapy |journal=Journal of Systemic Therapies |volume=18 |pages=24–42|doi=10.1521/jsyt.1999.18.1.24 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Pesut |first=Daniel J. |title=The art, science, and techniques of reframing in psychiatric mental health nursing |journal=Issues in Mental Health Nursing |date=1 January 1991 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=9–18 |doi=10.3109/01612849109058206 |pmid=1988384}}</ref> with its reframing techniques{{sfnm|1a1=Maag|1y=1999|2a1=Maag|2y=2000}} which seeks to achieve behavior change by shifting its ''context'' or ''meaning'',<ref>{{harvnb|Bandler|Grinder|1982}} as cited in {{harvnb|Maag|1999}} and {{harvnb|Maag|2000}}.</ref> for example, by finding the positive connotation of a thought or behavior.
''']''' is based on the idea that different aspects of ourselves are in conflict due to different perceptions and beliefs. 'Parts integration' is the process of integrating the disparate aspects of the self by identifying and then negotiating with the separate parts to achieve resolution of internal conflict.


The two main therapeutic uses of NLP are, firstly, as an adjunct by therapists<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Field |first1=E. S. |title=Neurolinguistic programming as an adjunct to other psychotherapeutic/hypnotherapeutic interventions |journal=The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=174–82 |year=1990 |pmid=2296919 |doi=10.1080/00029157.1990.10402822}}</ref> practicing in other therapeutic disciplines and, secondly, as a specific therapy called Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy.<ref>Bridoux, D., Weaver, M., (2000) "Neuro-linguistic psychotherapy." In ''Therapeutic perspectives on working with lesbian, gay and bisexual clients.'' Davies, Dominic (Ed); Neal, Charles (Ed). (pp. 73–90). Buckingham, England: Open University Press (2000) xviii, 187 pp. {{ISBN|0-335-20333-7}}</ref>
==History and development==
{{main|History of neuro-linguistic programming}}


According to Stollznow, "Bandler and Grinder's infamous ''Frogs into Princes'' and their other books boast that NLP is a cure-all that treats a broad range of physical and mental conditions and learning difficulties, including epilepsy, myopia and dyslexia. With its promises to cure schizophrenia, depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and its dismissal of psychiatric illnesses as psychosomatic, NLP shares similarities with Scientology and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)."<ref name="Stollznow-2010" /> A systematic review of experimental studies by Sturt ''et al.'' (2012) concluded that "there is little evidence that NLP interventions improve health-related outcomes."{{sfn|Sturt|2012}} In his review of NLP, ] writes, "NLP is not really a cohesive therapy but a ragbag of different techniques without a particularly clear theoretical basis ... evidence base is virtually non-existent."<ref>{{cite book|last=Briers|first=Stephen|title=Brilliant Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: How to use CBT to improve your mind and your life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6BQ2S3F_eDMC&q=ragbag&pg=PT15|date=27 December 2012|publisher=Pearson UK|isbn=978-0-273-77849-3|page=15}}</ref> Eisner writes, "NLP appears to be a superficial and gimmicky approach to dealing with mental health problems. Unfortunately, NLP appears to be the first in a long line of mass marketing seminars that purport to virtually cure any mental disorder ... it appears that NLP has no empirical or scientific support as to the underlying tenets of its theory or clinical effectiveness. What remains is a mass-marketed serving of psychopablum."<ref>{{cite book|first=Donald A.|last=Eisner|title=The Death of Psychotherapy: From Freud to Alien Abductions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hmcDl6l8uXwC&pg=PA158|year=2000|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-96413-9|pages=158–59}}</ref>
===1970s: Founding and early development===
NLP was co-founded and developed jointly by ] and UCSC assistant professor of linguistics ] under the tutelage of noted ] ], at the ], during the 1960s and 1970s. At that time the Californian ] were developing into a viable industry. Gregory Bateson (see ]) was influenced by ] particularly his ideas about human modeling and that ']'. These ideas were adopted by Bandler and Grinder<ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1975a"/>. From 1972, the co-founders of NLP had an interest in the exceptional communications skills of gestalt therapist ], family therapist ] and founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, ]. Subsequently ''Structure of Magic Series (1975)'' and ''Patterns of Milton H. Erickson (1976, 1977)'' were published using those therapists as models. In the late 1970s, ], ], ], and ] worked with the co-founders and separately to contribute to the development of NLP.


André Muller Weitzenhoffer—a friend and peer of Milton Erickson—wrote, "Has NLP really abstracted and explicated the essence of successful therapy and provided everyone with the means to be another Whittaker, Virginia Satir, or Erickson? ... failure to do this is evident because today there is no multitude of their equals, not even another Whittaker, Virginia Satir, or Erickson. Ten years should have been sufficient time for this to happen. In this light, I cannot take NLP seriously ... contributions to our understanding and use of Ericksonian techniques are equally dubious. ''Patterns I'' and ''II'' are poorly written works that were an overambitious, pretentious effort to reduce hypnotism to a magic of words."{{sfn|Weitzenhoffer|1989|p=305}}
===1980s: New developments and scientific assessment===


Clinical psychologist Stephen Briers questions the value of the NLP maxim—a ''presupposition'' in NLP jargon—"there is no failure, only feedback".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dilts |first1=Robert |last2=DeLozier |first2=Judith |title=Encyclopedia of Systemic Neuro-Linguistic Programming and NLP New Coding |edition=1st |year=2000 |publisher=NLP University Press |location=Santa Cruz |isbn=978-0-9701540-0-2 |page=1002 |url=http://nlpuniversitypress.com/html2/PrPu25.html |access-date=16 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921060637/http://nlpuniversitypress.com/html2/PrPu25.html |archive-date=21 September 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Briers argues that the denial of the existence of failure diminishes its instructive value. He offers ], ] and ] as three examples of unambiguous acknowledged personal failure that served as an impetus to great success. According to Briers, it was "the crash-and-burn type of failure, not the sanitised NLP Failure Lite, i.e. the failure-that-isn't really-failure sort of failure" that propelled these individuals to success. Briers contends that adherence to the maxim leads to self-deprecation. According to Briers, personal endeavour is a product of invested values and aspirations and the dismissal of personally significant failure as mere feedback effectively denigrates what one values. Briers writes, "Sometimes we need to accept and mourn the death of our dreams, not just casually dismiss them as inconsequential." Briers also contends that the NLP maxim is narcissistic, self-centered and divorced from notions of moral responsibility.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Briers |first1=Stephen |title=Psychobabble: Exploding the myths of the self-help generation |edition=1st |year=2012 |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |location=Santa Cruz |isbn=978-0-273-77239-2 |chapter=MYTH 16: There is no failure, only feedback |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2zsQeth9yRAC}}</ref>
In the 1980s, shortly after publishing ''Neuro-linguistic Programming Volume 1''<ref name="Dilts et al 1980"/> with Robert Dilts and Judith Delozier, Grinder and Bandler fell out. Amidst acrimony and intellectual property lawsuits, NLP started to be developed haphazardly by many individuals. During the 1980s John Grinder and Judith Delozier collaborated to develop a form of NLP called the ] which attempted to restore a whole mind-body systemic approach to NLP. Richard Bandler also published new processes with ] and ] as in ''Using Your Brain: For a Change (1984)''. Meanwhile ] who taught NLP in the late 1970s, began mass marketing products incorporating aspects of NLP (renamed as '']''). Other practitioners and trainers modified, renamed and developed their own variations of NLP. ] offered NLP with a focus on what he termed meta-states (mentally stepping back and viewing the self from a larger perspective). ] developed a timeline therapy consulting technique {{Fact|date=January 2007}} where clients were encouraged to visualise, and perhaps also physically create the timeline of their life (or facets of it) and then alter and improve that timeline. NLP contributors ], and Connirae and ] also emerged during this time. Given the multiplicity of developers and trainers, there was to be no single definitive system of NLP.<ref name="Druckman & Swets 1998">Druckman and Swets (eds) (l988) , National Academy Press.</ref>


=== Other uses ===
In the late 1980s, Sharpley's (1984, 1987) research reviews in experimental ] and by the ] gave NLP an overall negative assessment. Thereafter, except for sporadic articles on NLP in different fields, there was a marked decrease in NLP research.
Although the original core techniques of NLP were therapeutic in orientation their generic nature enabled them to be applied to other fields. These applications include ],<ref>{{cite book | last1=Gass | first1=Robert H | last2=Seiter | first2=John S | title=Persuasion: Social Influence and Compliance Gaining | publisher=Routledge | date=2022-04-06 | isbn=978-1-000-55677-3 | page=}}</ref> sales,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zastrow |first1=C. |title=Social Workers and Salesworkers |doi=10.1300/J283v04n03_02 |journal=Journal of Independent Social Work |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=7–16|year=1990 }}</ref> negotiation,<ref>Tosey P. & Mathison, J., "Fabulous Creatures of HRD: A Critical Natural History of Neuro-Linguistic Programming", University of Surrey Paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Human Resource Development Research & Practice across Europe, Oxford Brookes Business School, 26–28 June 2007</ref> management training,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Yemm |first=Graham |title=Can NLP help or harm your business? |journal=Industrial and Commercial Training |date=1 January 2006 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=12–17 |doi=10.1108/00197850610645990}}</ref> sports,<ref>Ingalls, Joan S. (1988) "Cognition and athletic behavior: An investigation of the NLP principle of congruence." ''Dissertation Abstracts International.'' Vol 48(7-B), p. 2090. {{OCLC|42614014}}</ref> teaching, coaching, team building, public speaking, and in the process of hiring employees.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) explained |url=https://www.ionos.com/startupguide/productivity/neuro-linguistic-programming-nlp/ |access-date=2022-04-04 |website=IONOS Startupguide |language=en}}</ref>


== Scientific criticism ==
===1990s: Controversy, division, and marketing===
In the early 1980s, NLP was advertised as an important advance in ] and ], and attracted some interest in counseling research and clinical psychology. However, as controlled trials failed to show any benefit from NLP and its advocates made increasingly dubious claims, scientific interest in NLP faded.<ref name="Devilly-2005">{{cite journal |last=Devilly |first=Grant J. |title=Power Therapies and possible threats to the science of psychology and psychiatry |journal=Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry |date=1 June 2005 |volume=39 |issue=6 |pages=437–45 |doi=10.1080/j.1440-1614.2005.01601.x |pmid=15943644|s2cid=208627667 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Gelso |first=C. J. |last2=Fassinger |first2=R. E. |title=Counseling Psychology: Theory and Research on Interventions |journal=Annual Review of Psychology |date=1 January 1990 |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=355–86 |doi=10.1146/annurev.ps.41.020190.002035 |quote=Neurolinguistic programming, focused on such variables as sensory mode preference and use (''e.g.'', Graunke & Roberts 1985) and predicate matching (''e.g.'', Elich et al 1985; Mercier & Johnson 1984) had shown promise at the beginning of the decade, but after several years of conflicting and confusing results, Sharpley (1984, 1987) reviewed the research and concluded that there was little support for the assumptions of NLP. This research is now clearly on the decline, underscoring the value of thoughtful reviews and the publication of nonsupportive results in guiding empirical efforts. |pmid=2407174}}</ref>


Numerous literature reviews and ] have failed to show evidence for NLP's assumptions or effectiveness as a therapeutic method.{{efn|See, for instance, the following:
In July of 1996 after many years of legal controversy, Bandler filed a lawsuit against John Grinder et al, claiming retrospective sole ownership of NLP, and the sole right to use the term under trademark.<ref name="nlp knowledge centre">Cite web: </ref><ref name="nlp schedule">Cite web: </ref> Contemporaneous with Bandler's suits in the ]{{Fact|date=January 2007}}<!-- Please check that this was the correct court. -->, ] (a UK practitioner) successfully asked the UK High Court to revoke Bandler's UK ] of "NLP", in order to clarify legally that 'NLP' was a generic term rather than intellectual property. <ref name="anlp news">Cite web: </ref> Due to the fragmentation of NLP practice and the lack of a defining and regulating structure to oversee the rapidly growing field, it seemed for a time that NLP could be (and was) promoted as the "latest thing", a ], or universal miracle solution.<ref name="Platt 2001">{{cite web | author=Platt, G. | title=NLP - No Longer Plausible? | url=http://www.sueknight.co.uk/Publications/Articles/NLP_Plausible.htm | publisher= | accessdate=2001}}</ref><ref>Guidance Counselor's handbook, section 1.4.5: http://www.ncge.ie/resources_handbooks_guidance.htm section 1.4.5 (DOC)</ref> Dubious models and practices burgeoned, in parallel with bona fide. For a number of these new practices, profit, marketability or New Age appeal proved a stronger motive than ] or ].{{Fact|date=January 2007}}Despite the NLP community being ], most NLP material acknowledges the early work of the co-founders, Bandler and Grinder, and the development group that surrounded them in the 1970s.
* Sharpley, 1984<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sharpley |first1=Christopher F. |title=Predicate matching in NLP: a review of research on the preferred representational system. |journal=Journal of Counseling Psychology |volume=31 |issue=2 |year=1984 |pages=238–48 |doi=10.1037/0022-0167.31.2.238}}</ref> and 1987<ref name="Sharpley-1987" />
* Druckman and Swets, 1988<ref name="Druckman-1988">{{cite book | editor1-last=Druckman | editor1-first=D. | editor2-last=Swets | editor2-first=J. | title=Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and Techniques | publisher=National Academies Press | publication-place=Washington, D.C. | date=1988-01-01 | isbn=978-0-309-03792-1 | doi=10.17226/1025 | pages=138–149 | chapter=8: Social Processes | chapter-url=https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/1025/chapter/11#138}}
</ref>
* Heap, 1988<ref>{{cite book |last=Heap |first=M. |year=1988 |title=Neurolinguistic programming – an interim verdict |publisher=Croom Helm |location=London |pages=268–280 |chapter=Hypnosis: Current clinical, experimental and forensic practices |url=http://www.mheap.com/nlp1.pdf |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615185758/http://www.mheap.com/nlp1.pdf |archivedate=15 June 2007}}</ref>
* von Bergen et al., 1997<ref name="von Bergen-1997" />
* Druckman, 2004<ref name="Druckman-2004" />
* Witkowski, 2010<ref name="Witkowski-2010" />}} While some NLP practitioners have argued that the lack of empirical support is due to insufficient research which tests NLP,{{efn|See the following:
* Einspruch and Forman, 1985<ref>{{cite journal |last=Einspruch |first=Eric L. |author2=Forman, Bruce D. |title=Observations concerning research literature on neuro-linguistic programming. |journal=Journal of Counseling Psychology |date=1 January 1985 |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=589–96 |doi=10.1037/0022-0167.32.4.589}}</ref>
* Murray, 2013<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Murray |first1=Laura L. |title=Limited evidence that neurolinguistic programming improves health-related outcomes. |journal=Evidence-Based Mental Health |date=30 May 2013 |url=http://ebmh.bmj.com/content/early/2013/05/29/eb-2013-101355.extract |doi=10.1136/eb-2013-101355 |pmid=23723409 |volume=16 |issue=3 |page=79 |s2cid=150295 }}</ref>
* Sturt et al., 2012{{sfn|Sturt|2012}}
* ''Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Research''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.som.surrey.ac.uk/NLP/Research/index.asp |title=Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Research |access-date=22 February 2010 |archive-date=3 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103034855/http://www.som.surrey.ac.uk/NLP/Research/index.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* Tosey and Mathison, 2010<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tosey |first1=P. |last2=Mathison |first2=J. |doi=10.1108/17465641011042035 |title=Exploring inner landscapes through psychophenomenology: The contribution of neuro-linguistic programming to innovations in researching first person experience |journal=Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management |volume=5 |pages=63–82 |year=2010 |url=http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/7448/126/Mathison_Tosey_QROM_final_Oct_2009_amended_Jan_2010.pdf |access-date=28 January 2019 |archive-date=19 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719120020/http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/7448/126/Mathison_Tosey_QROM_final_Oct_2009_amended_Jan_2010.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
}} the consensus scientific opinion is that NLP is ]{{efn|See the following:
* Witkowsi, 2010<ref name="Witkowski-2010" />
* '']'', 2009<ref name="Carroll-2009" />
* Beyerstein, 1990<ref name="Beyerstein-1990">{{cite journal |last=Beyerstein |first=B. L. |year=1990 |title=Brainscams: Neuromythologies of the New Age |journal=International Journal of Mental Health |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=27–36 (27) |doi=10.1080/00207411.1990.11449169 }}</ref>
* Corballis, in Della Sala and Anderson, 2012<ref>{{cite book| editor1-last = Della Sala| editor1-first = Sergio| editor2-last = Anderson| editor2-first = Mike |last1=Corballis |first1=Michael C. |author-link=Michael Corballis |title=Neuroscience in Education: The good, the bad, and the ugly |chapter=Chapter 13 Educational double-think |quote=The notion of hemisphericity is also incorporated into such cult activities as Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).... In any event, NLP is a movement that is still going strong, but has little scientific credibility. |edition=1st |year=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-960049-6 |pages=225–26 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFE5UCaFwEQC}}</ref>
* ] and ]<ref>] & ] (1997). '']'' Jossey Bass, pp.&nbsp;167–95 (169). {{ISBN|0-7879-0278-0}}.</ref>
* Lilienfeld, Lynn and Lohr, 2004<ref>(Eds.) Lilienfeld, S., Lynn, S., & Lohr, J. (2004). ''Science and Pseudo-science in Clinical Psychology''. The Guilford Press.</ref>
* Della Sala, 2007<ref>{{cite book |last1=Della Sala |first1=Sergio |title=Tall Tales About the Mind and Brain: Separating Fact from Fiction |chapter=Introduction: The myth of 10% and other Tall Tales about the mind and brain |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eftFztxKBAwC&pg=PR20 |page=xx |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=1st |year=2007 |location=Oxford |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eftFztxKBAwC |isbn=978-0-19-856876-6}}</ref>
* Williams, 2000<ref>William F. Williams, ed. (2000), ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience: From Alien Abductions to Zone Therapy'', ], {{ISBN|978-1-57958-207-4}} p.&nbsp;235</ref>
* Lum, 2001<ref name=Lum-2001>{{cite book |title=Scientific Thinking in Speech and Language Therapy |publisher=] |last=Lum |first=C. |year=2001 |page=16 |isbn=978-0-8058-4029-2}}</ref>
* Lilienfeld, Lohr and Morier, 2001<ref name=Lilienfeld-2001>{{cite journal |last=Lilienfeld |first=Scott O. |author2=Lohr, Jeffrey M. |author3=Morier, Dean |title=The Teaching of Courses in the Science and Pseudoscience of Psychology: Useful Resources |journal=Teaching of Psychology |date=1 July 2001 |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=182–91 |doi=10.1207/S15328023TOP2803_03|citeseerx=10.1.1.1001.2558 |s2cid=145224099 }}</ref>
* Dunn, Halonen and Smith, 2008<ref name="Dunn-2008">{{cite book |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |vauthors=Dunn D, Halonen J, Smith R |title=Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology |url=https://archive.org/details/teachingcritical00dunn |url-access=limited |year=2008 |page= |isbn=978-1-4051-7402-2}}</ref>
* Molfese, Segalowitz and Harris, 1988<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Molfese |editor1-first=Dennis L. |editor2-last=Segalowitz |editor2-first=Sidney J. |last1=Harris |first1=Lauren Julius |title=Brain Lateralization in Children: Developmental Implications |edition=1st |year=1988 |publisher=Guilford Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-89862-719-0 |page= |quote=NLP began in 1975 and has quickly achieved cult status. |chapter=Chapter 8 Right-Brain Training: Some Reflections on the Application of Research on Cerebral Hemispheric Specialization to Education |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=un-AIyRU328C |url=https://archive.org/details/brainlateralizat0000molf/page/214 }}</ref>
}}{{efn|For a description of the social influence tactics used by NLP and similar pseudoscientific therapies, see Devilly, 2005<ref name="Devilly-2005" />}} and that attempts to dismiss the research findings based on these arguments "s an admission that NLP does not have an evidence base and that NLP practitioners are seeking a post-hoc credibility."<ref name="Roderique-Davies-2009">{{Cite journal |last1=Roderique-Davies |first1=G. |year=2009 |title=Neuro-linguistic programming: Cargo cult psychology? |journal=Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=58–63 |doi=10.1108/17581184200900014}} </ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rowan |first1=John |title=NLP is not based on constructivism |journal=The Coaching Psychologist |volume=4 |issue=3 |date=December 2008 |pages=160–163 |doi=10.53841/bpstcp.2008.4.3.160 |s2cid=255903130 |issn=1748-1104 |url=http://www.sgcp.org.uk/sgcp/publications/the-coaching-psychologist/the-coaching-psychologist-4.3$.cfm}}</ref>


Surveys in the academic community have shown NLP to be widely discredited among scientists.{{efn|In 2006, Norcross and colleagues found NLP to be given similar ratings as ], ], ], scared straight programmes, and ].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Norcross |first=John C. |author2=Koocher, Gerald P. |author3=Garofalo, Ariele |title=Discredited psychological treatments and tests: A Delphi poll. |journal=Professional Psychology: Research and Practice |date=1 January 2006 |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=515–22 |doi=10.1037/0735-7028.37.5.515|s2cid=35414392 }}</ref> In 2010, Norcross and colleagues listed it as seventh out of their list of ten most discredited drug and alcohol interventions.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Norcross |first=John C. |author2=Koocher, Gerald P. |author3=Fala, Natalie C. |author4=Wexler, Harry K. |title=What Does Not Work? Expert Consensus on Discredited Treatments in the Addictions |journal=Journal of Addiction Medicine |date=1 September 2010 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=174–180 |doi=10.1097/ADM.0b013e3181c5f9db |pmid=21769032|s2cid=41494642 }}</ref> Glasner-Edwards and colleagues also identified it as discredited in 2010.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Glasner-Edwards |first=Suzette |author2=Rawson, Richard |title=Evidence-based practices in addiction treatment: Review and recommendations for public policy |journal=Health Policy |date=1 October 2010 |volume=97 |issue=2–3 |pages=93–104 |doi=10.1016/j.healthpol.2010.05.013 |pmid=20557970 |pmc=2951979}}</ref> }} Among the reasons for considering NLP a pseudoscience are that evidence in favor of it is limited to ] and personal testimony<ref name="Bradley-1985" /><ref name="Tye-1994">{{cite journal |last1=Tye |first1=Marcus J.C. |title=Neurolinguistic programming: Magic or myth? |journal=Journal of Accelerative Learning & Teaching |volume=19 |issue=3–4 |pages=309–42 |year=1994 |issn=0273-2459 |id=2003-01157-001}}</ref> that it is not informed by scientific understanding of ] and ],<ref name="Bradley-1985" /><ref>{{cite journal |author-link=Willem Levelt |last1=Levelt |first1=Willem J.M |title=u voor neuro-linguistische programmering |journal=Skepter |volume=9 |issue=3 |year=1996 |language=nl |url=http://www.skepsis.nl/nlp.html }}</ref> and that the name "neuro-linguistic programming" uses jargon words to impress readers and obfuscate ideas, whereas NLP itself does not relate any phenomena to neural structures and has nothing in common with linguistics or programming.<ref name="Witkowski-2010" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Corballis |first=M.C. |title=Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain |year=1999 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |location=Chichester, UK |isbn=978-0-471-98303-3 |page=41 |edition=Repr. |editor=S.D. Sala |chapter=Are we in our right minds?}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Drenth |first1=Pieter J.D |title=Growing anti-intellectualism in Europe; a menace to science |journal=Studia Psychologica |volume=45 |pages=5–13 |year=2003 |url=http://www.allea.org/Pages/ALL/4/881.bGFuZz1FTkc.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616080310/http://www.allea.org/Pages/ALL/4/881.bGFuZz1FTkc.pdf |archive-date=16 June 2011}}</ref><ref name="Beyerstein-1990" />{{efn|For more information on the use of neuroscience terms to lend the appearance of credibility to arguments, see Weisburg et al., 2008<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1162/jocn.2008.20040 |title=The Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations |journal=Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=470–77 |year=2008 |last1=Weisberg |first1=D. S. |last2=Keil |first2=F. C. |last3=Goodstein |first3=J. |last4=Rawson |first4=E. |last5=Gray |first5=J. R. |pmid=18004955 |pmc=2778755}}</ref>}} In education, NLP has been used as a key example of pseudoscience.<ref name="Lum-2001"/><ref name="Lilienfeld-2001"/><ref name="Dunn-2008"/>
===2000s: Legal settlement and government regulation===


== As a quasi-religion ==
In 2001, the law suits were settled with Bandler and Grinder agreeing to be known as co-founders of NLP. Since 1978, a 20 day NLP practitioner certification program had been in existence for training therapists to apply NLP as an adjunct to their professional qualifications. In the 1990's, following attempts to put NLP on a more formally regulated footing in the UK, other governments began certifying NLP courses and providers, such as in Australia for example, where a in Neuro-linguistic programming is accredited under the ].<ref name="ntis">Cite web: </ref>
Sociologists and anthropologists have categorized NLP as a quasi-religion belonging to the ] and/or ]s.{{sfnm|1a1=Cresswell|1a2=Wilson|1y=1999|1p=|2a1=Edwards|2y=2001|2p=573|3a1=Clarke|3y=2006|3pp=440–41|4a1=Walker|4y=2007|4p=235|5a1=Hammer|5a2=Rothstein|5y=2012|5p=}}


Medical anthropologist Jean M. Langford categorizes NLP as a form of ]; that is to say, a practice with symbolic efficacy—as opposed to physical efficacy—that is able to effect change through nonspecific effects (e.g., placebo). To Langford, NLP is akin to a syncretic folk religion "that attempts to wed the magic of folk practice to the science of professional medicine".{{sfn|Langford|1999}}
NLP continues to be an open field of training with no 'official' best practice. With different authors, individual trainers and practitioners having developed their own methods, concepts and labels, often branding them as "NLP":<ref name="skepdic">{{cite web | author=Carroll, Robert T. | title=The Skeptic's Dictionary | url=http://skepdic.com/neurolin.html | publisher=. | accessdate=2003}}</ref>, the training standards and quality differ greatly.<ref name="schutz"/> In Europe, the has been promoting their training in line with European therapy standards. The multiplicity and general lack of controls has led to difficulty discerning the comparative level competence, skill and attitude in different NLP trainings. According to ] the length of training in Europe varies from 2-3 days, for the hobbyist, to 35-40 days over at least nine months to achieve a professional level of competence.<ref name="schutz">Peter Schütz (Accessed 24th December 2006) </ref>


Bandler and Grinder were influenced by the ] described in the books of ].{{sfnm|1a1=Grinder|1a2=DeLozier|1y=1987|1p={{page needed|date=May 2024}}|2a1=Grinder|2a2=Bostic St. Clair|2y=2001|2p={{page needed|date=May 2024}}}} Concepts like "double induction"{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} and "stopping the world", central to NLP modeling, were incorporated from these influences.{{sfn|Grimley|2013|p=}}
==Reception==
{{unbalanced-section}}
{{Missing information|The positive reception of NLP by the public, by publishers, by clinicians, and corporations. A reception section should detail the history of how NLP has been received everywhere, not just by psychologists and scientific reviewers.}}


Some theorists characterize NLP as a type of "psycho-shamanism", and its focus on modeling has been compared to ritual practices in certain syncretic religions.<ref name="Tye-1994"/>{{sfn|Fanthorpe|Fanthorpe|2008|p=}} The emphasis on lineage from an NLP ] has also been likened to similar concepts in some ].{{sfn|Hunt|2003}} Aupers, Houtman, and Bovbjerg identify NLP as a New Age "psycho-religion".{{sfn|Aupers|Houtman|2010|p={{page needed|date=May 2024}}}} Bovbjerg argues that New Age movements center on a transcendent "other".{{sfn|Bovbjerg|2011|p={{page needed|date=May 2024}}}} While monotheistic religions seek communion with a divine being, this focus shifts inward in these movements, with the "other" becoming the unconscious self. Bovbjerg posits that this emphasis on the unconscious and its hidden potential underlies NLP techniques promoting self-perfection through ongoing transformation.{{sfn|Bovbjerg|2011|p={{page needed|date=May 2024}}}}
====Research reviews====
:''Main articles: ], ]''


Bovbjerg's secular critique echoes the conservative Christian perspective, as exemplified by ]. He argues that NLP's emphasis on self-transformation and internal power conflicts with the Christian belief in salvation through divine grace.{{sfn|Jeremiah|1995}}
Peer-reviewed psychological and experimental literature in NLP has been sporadic.


== Legal disputes ==
Sharpley (1987), stated that the techniques and underlying theory of NLP, as a counseling tool, were both empirically unvalidated and unsupported.<ref name="Sharpley 1987">{{cite journal | author=Sharpley C.F.| title=Research Findings on Neuro-linguistic Programming: Non supportive Data or an Untestable Theory| journal=Communication and Cognition | year=1987 | volume=Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1987 Vol. 34, No. 1 | pages=103-107,105 | url=http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?nfpb=true&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ352101&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b8005c1ac}}</ref>
===Founding, initial disputes, and settlement (1979–1981)===
A literature review by Sharpley (1984) found "little research evidence supporting its usefulness as an effective counseling tool"<ref name="Buckner 1987">Buckner, Meara, Reese, and Reese (1987) Journal of Counselling Psychology , Vol. 34(3), pp.283-287</ref> and no reproducible support for ] and predicate matching.<ref name="Sharpley 1984">Sharpley, C. F. (1984). Predicate matching in NLP: A review of research on the preferred representational system. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31(2), 238-248.</ref> Sharpley (1987) states "there are conclusive data from the research on NLP, and the conclusion is that the principles and procedures of NLP have failed to be supported by those data".
In 1979, Richard Bandler and John Grinder established the Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to manage commercial applications of NLP, including training, materials, and certification. The founding agreement conferred exclusive rights to profit from NLP training and certification upon Bandler's corporate entity, Not Ltd. Around November 1980, Bandler and Grinder had ceased collaboration for undisclosed reasons.<ref name="Clancy-1989" />


On September 25, 1981, Bandler filed suit against Grinder's corporate entity, Unlimited Ltd., in the ] seeking injunctive relief and damages arising from Grinder's NLP-related commercial activities; the Court issued a judgment in Bandler's favor on October 29, 1981.<ref>{{cite court|litigants=Not Ltd v. Unlimited Ltd et al (Super. Ct. Santa Cruz County, 1981, No. 78482)|vol=|reporter=|opinion=|pinpoint=|court=Super. Ct. Santa Cruz County|date=29 October 1981|url=http://63.197.255.150/openaccesspublic/civil/casereport.asp?casenumber=CV078482&courtcode=A&casetype=CIS}}{{Dead link|date=October 2020|fix-attempted=yes}}<!-- might be able to find it by searching the court's cases - https://www.santacruz.courts.ca.gov/online-services/case-lookup --></ref> The subsequent settlement agreement granted Grinder a 10-year license to conduct NLP seminars, offer NLP certification, and utilize the NLP name, subject to royalty payments to Bandler.<ref name="Legal1997">{{cite web |title=Summary of the Legal Proceedings January 1997 – June 23, 2003 |url=http://www.steverrobbins.com/nlpschedule/random/lawsuit-text.html |access-date=12 June 2013 |archive-date=10 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410011826/http://www.steverrobbins.com/nlpschedule/random/lawsuit-text.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Einspruch and Forman (1985) broadly agreed with Sharpley but disputed the conclusions identifying a failure to address methodological errors in the research reviewed. They stated "NLP is far more complex than presumed by researchers, and thus, the data are not true evaluations of NLP" adding that NLP is difficult to test under the traditional counseling framework. Moreover the research lacked a necessary understanding of ] as part of advanced NLP training and furthermore, that there was inadequate control of context, an unfamiliarity with NLP as an approach to therapy, inadequate definitions of ] and numerous logical mistakes in the ].<ref name="Einspruch & Forman 1985">{{cite journal | author=Einspruch, Eric L., Forman, Bruce D. | title=Observations Concerning Research Literature on Neuro-Linguistic Programming | journal=Journal of Counseling Psychology | year=1985 | volume=32(4) | pages=pp. 589-596}}</ref>


===Further litigation and consequences (1996–2000)===
Sharpley (1987) responded with more studies on the basic tenets of NLP stating "certainly research data do not support the rather extreme claims that proponents of NLP have made as to the validity of its principles or the novelty of its procedures." and also that NLP may be ] stating "perhaps NLP principles are not amenable to research evaluation. This does not necessarily reduce NLP to worthlessness for counseling practice. Rather, it puts NLP in the same category as ], that is, with principles not easily demonstrated in laboratory settings but, nevertheless, strongly supported by ] in the field." <ref name="Sharpley 1987"/>
Bandler commenced further civil actions against Unlimited Ltd., various figures within the NLP community, and 200 initially unnamed defendants in July 1996 and January 1997. Bandler alleged violations of the initial settlement terms by Grinder and sought damages of no less than US$10,000,000.00 from each defendant.<ref name="Legal1997"/>


In February 2000, the Court ruled against Bandler. The judgment asserted that Bandler had misrepresented his exclusive ownership of NLP intellectual property and sole authority over Society of NLP membership and certification.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Richard W Bandler et al v. Quantum Leap Inc. et al (Super. Ct. Santa Cruz County, 2000, No. 132495) |vol= |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= |court=Super. Ct. Santa Cruz County |date=10 February 2000 |url=http://63.197.255.150/openaccesspublic/civil/casereport.asp?casenumber=CV132495&courtcode=A&casetype=CIS}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=NLP Matters 2 |url=http://www.anlp.org/anlpnews2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010210021504/http://www.anlp.org/anlpnews2.htm |archive-date=10 February 2001 |access-date=12 June 2013}}</ref>
Druckman and Swets (1988) ] found that "studies fail to provide an empirical base of support for NLP assumptions...or NLP effectiveness. The committee cannot recommend the employment of such an unvalidated technique". They also concluded matching representational systems to gain ] was ineffective, and that the idea of ] "merits further consideration" <ref name="Druckman & Swets 1998" />. In a follow up study on modeling (amongst other matters) by Swets and Bjork (1991) NLP was not included except by way of acknowledgment for the idea.<ref name="Druckman & Bjork 1991">John A. Swets and Robert A. Bjork (1991) Enhancing human performance: An Evaluation of "New Age" Techniques Considered by the U.S</ref>


===Trademark revocation (1997)===
Michael Heap (1988), a researcher in hypnosis, asserted that "the effectiveness of NLP therapy undertaken in authentic clinical contexts of trained practitioners has not yet been properly investigated." and further that "there is not, and never has been, any substance to the conjecture that people represent their world internally in a preferred mode which may be inferred from their choice of predicates and from their eye movements."<ref name="Heap 1988">{{cite book | author=Heap, M. | title=Neuro-linguistic programming, In M. Heap (Ed.) Hypnosis: Current Clinical, Experimental and Forensic Practices | location=London | publisher=Croom Helm | year=1988 | url=http://www.mheap.com/nlp1.pdf}}</ref>
In December 1997, a separate civil proceeding initiated by Tony Clarkson resulted in the revocation of Bandler's UK ] of NLP. The Court ruled in Clarkson's favor.<ref>{{cite web |title=NLP Matters |url=http://www.anlp.org/anlpnews.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010406091232/http://www.anlp.org/anlpnews.htm |archive-date=6 April 2001 |access-date=12 June 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Case details for trade mark UK00002067188 |url=http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmcase/Results/1/UK00002067188 |date=13 June 2013 |access-date=25 July 2015}}</ref>


===Resolution and legacy (2000)===
Efran and Lukens (1990) stated that the "original interest in NLP turned to disillusionment after the research and now it is rarely even mentioned in psychotherapy".<ref name="efran">Efran, J S. Lukens M.D. (1990) Language, structure, and change: frameworks of meaning in psychotherapy, Published by W.W. Norton, New York. p.122</ref>
Bandler and Grinder reached a settlement in late 2000, acknowledging their status as co-creators and co-founders of NLP and committing to refrain from disparaging one another's NLP-related endeavors.{{sfn|Grinder|Bostic St. Clair|2001|loc=Appendix A}}


Due to these disputes and settlements, the terms 'NLP' and 'Neuro-Linguistic Programming' remain in the ]. No single party holds exclusive rights, and there are no restrictions on offering NLP certifications.{{sfn|Hall|2010}}<ref>{{cite web |title=3.5. Who Owns NLP? |website=NLP Archives – Frequently Asked Questions about NLP |url=http://users.telenet.be/merlevede/nlpfaq35.htm |access-date=12 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130624042934/http://users.telenet.be/merlevede/nlpfaq35.htm |archive-date=2013-06-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=((This page contains the ruling in the case of Richard Bandler against many others in the NLP community)) |website=NLP Archives – Frequently Asked Questions about NLP |url=http://users.telenet.be/merlevede/lawsuit.htm |access-date=12 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130627031836/http://users.telenet.be/merlevede/lawsuit.htm |archive-date=2013-06-27}}</ref><ref name="Trademark Status and Document Retrieval-2013">{{cite web |title=75351747 |website=Trademark Status and Document Retrieval |publisher=United States Patent and Trademark Office |url=http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75351747&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch |date=13 June 2013 |access-date=14 June 2013 }}</ref><ref name="Trademark Status and Document Retrieval-2013a">{{cite web |title=73253122 |website=Trademark Status and Document Retrieval |publisher=United States Patent and Trademark Office |url=http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=73253122&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch |date=13 June 2013 |access-date=14 June 2013 }}</ref>
Barry Beyerstein (1990) asserts that "though it claims neuroscience in its pedigree, NLP's outmoded view of the relationship between cognitive style and brain function ultimately boils down to crude analogies."<ref name="Beyerstein 1990"/> With reference to all the 'neuromythologies' covered in his article, including NLP, he states "In the long run perhaps the heaviest cost extracted by neuromythologists is the one common to all pseudosciences—deterioration in the already low levels of scientific literacy and critical thinking in society. "<ref name="Beyerstein 1990"/>


The designations "NLP" and "Neuro-linguistic Programming" are not owned, trademarked, or subject to centralized regulation.<ref>{{cite web |title=NLP FAQ |url=http://users.telenet.be/merlevede/nlpfaq35.htm |date=27 July 2001 |access-date=14 June 2013 |archive-date=24 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130624042934/http://users.telenet.be/merlevede/nlpfaq35.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=NLP Comprehensive Lawsuit Response |url=http://www.steverrobbins.com/nlpschedule/random/lawsuit-nlpc.html |access-date=14 June 2013 |archive-date=17 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717201129/http://www.steverrobbins.com/nlpschedule/random/lawsuit-nlpc.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Trademark Status and Document Retrieval-2013"/><ref name="Trademark Status and Document Retrieval-2013a" /> Consequently, there are no restrictions on individuals self-identifying as "NLP Master Practitioners" or "NLP Master Trainers."<ref name="Roderique-Davies-2009" /> This decentralization has led to numerous certifying associations.
Von Bergen et al (1997) state NLP was dropped from the ] research stream. They stated that "in relation to current understanding of ] and ], NLP is in error" and that "NLP does not stand up to scientific scrutiny" <ref name="Von Bergen et al 1997">{{cite journal | author=Von Bergen, C W, Barlow Soper, Gary T Rosenthal, Lamar V Wilkinson | title=Selected alternative training techniques in HRD | journal=Human Resource Development Quarterly | year=1997 | volume=8(4) | pages=281-294}}</ref>.


===Decentralization and criticism===
Carbonell and Figley at Florida State University, ] have published an exploratory study on ], a component of NLP, and three other novel treatments for ] (], ] and ]). The active ingredient for V/KD, was in deliberately creating a temporary state of dissociation from the traumatic event. This study was not designed as an outcome study, thus no conclusions can be drawn about the efficacy of these techniques from that study.<ref name="Figley 1997">Charles Figley (December 1997). The active ingredients of the Power Therapies. ''Conference for the Integrative and Innovative Use of EMDR, TFT, EFT, Advanced NLP, and TIR'', Lakewood, CO. </ref><ref name="Bertoli 2003">Bertoli (2003) The Use of Neuro-linguistic Programming and Emotionally focused therapy with Divorcing Couples in Crisis in Charles R. Figley (Ed) ''Brief Treatments for the Traumatized: A Project of the Green Cross Foundation''</ref><ref name="Carbonell & Figley 1999">{{cite journal | author = Joyce L. Carbonell, Charles Figley | title=Promising PTSD treatment approaches: Systematic Clinical Demonstration of Promising PTSD Treatment Approaches | journal=TRAUMATOLOGYe | year=1999 | volume=5:1, Article 4 | pages=- | url=http://www.fsu.edu/~trauma/promising.html}} </ref> With reference to this exploratory study (including NLP) ] states that while it is "adequately descriptive of the clinical procedures, there is little, if any, empirically validated dated outcome studies to substantiate a ''theory driven and research informed brief treatment'' (p. 173–207)."<ref name="Wilson 2004">Wilson, John P. (August 2004) Review of Brief Treatments for Trauma and PTSD. PsycCRITIQUES. 49(4):472-474</ref>
This lack of centralized control means there's no single standard for NLP practice or training. Practitioners can market their own methodologies, leading to inconsistencies within the field.<ref name="Carroll-2009" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Moxom |first1=Karen |title=The NLP Professional: Create a More Professional, Effective and Successful NLP Business |edition=|year=2011 |publisher=Ecademy Press |location=Herts |isbn=978-1-907722-55-4 |pages=46–50 |chapter=Three: Demonstrating Best Practice |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7KEYurmAA8sC}}</ref> This has been a source of criticism, highlighted by an incident in 2009 where a British television presenter registered his cat<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8303126.stm |title=Cat registered as hypnotherapist |publisher=] |date=12 October 2009 |access-date=6 November 2009}}</ref> with the British Board of Neuro Linguistic Programming (BBNLP), demonstrating the organization's lax credentialing. Critics like Karen Stollznow find irony in the initial legal battles between Bandler and Grinder, considering their failure to apply their own NLP principles to resolve their conflict.<ref name="Stollznow-2010"/> Others, such as Grant Devilly, characterize NLP associations as "]s"—a term implying a lack of unifying principles or a shared sense of purpose.<ref name="Devilly-2005"/>


== See also ==
Donald Eisner (2000) in ''The Death of Psychotherapy'', states that "There is only one problem with the claims made by NLP and the IDEA Seminars: not one iota of clinical research supports any of the claims. Apparently, no peer-reviewed research has been published for over a decade. Moreover, there has been virtually no comparative research recently that assesses NLP's effectiveness. Word of mouth, reputation, charisma and neatly packaged seminars seem to constitute proof of NLP's favorable outcome. If such incredible results had truly been achieved, why haven't they been documented and presented to the scientific community and the general public".<ref name="Eisner 2000" />
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


'''Notable practitioners'''
Lilienfield et al (2002), describe NLP as "a scientifically unsubstantiated therapeutic method that purports to "program" brain functioning through a variety of techniques, including mirroring the postures and nonverbal behaviors of clients" and include it in their description "(Quick Fix + Pseudoscientific Gloss) x Credulous Public = High Income".<ref name="Lilienfeld 2004">Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, Jeffrey M. Lohr (eds) (2004) </ref>.
* ]
* ]


== Notes ==
Devilly (2005) states that "at the time of its introduction, NLP was heralded as a breakthrough in therapy and advertisements for training workshops, videos and books began to appears in trade magazines. The workshops provided certification... However, controlled studies shed such a poor light on the practice, and those promoting the intervention made such extreme and changeable claims that researchers began to question the wisdom of researching the area further and even suggested that NLP was an ]"..."NLP is no longer as prevalent as it was in the 1970s or 1980s, but is still practiced in small pockets of the ]. The science has come and gone, yet the ] still remains".<ref name="Devilly 2005">Grant J. Devilly (2005) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry Vol.39 p.437</ref>
{{notelist|30em}}


==References==
===Mental health practice===
===Citations===
{{See also|Therapeutic use of NLP | Scientist-Practitioner Model of Clinical Psychology}}
{{Reflist|30em}}


===Works cited===
NLP has been coordinated within some ]s, psychotherapy associations, and has been used or suggested as an approach by some mental health bodies.<ref name="mental health bodies">NLP is used or suggested as an approach by some mental health bodies:
;Primary sources
*
{{refbegin}}
*
* {{cite book |last1=Bandler |first1=Richard |last2=Grinder |first2=John |title=The Structure of Magic I: A Book about Language and Therapy |year=1975 |publisher=Science and Behavior Books Inc. |isbn=978-0-8314-0044-6 |title-link=The Structure of Magic}}
*
* {{cite book |last1=Bandler |first1=Richard |last2=Grinder |first2=John |title=The Structure of Magic II |edition=1st |year=1976 |publisher=Science and Behavior Books |location=California |isbn=978-0-8314-0049-1 |title-link=The Structure of Magic}}
*
* {{cite book |last1=Bandler |first1=Richard |last2=Grinder |first2=John| editor1-last = Andreas| editor1-first = Steve |title=Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming |edition= |year=1979 |publisher=Real People Press |location=Utah |isbn=978-0-911226-19-5 |title-link=Frogs into Princes}}
*
* {{cite book |last1=Bandler |first1=Richard |last2=Grinder |first2=John |title=Trance-formations: Neuro-linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis |year=1981 |publisher=Real People Press |isbn=978-0-911226-22-5 |chapter=Appendix II: Hypnotic Language Patterns: The Milton-Model}}
*</ref>
* {{cite book |last1=Bandler |first1=Richard |last2=Grinder |first2=John |year=1982 |title=Reframing: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Transformation of Meaning |publisher=Real People Press |isbn=0-911226-25-7}}
Labouchere et al (2002) incorporated a number of NLP behaviour change techniques (], ] ], ]) into a program for learning about and preventing the spread of AIDS. They recommended that these tools be promoted and adopted internationally.<ref name="Labouchere 2002">Labouchere P, Tweedie I, Fiagbey E, Ocquaye M. (2002) '''' presented at the ] 2002 Jul 7-12; 14 pages</ref>
* {{cite book |last1=Bandler |first1=Richard |editor1-last=Andreas |editor1-first=Steve |editor2-link=Connirae Andreas |editor2-last=Andreas |editor2-first=Connirae |year=1985 |title=Using Your Brain–for a Change |publisher=Real People Press |isbn=0-911226-27-3}}
In an empirical study using a heuristic qualitative methodology the submodality change process was tested for treating grief and mourning. The study suggested that manipulating certain submodalities can help the subject shift into more resourceful state and speed the healing process.<ref name-"Miller 1997">Miller, F. Clayton. (Nov 1997) The NLP loss pattern: Imagery and experience in grief and mourning. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering. Vol 58(5-B) pp. 2691.</ref>
* {{cite book |last=Bandler |first=Richard |title=Time for a Change |year=1993 |publisher=Meta Publications |isbn=978-0-916990-28-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/timeforchange00band |url-access=registration }}
* {{cite book |last1=Dilts |first1=Robert |last2=Grinder |first2=John |last3=Bandler |first3=Richard |last4=DeLozier |first4=Judith |title=Neuro-Linguistic Programming |volume=I: The Study of the Structure of Subjective Experience |edition=Limited |year=1980 |publisher=Meta Publications |location=California |isbn=978-0-916990-07-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CwsRAQAAIAAJ }}
* {{cite book |last1=Grinder |first1=John |last2=DeLozier |first2=Judith |title=Turtles All The Way Down: Prerequisites To Personal Genius |edition=1st |year=1987 |publisher=Grinder & Associates |location=California |isbn=978-1-55552-022-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/turtlesallwaydow00grin|url-access=registration }}
* {{cite book |last1=Grinder |first1=John |last2=Bostic St. Clair |title=Whispering in the Wind |year=2001 |publisher=J & C Enterprises |isbn=978-0-9717223-0-9}}
{{refend}}


;Secondary sources
NLP has remained an eclectic field with no inherent controls over training or a ]. According to Schutz in his guide to NLP training, training varies from very short, esoteric or hyped-up power courses at one extreme to 9 months of professional training under licensed psychotherapists or the equivalent. He advises caution in selection.<ref name="schütz">{{cite web | author=Schütz, P. | title=A consumer guide through the multiplicity of NLP certification training | url=http://www.nlpzentrum.at/institutsvgl-english.htm | publisher=. | accessdate=December 2006}}</ref><ref name="Platt 2001">{{cite web | author=Platt, G. | title=NLP - No Longer Plausible? | url=http://www.sueknight.co.uk/Publications/Articles/NLP_Plausible.htm | publisher=. | accessdate=2001}}</ref>
{{refbegin}}
According to Eisner, NLP is based on some of Freud's most flawed thinking, and continues "There was great initial enthusiasm, but as time passed, it appears the so-called effective results have diminished or disappeared".<ref name="Eisner 2000"></ref>{{dubious}}
*{{cite journal| editor1-last = Aupers| editor1-first = Stef| editor2-last = Houtman| editor2-first = Dick |title=Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital | journal = International Studies in Religion and Society|edition=1st |year=2010 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |issn=1573-4293 |isbn=978-90-04-18451-0 |pages=115–132 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l85zsiTI28sC&pg=PA115}}
Clinical psychologists have identified characteristics that help to separate unvalidated or scientifically unsupported approaches to psychotherapy from those based on the ]. Opining that proof of the validity of new practices falls on the proponents of these practices, ] psychologist Lilienfield expresses concern that largely untested treatments, amongst which he includes NLP, comprise a major proportion of the interventions delivered by mental health professionals. He raises concerns about the public's overconfidence in mental health professions and the lack of scientific foundation for these professions.<ref name="Lilienfeld 2002"> {{cite journal | author= Lilienfeld, S.O. | title= Our Raisson D’etre | journal= The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice | year=2002 | url= http://www.srmhp.org/0101/raison-detre.html | volume=1(1) | pages=20}}</ref> ] psychologist Beyerstein has expressed concern about the spread of misconceptions about how the mind works.<ref name="Beyerstein 1990"/>
*{{Cite journal |last=Bovbjerg |first=Kirsten Marie |date=2011-05-01 |title=Personal Development under Market Conditions: NLP and the Emergence of an Ethics of Sensitivity Based on the Idea of the Hidden Potential of the Individual |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2011.573333 |journal=Journal of Contemporary Religion |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=189–205 |doi=10.1080/13537903.2011.573333 |s2cid=145148234 |issn=1353-7903}}
Elich et al (1985) tested the model that proposed a relationship between eye movements, spoken predicates, and internal imagery, and found no support for this model. He added "NLP has achieved something akin to cult status when it may be nothing more than a psychological fad" (p625)".<ref name="Elich 1985">Elich, M., Thompson, R. W., & Miller, L. (1985). . Journal of Counseling Psychology, 32(4), 622-625. note: "psychological fad"p.625</ref> Krugman et al tested claims for a 'one-session' treatment of performance anxiety against another method and a control group and found no support for claims of a 'one-session' effective treatment. He argued for further research into NLP amongst other treatments that have "achieved popularity in the absence of data supporting their utility".<ref name="Krugman et al 1985">Krugman, Kirsch, Wickless, Milling, Golicz, & Toth (1985). Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology. Vol 53(4), 526-530.</ref>Singer criticises NLP as one of a number of 'quick-fix' techniques, unsupported by scientific evaluation.<ref name="Singer & Lalich 1997">{{cite book | author= Singer, Margaret & Janja Lalich | title=]: What Are They? Do They Work? | publisher=Jossey Bass | year=1997 | id=0787902780 | p.169- 172}}</ref>
*{{cite book| editor1-last = Clarke| editor1-first = Peter B. |title=Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements |edition=1st |year=2006 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-203-48433-3}}
*{{cite book| editor1-last = Cresswell| editor1-first = Jamie | editor2-last = Wilson| editor2-first = Bryan |title=New Religious Movements: Challenge and Response |edition=1st |year=1999 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-415-20049-3}}
*{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Linda |title=A Brief Guide to Beliefs: Ideas, Theologies, Mysteries, and Movements |edition=1st |year=2001 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |location=Kentucky |isbn=978-0-664-22259-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_s5t3|url-access=registration }}
*{{cite book |last1=Fanthorpe |first1=Lionel |last2=Fanthorpe |first2=Patricia |title=Mysteries and Secrets of Voodoo, Santeria, and Obeah |edition=1st |year=2008 |publisher=New Page Books |location=New Jersey |isbn=978-1-55002-784-6}}
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*{{cite book |last1=Grimley |first1=Bruce |title=Theory and Practice of NLP Coaching: A Psychological Approach |edition=1st |year=2013 |publisher=Sage Publications Ltd |location=London |isbn=978-1-4462-0172-5}}
*{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=L. Michael |last2=Belnap |first2=Barbara P. |title=The Sourcebook of Magic: A Comprehensive Guide to the Technology of NLP |orig-year=1999 |year=2000 |publisher=Crown House Publishing Limited |location=Wales |isbn=978-1-899836-22-2}}
*{{cite web |last=Hall |first=L. Michael |title=The lawsuit that almost killed NLP |url=http://www.neurosemantics.com/nlp/the-history-of-nlp/the-lawsuit-that-almost-killed-nlp |date=20 September 2010 |access-date=12 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130627130505/http://www.neurosemantics.com/nlp/the-history-of-nlp/the-lawsuit-that-almost-killed-nlp |archive-date=27 June 2013}}
*{{cite book| editor1-last = Hammer| editor1-first = Olav| editor2-last = Rothstein| editor2-first = Mikael |title=The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements |edition=1st |year=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-14565-7}}
*{{cite book |title=Alternative Religions: A Sociological Introduction |publisher=Ashgate Publishing Ltd |location=Hampshire |last1=Hunt |first1=Stephen J. |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7546-3410-2}}
*{{cite book |last1=Jeremiah |first1=David |title=Invasion of Other Gods: The Seduction of New Age Spirituality |edition=1st |year=1995 |publisher=W Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8499-3987-7 |chapter=Chapter 9: Corporate Takeovers}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Langford |first1=Jean M. |title=Medical Mimesis: Healing Signs of a Cosmopolitan "Quack" |journal=American Ethnologist |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=24–46 |date=February 1999 |jstor=647497 |doi=10.1525/ae.1999.26.1.24|doi-access=free }}
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*{{cite journal |last=Maag |first=John W. |year=1999 |title=Why they say no: Foundational precises and techniques for managing resistance |journal=Focus on Exceptional Children |volume=32 |page=1 |url=http://altcommtechniques.com/publications/why_they_say_no.pdf |access-date=27 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120417095148/http://altcommtechniques.com/publications/why_they_say_no.pdf |archive-date=17 April 2012 |url-status=dead }}
*{{cite journal |last=Maag |first=John W. |year=2000 |title=Managing resistance |journal=Intervention in School and Clinic |volume=35 |page=3 |doi=10.1177/105345120003500301 |issue=3|s2cid=220927708 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Sturt |first1=Jackie |display-authors=etal |title=Neurolinguistic programming: a systematic review of the effects on health outcomes |journal=British Journal of General Practice |volume=62 |issue=604 |pages=e757–64 |date=November 2012 |doi=10.3399/bjgp12X658287 |pmid=23211179 |id=23211179|pmc=3481516 }}
<!-- W -->
*{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=James K. |title=The Concise Guide to Today's Religions and Spirituality |edition=1st |year=2007 |publisher=Harvest House Pubslishers |location=Oregon |isbn=978-0-7369-2011-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/conciseguidetoto0000walk|url-access=registration }}
*{{cite book |last1=Weitzenhoffer |first1=André Muller |title=The Practice of Hypnotism |volume=2: Applications of Traditional an Semi-Traditional Hypnotism. Non-Traditional Hypnotism |year=1989 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |location=New York |isbn=978-0-471-62168-3 |chapter=Chapter 8: Ericksonian Hypnotism: The Bandler/Grinder Interpretation}}
{{refend}}


== Further reading ==
===Human resources===
{{Refbegin}}
{{Expand-section|date=January 2007}}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Andreas |editor1-first=Steve |editor1-link=Steve Andreas |editor2-first=Charles |editor2-last=Faulkner |title=NLP: the new technology of achievement |location=New York |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-688-14619-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/nlpnewtechnology00andr |url-access=registration |ref=none}}
NLP has influenced some corporate ],<ref name="Bluckert 2004">Peter Bluckert (2004) The state of play in corporate coaching: current and future trends. ''Industrial and Commercial Training''. Guilsborough Vol.36(2) p.53</ref> who provide one-on-one training and collaborative relationships to executive interested in developement skills in career or business and may help resolve related personal issues.{{Fact|date=January 2007}}
* {{Cite book |last=Austin |first=A. |title=The Rainbow Machine: Tales from a Neurolinguist's Journal |location=UK |publisher=Real People Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-911226-44-7 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Bandler |first1=R. |last2=Grinder |first2=J. |author3-link=Virginia Satir |last3=Satir |first3=V. |year=1976 |title=Changing with Families: A Book about Further Education for Being Human |publisher=Science and Behavior Books |isbn=0-8314-0051-X |ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Bradbury |first1=A. |title=Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Time for an Informed Review |journal=Skeptical Intelligencer |volume=11 |year=2008 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Burn |first=Gillian |title=NLP Pocketbook |location=Alresford, United Kingdom |publisher=Management Pocketbooks Ltd |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-903776-31-5 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Dilts |first=R. |year=1990 |title=Changing Belief Systems with NLP |publisher=Meta Publications |isbn=978-0-916990-24-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Dilts |first1=R. |last2=Hallbom |first2=Tim |last3=Smith |first3=Suzi |year=1990 |title=Beliefs: Pathways to Health & Well-being |publisher=Crown House Publishing |isbn=978-1-84590-802-7 |ref=none}}
* {{Skeptoid | id=4155 | number= 155| title= NLP: Neuro-linguistic Programming| date=26 May 2009 | last= Dunning| first=Brian |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ellerton |first=Roger |title=Live Your Dreams, Let Reality Catch Up: NLP and Common Sense for Coaches, Managers and You |location=Ottawa, Canada |publisher=Trafford Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4120-4709-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Grinder |first=M. |year=1991 |title=Righting the Educational Conveyor Belt |publisher=Metamorphous Press |isbn=1-55552-036-7 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=O'Connor |first=Joseph |year=2007 |title=Not Pulling Strings: Application of Neuro-Linguistic Programming to Teaching and Learning Music |publisher=Kahn & Averill |place=London |isbn=978-1-871082-90-6 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Platt |first=Garry |title=NLP – Neuro Linguistic Programming or No Longer Plausible? |series=May |journal=Training Journal |year=2001 |volume=2001 |pages=10–15 |ref=none}}
{{Refend}}


==External links==
Skinner and Stephens (2003) explored the use the model of representational systems in television marketing and communications.<ref name="Skinner & Stephens 2003">{{cite journal | author=Skinner, H. and Stephens, P. | title=Speaking the Same Language: Exploring the relevance of Neuro-Linguistic Programming to Marketing Communications | journal=Journal of Marketing Communications | year=2003 | volume=Volume 9, Number 3 / September | pages=177-192 | url=http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/openurl.asp?genre=article&eissn=1466-4445&volume=9&issue=3&spage=177}}</ref>
*{{Wiktionary inline|Neuro-linguistic programming}}
*{{Commons category-inline|Neuro-linguistic programming}}
*{{Wikiquote-inline|Neuro-linguistic programming}}


{{Seduction community}}
Human resource professional Von Bergen considers NLP to be inappropriate for management and human resource training.<ref name="Von Bergen et al 1997">{{cite journal | author=Von Bergen, C W, Barlow Soper, Gary T Rosenthal, Lamar V Wilkinson | title=Selected alternative training techniques in HRD | journal=Human Resource Development Quarterly | year=1997 | volume=8(4) | pages=281-294}} </ref><ref name="Watkins 1997">Also appearing in the issue: Karen E Watkins (1997) ''Invited reaction: Selected alternative training techniques in HRD'' Human Resource Development Quarterly. vol. 8(4)</ref>{{Fact|date=January 2007}}.<!-- this should also cover reply -->
{{Authority control}}


]
===Commercialization, manipulation and persuasion===
]
{{Main|Persuasion uses of NLP}}
{{Citecheck|date=December 2006}}

] (1999) having put NLP in the category of pseudo science states "Partly it is a shrewd commercial formula, and the marketing. Just take the name. Why not PQR or BYG (believe in your own goal) or something like that?" and goes on to say "but even for new theories and hypothetical frameworks, the requirement still holds that they should be scrutinized and tested on logical grounds and, in the case of empirical or experimental science, on the basis of empirical or experimental evidence".<ref name="Drenth 1999">Drenth, P. (1999) . Vol. 4.4 pp.233-239 ''European psychologist'' </ref>

<p>In his book ']' Michael Langone states "We know that NLP is also used by some very ] because the NLP method can be used by such groups to instill a reliance upon the cult, and provides a conditioning method to further induce compliance." He describes NLP as "a tool for generating change for changes sake" .<ref name="Langone 1993">{{cite book | author=Michael D Langone (Ed).| title=Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse | location=New York, NY | publisher=W W Norton & Company}}</ref> <p>Freelance writer ] states that ] "made NLP his own, refining it and personalizing it into what he christened "neuroassociative conditioning" (NAC). Salerno goes on to claim of Robbins (and other lifestyle trainers or systems) that he "actually fans the fires of discontent, making people feel impaired or somehow deficient as a prelude to (supposedly) curing them."<ref name="Salerno 2005">Steve Salerno (2005) ''Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless'', ISBN 1-4000-5409-5</ref>. O'Connor and Seymour in "Introducing NLP" state NAC is "...not strictly NLP.".<ref name="OConnor & Seymour 2002">{{cite book | author=Joseph O'Connor, John Seymour | title=Introducing NLP p222 | location=London | publisher=HarperCollins | year=2002 (first published 1990) | url=http://www.reiters.com/index.cgi?ISBN=1855383446&f=p | id=1855383446}}</ref>.

===Popular culture and media===
{{Expand-section|date=January 2007}}
In 2003 English psychological illusionist ] performed a stunt on national TV where he played Russian Roulette with 5 other players. Some suggested the stunt's success was due to Brown using NLP techniques in order manipulate the outcome.<ref> by Alok Jha, October 9, 2003, ]</ref> Derren Brown (2000) says "Having trained with the highly likeable founder of NLP, I find it a mixture of sensible and appealing methods for dealing with low-level pathologies such as phobias and fears on the one hand, and sheer daft nonsense and massive rhetoric on the other... There is no doubt that, to a point, much of this is well observed... But the idea triggered in me an interest in exploring these kinds of signals, and now I am pushing my performance closer into these areas."<ref name="Brown 2000">{{cite book | author=Brown, Derren | title=Pure Effect: Direct Mindreading and Magical Artistry | location= | publisher=H&R Magic Books | year=2000 | url= | pages=107,110 }}</ref>

In 2005, celebrity hypnotist and television personality ] was shown applying neuro-linguistic programming and other techniques on his ] show, 'I Can Change Your Life' to assist people with phobias, such as agoraphobia and addictions to gambling and shopping. In 2006, another Sky One programme, 'I Can Make You Thin', featured ] and used NLP among other techniques to help people lose weight.

Journalist ] wrote in a 2005 in a Financial Times news column that while some "believe that the continuing popularity of NLP... is an indication of its effectiveness" and ability to help in a wide spectrum of areas, he says that others think the success of NLP is "an example of mumbo jumbo triumphing over science" and that "critics say NLP is simply a half-baked conflation of ] and ] that uses ] to disguise the fact that it is based on a set of banal, if not incorrect, presuppositions". He states that "critics are probably correct". <ref name="Sanghera 2005">''Look into my eyes and tell me I'm learning not to be a loser'', Financial Times (London, First addition p.9), Sanghera, Satham. </ref>

==Classifying NLP==
{{RRevised|22 December 2006}}
{{See also|NLP and science|List of studies on Neuro-linguistic programming}}

===Science and pseudoscience===

] and ] claim "NLP is rooted in the synthesis of three areas of modern science: ], ] and ] (])." <ref name="Dilts & Delozier 2000">{{cite book | last = Dilts | first = Robert B | coauthors = DeLozier, Judith A | title = Encyclopedia of Systemic Neuro-Linguistic Programming and NLP New Coding | publisher = NLP University Press |date= 2000 | url = http://www.nlpuniversitypress.com/ | id = ISBN 0970154003}}</ref> Grinder & Bostic St Clair (2001) make suggestions about what needs to be done next to "improve the practice and take its rightful place as a scientifically based endeavor with its precise focus on one of the extremes of human behavior: excellence and the high performers who actually do it."<ref name="Grinder & Bostic St Clair 2001">{{cite book | author=Grinder, John & Carmen Bostic St Clair | title=Whispering in the Wind | publisher=CA: J & C Enterprises. | year=2001 | pages= | id=ISBN 0-9717223-0-7}}</ref> They ask those interested to work with researchers in ] and ] to begin to improve the relationship with those fields. O'Connor and Seymour, in "Introducing NLP" (2002), originally published in 1990 and endorsed by both ] and ], state "NLP is the art and science of personal excellence.... Science because there is a method and process for discovering the patterns used by outstanding individuals in any field to achieve outstanding results. This process is called ],...".<ref name="OConnor & Seymour 2002">{{cite book | author=Joseph O'Connor, John Seymour | title=Introducing NLP | location=London | publisher=HarperCollins | year=2002 (first published 1990) | url=http://www.reiters.com/index.cgi?ISBN=1855383446&f=p | id=1855383446}}</ref> However, psycholinguist Willem Levelt (1996) states "NLP is not informed about linguistics literature, it is based on vague insights that were out of date long ago, their linguistics concepts are not properly construed or are mere fabrications, and conclusions are based upon the wrong premises."... "NLP theory and practice has nothing to do with ] insights or ], nor with ] or theories of ]".<ref name="Drenth 1999" /><ref name=levelt>Willem Levelt (1996) Skepter Vol.9(3)</ref> Cognitive neuroscience researcher Michael C Corballis (1999) agrees and says that "NLP is a thoroughly fake title, designed to give the impression of ]."<ref name="Corballis 1999">Corballis, M. in Sala (ed) (1999) Mind Myths. Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain Author: Sergio Della Sala Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons ISBN 0-471-98303-9 p.41</ref> Drenth (2003) uses the "movement known by the name NLP" to illustrate his descriptions of ], stating "Unlike diagnosis, prediction of human performance or behavior, and assessment, therapy is not an (applied) scientific activity. Criteria for therapeutic activity is effectiveness, not verity;" ... "But what brings some of these therapeutic approaches into the category of pseudoscience is the claim that their presumptions are predicated on scientific understanding and scientific evidence."<ref name="Drenth 1999">Drenth, P. (1999) . Vol. 4.4 pp.233-239 ''European psychologist'' </ref>
<ref name="Drenth J.D.(2003)"> Pieter J.D. Drenth (2003) Growing anti-intellectualism in Europe; a menace to science in ALLEA Annual Report pp.60-72' </ref> Psychologist ] (1996) criticizes NLP promoters and advertisers for continuing to "call the originators 'scientists' and to use such terms a 'science', 'technology' and 'hi-tech psychology' in describing NLP"(p.172).<ref name="Singer & Lalich 1996">{{cite book | author= Singer, Margaret & Janja Lalich | title = Crazy Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? | publisher = Jossey Bass | date = 1996 | id = ISBN 0787902780}}</ref>
===Humanistic Psychology===
] emerged in the 1950s and has continued as a reaction to ] and scientific approaches to the mind. It views the usage of ] methods ('conclusive') in the study of the human mind and behaviour as misguided and advises ] methods ('exploratory'). It stresses a ] view of human experience and seeks to understand human beings and their behavior by conducting qualitative research methods.
Grinder and Delozier (1984) argue that the epistemology of Gregory Bateson (and NLP) attempts to synthesize the overdrawn positions of ] and ].<ref name="Grinder & Delozier 1984">{{cite book | author=Grinder, John & Judith DeLozier | title=Turtles All the Way Down: Prerequisites to Personal Genius | publisher=Scots Valley, CA: Grinder & Associates. | year=1987 | id=ISBN 1-55552-022-7}}</ref>

Jaap Hollander (1999) in making a number of recommendations for the field of NLP to develop better relationships with science, states that "qualitative scientific inquiry bears a striking resemblance with the process of modelling in NLP. So, NLP, after all, may not be as unscientific as it is often made out to be. Modeling, like qualitative research, uses data from naturalistic settings. Modeling also uses inductive analysis of the data. Rather than testing for the presence of predetermined patterns, the modeler looks for patterns in the observations of the expert, patterns that he or she had not consciously formulated beforehand."<ref name="Hollander 1999">Hollander, J. Ph.D. (1999, November) NLP and Science-Six recommendations for a better relationship , , first published in NLP journal/magazine: "NLP World" Nov. 1999 Vol 6(3)</ref> The humanistic approach has its roots in ] and phenomenological philosophy and many humanist psychologists completely reject a scientific approach, arguing that trying to turn human experience into measurements strips it of all meaning and relevance to lived existence.

Robert Dilts and Judith Delozier (2000) say "In considering NLP as a science however, it is important to recognise that the ] of NLP is more 'subjective' and ']' oriented than many 'hard' sciences, which tend to be more 'objective' and ']'. That is the patterns explored and identified by NLP are often necessarily contextual and influenced by the perceptual filters of the observer." ... "As a scientific approach, then, NLP tends to be more ']' than ']' and more ']' than ']'" ... <ref name="Dilts & Delozier 2000">{{cite book | last = Dilts | first = Robert B | coauthors = DeLozier, Judith A | title = Encyclopedia of Systemic Neuro-Linguistic Programming and NLP New Coding | publisher = NLP University Press |date= 2000 | url = http://www.nlpuniversitypress.com/ | id = ISBN 0970154003}}</ref>

In the introduction to ''The Structure of Magic Series'', ] says that Bandler and Grinder "create the beginnings of an appropriate theoretical base for the describing of human interaction." Bateson goes on to say that "The ]s, and especially ], have always avoided theory, and it is easy to make a list of the various maneuvers whereby theory could be avoided". Grinder and Bandler "have succeeded in making linguistics into a base for theory and simultaneously into a tool for therapy." ... "We already knew that most of the premises of ] were useless, and we knew that we ought to classify ]s of communicating." ... "Grinder and Bandler have succeeded in making explicit the syntax of how people avoid change and, therefore, how to assist them in changing. Here they focus on ]" ... and "develop a general model of communication and change involving the ] which human beings use to represent and communicate their experience."<ref name="Bandler & Grinder 1975a">{{cite book | author=Bandler, Richard & John Grinder | title=The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy | location=Palo Alto, CA | publisher=Science & Behavior Books | year=1975}}</ref>

===Technology===

NLP critic ] quotes Bandler as saying the term NLP was "phrased on the fly from several book titles on the floor of his car one night when a policeman asked his occupation." (p169). She also quotes Bandler as saying "it wasn't my job to do theory" and Tony Robbins as saying" NLP is heavily pragmatic: if a tool works, it's included in the model, even if there's no theory to back it up....None of the current NLP developers have done any research to ''prove'' their models correct. The party line is 'pretend it works, try it, and notice the results you get. If you don't get the result you want, try something else'"(p.172)."<ref name="Singer & Lalich 1997">{{cite book | author= Singer, Margaret & Janja Lalich | title=]: What Are They? Do They Work? | publisher=Jossey Bass | year=1997 | id=0787902780 | p.169- 172}}</ref>

Labouchere (2004) states that there are multiple definitons of NLP. Bandler defines NLP as "an attitude and a methodology which leaves behind a trail of techniques" whereas Grinder defines NLP as "the study of excellence and how to reproduce it".<ref name="Labouchere 2004">Peter Labouchere (2004) paper presented at at ''EE4 - Fourth International Entertainment Education Conference''</ref> Labouchere states that "NLP has a very pragmatic, applied focus on what is helpful, what works and how to replicate it (Bandler & Grinder, 1990). While it draws on and shares common ground with ‘mainstream’ ], from its inception in the 1970s it has continued to develop, refine, and apply its own unique range of concepts, models and techniques."

Sharpley (1987) states that a number of NLP techniques are worthwhile or beneficial in counselling, citing predicate matching, mirroring clients behaviors, moving sensory modalities, reframing, anchoring and changing history, but that none of these techniques originated within NLP, saying "NLP may be seen as a partial compendium of rather than as an original contribution to counseling practice and, thereby, has a value distinct from the lack of research data supporting the underlying principles that Bandler and Grinder posited to present NLP as a new and magical theory".<ref name="Sharpley 1987">{{cite journal | author=Sharpley C.F.| title=Research Findings on Neuro-linguistic Programming: Non supportive Data or an Untestable Theory| journal=Communication and Cognition | year=1987 | volume=Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1987 Vol. 34, No. 1 | pages=103-107,105 | url=http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?nfpb=true&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ352101&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b8005c1ac}}</ref>

NLP teaches that each learner is a unique individual with unique needs and backgrounds and encourages students take responsibility for their own states, and learning experience.<ref name="Craft 2001">{{cite journal | author=Craft A. | title=Neuro-linguistic Programming and learning theory | journal=The Curriculum Journal, Routledge | year=March 2001 | volume=Volume 12, Number 1 | pages=125-136(12) | url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/article?title=neurolinguistic+programming&title_type=tka&author=craft&year_from=1997&year_to=2005&database=1&pageSize=20&index=1}}</ref>. According to Craft, "Neuro-linguistic Programming is best understood as a strategy which at first sight appears to draw on ]. However, I have raised some problems in both the strategy itself (first), the lack of awareness of learning and performance styles, in that although it comes from the perspective that individuals respond uniquely to the world, it nevertheless offers an experiential approach to learning"<ref name="Craft 2001"/>

In response to Craft, NLP academics Tosey and Mathison (2003) expressed NLP in terms of the ] of Gregory Bateson stating, "Early statements from the originators of NLP dismissed interest in articulating or acquiring theory, for example; `We have no idea about the "real" nature of things, and we're not particularly interested in what's "true". The function of modeling is to arrive at descriptions which are useful.' (Bandler and Grinder 1979 p.7). Bandler and Grinder's intent, perhaps, was to stay close to experience and avoid abstract discussion about truths of human experience. It seems that this stance has persisted, even if it is not shared by all leading NLP practitioners. We suggest that NLP may be regarded as a ] (Gibbons et al 1994), in the sense that it draws on sources from academe and from elsewhere, and has been generated through application more than being deduced from ]." They go on to state "It seems unarguable that to become regarded as academically credible there is a need for NLP to be more thoroughly theorised, particularly to consider how it relates to and differs from existing theoretical perspectives such as ], ], ], and more." ], ], is the director of research project into the theory and application of NLP in teaching theory. Furthermore Mathison and Tosey (2002) add that this approach to learning and development appears similar in theory to ] and ] and unrelated to computer ] or ].<ref name="Tosey & Mathison 2003"/>

===Religiosity and spirituality===

Sociologist and Christian scholar, ] states that NLP "is a technique rather than an organised religion and is used by several different ]s" yet that it has an "implied ]".(p.195).<ref name="Hunt 2003">Hunt, Stephen J. (2003) ISBN 0-7546-3410-8</ref> Skeptics have described NLP as simply a "New Age" development citing the ] study which found no hard empirical evidence for its efficacy.<ref name="Beyerstein 1990">{{cite journal | author=Beyerstein. B.L| title=Brainscams: Neuromythologies of the New Age.| journal= International Journal of Mental Health | year=1990 | volume=19(3) | pages=27-36,27 | url=http://www.sfu.ca/psyc/faculty/beyerstein/research/articles/Brainscams,%20Neuromythologies_of_the_New_Age.PDF}}</ref> Regarding ], Dilts states that ] was influenced by Carlos Castaneda's ] in developing the ], ] and rechanneling of attention and energy to more appropriate contexts.<ref name="Dilts & Delozier 2000">Dilts & Delozier (2000) </ref> At the same time Grinder contends that any venture into personal beliefs of "spirituality" in psychotherapy or NLP would be an ethical violation.<ref name="Grinder & Bostic St Clair 2001">{{cite book | author John Grinder and Bostic St Clair (2001) | "Whispering in the Wind"}}</ref>

] (2001) in his work ''The New Believers: A Survey of Sects, Cults and Alternative Religions'', describes NLP as a technique or series of techniques, or a process, and notes it is sometimes used by some religious sects. He states that while "the brief biographies of NLP Trainers usually give the names of the people they have trained under... could be seen as similar to new eastern origin religions tracing themselves back through a progression of gurus", and that NLP as a philosophy does exhibit some characteristics which are sometimes found in some religions, "overall the balance comes down against it being labeled as a religion."<ref name="Barrett 2001">David V. Barrett (2001) Available online from Google Books. pp.434,26</ref>




==See also==
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==Notes and references==

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==Further reading==
{{main|Neuro-linguistic programming: Bibliography}}
<!--Commented out as per Peer review: ''Note: This list was compiled based on the number of citations listed in Google Scholar (accessed: 20th December, 2006).''-->

*Bandler, R., Grinder, J. (1979) ''Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming.'' Real People Press. 149 pages. ISBN 0911226192<!--(125 citations)-->
*Bandler, R., Grinder, J. (1975) ''The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy'' Science and Behavior Books. 198 pages. ISBN 0831400447<!--(112+ citations) the citations to the German version of this book were excluded from this calculation -->
*], Seymour, J. Dilts, R. (foreword), Grinder, J. (preface) (1995) ''Introducing Neuro-linguistic Programming: The New Psychology of Personal Excellence'' Aquarian Press. 224 pages. ISBN 1852740736 <!--(53 ciations)-->
*Bandler, R., Grinder, J. (1981) ''Reframing: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Transformation of Meaning'' Real People Press. ISBN 0911226257<!--(36 citations)-->
*Grinder, J., Bandler, R. (1976) ''Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of ] Volume 1'' ISBN 091699001X <!--(31 citations)-->
*] (1990) ''Changing belief systems with NLP'' Meta Publications. ISBN 0916990249 <!--(28 citations)-->
*Bandler, R., ] (ed) and ] (ed) (1985) ''Using Your Brain-for a Change'' ISBN 0911226273<!--(26 citations)-->
*] Lori Stephens (Ed) (1991) ''Righting the Educational Conveyor Belt'' ISBN 1555520367 <!--(23 citations)-->
*] (1987) ''Influencing with Integrity: Management Skills for Communication and Negotiation'' <!--(20 citations)-->
*], ], ] (1990) ''Beliefs: Pathways to Health & Well-being'' <!--(15 citations)-->
*], Grinder, J., Bandler, R. (1976) ''Changing with Families: A Book about Further Education for Being Human'' Science and Behavior Books. ISBN 083140051X <!--(14 citations)-->

==External links==

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===Associations===
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* - European accrediting organisation for ]
* - Scottish accrediting organisation for NLP
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===Skeptics===
* {{cite web | last = Carroll | first = Robert T. | title=The Skeptic's Dictionary | url=http://skepdic.com/neurolin.html | accessdate= }}

Latest revision as of 00:02, 4 September 2024

Pseudoscientific approach to psychotherapy Not to be confused with Natural language processing (also NLP). For other uses, see NLP.

Medical intervention
Neuro-linguistic programming
MeSHD020557
[edit on Wikidata]
Neuro-linguistic
programming
Topics
Developers
Practitioners
Organisations

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development and psychotherapy, that first appeared in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's 1975 book The Structure of Magic I. NLP asserts that there is a connection between neurological processes, language and acquired behavioral patterns, and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life. According to Bandler and Grinder, NLP can treat problems such as phobias, depression, tic disorders, psychosomatic illnesses, near-sightedness, allergy, the common cold, and learning disorders, often in a single session. They also say that NLP can model the skills of exceptional people, allowing anyone to acquire them.

NLP has been adopted by some hypnotherapists as well as by companies that run seminars marketed as leadership training to businesses and government agencies.

There is no scientific evidence supporting the claims made by NLP advocates, and it has been called a pseudoscience. Scientific reviews have shown that NLP is based on outdated metaphors of the brain's inner workings that are inconsistent with current neurological theory, and that NLP contains numerous factual errors. Reviews also found that research that favored NLP contained significant methodological flaws, and that there were three times as many studies of a much higher quality that failed to reproduce the claims made by Bandler, Grinder, and other NLP practitioners.

Early development

According to Bandler and Grinder, NLP consists of a methodology termed modeling, plus a set of techniques that they derived from its initial applications. They derived many of the fundamental techniques from the work of Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson and Fritz Perls. Bandler and Grinder also drew upon the theories of Gregory Bateson, Alfred Korzybski and Noam Chomsky (particularly transformational grammar).

Bandler and Grinder say that their methodology can codify the structure inherent to the therapeutic "magic" as performed in therapy by Perls, Satir and Erickson, and indeed inherent to any complex human activity. From that codification, they say, the structure and its activity can be learned by others. Their 1975 book, The Structure of Magic I: A Book about Language and Therapy, is intended to be a codification of the therapeutic techniques of Perls and Satir.

Bandler and Grinder say that they used their own process of modeling to model Virginia Satir so they could produce what they termed the Meta-Model, a model for gathering information and challenging a client's language and underlying thinking. They say that by challenging linguistic distortions, specifying generalizations, and recovering deleted information in the client's statements, the transformational grammar concept of surface structure yields a more complete representation of the underlying deep structure and therefore has therapeutic benefit. Also derived from Satir were anchoring, future pacing and representational systems.

In contrast, the Milton-Model—a model of the purportedly hypnotic language of Milton Erickson—was described by Bandler and Grinder as "artfully vague" and metaphoric. The Milton-Model is used in combination with the Meta-Model as a softener, to induce "trance" and to deliver indirect therapeutic suggestion.

Psychologist Jean Mercer writes that Chomsky's theories "appear to be irrelevant" to NLP. Linguist Karen Stollznow describes Bandler's and Grinder's reference to such experts as namedropping. Other than Satir, the people they cite as influences did not collaborate with Bandler or Grinder. Chomsky himself has no association with NLP, with his work being theoretical in nature and having no therapeutic element. Stollznow writes, "ther than borrowing terminology, NLP does not bear authentic resemblance to any of Chomsky's theories or philosophies—linguistic, cognitive or political."

According to André Muller Weitzenhoffer, a researcher in the field of hypnosis, "the major weakness of Bandler and Grinder's linguistic analysis is that so much of it is built upon untested hypotheses and is supported by totally inadequate data." Weitzenhoffer adds that Bandler and Grinder misuse formal logic and mathematics, redefine or misunderstand terms from the linguistics lexicon (e.g., nominalization), create a scientific façade by needlessly complicating Ericksonian concepts with unfounded claims, make factual errors, and disregard or confuse concepts central to the Ericksonian approach.

More recently, Bandler has stated, "NLP is based on finding out what works and formalizing it. In order to formalize patterns I utilized everything from linguistics to holography ... The models that constitute NLP are all formal models based on mathematical, logical principles such as predicate calculus and the mathematical equations underlying holography." There is no mention of the mathematics of holography nor of holography in general in Spitzer's, or Grinder's account of the development of NLP.

On the matter of the development of NLP, Grinder recollects:

My memories about what we thought at the time of discovery (with respect to the classic code we developed—that is, the years 1973 through 1978) are that we were quite explicit that we were out to overthrow a paradigm and that, for example, I, for one, found it very useful to plan this campaign using in part as a guide the excellent work of Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) in which he detailed some of the conditions which historically have obtained in the midst of paradigm shifts. For example, I believe it was very useful that neither one of us were qualified in the field we first went after—psychology and in particular, its therapeutic application; this being one of the conditions which Kuhn identified in his historical study of paradigm shifts.

The philosopher Robert Todd Carroll responded that Grinder has not understood Kuhn's text on the history and philosophy of science, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Carroll replies: (a) individual scientists never have nor are they ever able to create paradigm shifts volitionally and Kuhn does not suggest otherwise; (b) Kuhn's text does not contain the idea that being unqualified in a field of science is a prerequisite to producing a result that necessitates a paradigm shift in that field and (c) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is foremost a work of history and not an instructive text on creating paradigm shifts and such a text is not possible—extraordinary discovery is not a formulaic procedure. Carroll explains that a paradigm shift is not a planned activity, rather it is an outcome of scientific effort within the dominant paradigm that produces data that cannot be adequately accounted for within the current paradigm—hence a paradigm shift, i.e. the adoption of a new paradigm. In developing NLP, Bandler and Grinder were not responding to a paradigmatic crisis in psychology nor did they produce any data that caused a paradigmatic crisis in psychology. There is no sense in which Bandler and Grinder caused or participated in a paradigm shift. "What did Grinder and Bandler do that makes it impossible to continue doing psychology ... without accepting their ideas? Nothing," argues Carroll.

Commercialization and evaluation

By the late 1970s, the human potential movement had developed into an industry and provided a market for some NLP ideas. At the center of this growth was the Esalen Institute at Big Sur, California. Perls had led numerous Gestalt therapy seminars at Esalen. Satir was an early leader and Bateson was a guest teacher. Bandler and Grinder have said that in addition to being a therapeutic method, NLP was also a study of communication and began marketing it as a business tool, writing that, "if any human being can do anything, so can you." After 150 students paid $1,000 each for a ten-day workshop in Santa Cruz, California, Bandler and Grinder gave up academic writing and started producing popular books from seminar transcripts, such as Frogs into Princes, which sold more than 270,000 copies. According to court documents relating to an intellectual property dispute between Bandler and Grinder, Bandler made more than $800,000 in 1980 from workshop and book sales.

A community of psychotherapists and students began to form around Bandler and Grinder's initial works, leading to the growth and spread of NLP as a theory and practice. For example, Tony Robbins trained with Grinder and utilized a few ideas from NLP as part of his own self-help and motivational speaking programmes. Bandler led several unsuccessful efforts to exclude other parties from using NLP. Meanwhile, the rising number of practitioners and theorists led NLP to become even less uniform than it was at its foundation. Prior to the decline of NLP, scientific researchers began testing its theoretical underpinnings empirically, with research indicating a lack of empirical support for NLP's essential theories. The 1990s were characterized by fewer scientific studies evaluating the methods of NLP than the previous decade. Tomasz Witkowski attributes this to a declining interest in the debate as the result of a lack of empirical support for NLP from its proponents.

Main components and core concepts

NLP can be understood in terms of three broad components: subjectivity, consciousness, and learning.

According to Bandler and Grinder, people experience the world subjectively, creating internal representations of their experiences. These representations involve the five senses and language. In other words, our conscious experiences take the form of sights, sounds, feelings, smells, and tastes. When we imagine something, recall an event, or think about the future, we utilize these same sensory systems within our minds Furthermore it is stated that these subjective representations of experience have a discernible structure, a pattern.

Bandler and Grinder assert that behavior (both our own and others') can be understood through these sensory-based internal representations. Behavior here includes verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as effective or adaptive behaviors and less helpful or "pathological" ones. They also assert that behavior in both the self and other people can be modified by manipulating these sense-based subjective representations.

NLP posits that consciousness can be divided into conscious and unconscious components. The part of our internal representations operating outside our direct awareness is referred to as the "unconscious mind".

Finally, NLP uses a method of learning called "modeling", designed to replicate expertise in any field. According to Bandler and Grinder, by analyzing the sequence of sensory and linguistic representations used by an expert while performing a skill, it's possible to create a mental model that can be learned by others.

Techniques or set of practices

Further information: Methods of neuro-linguistic programming
An "eye accessing cue chart" as it appears as an example in Bandler & Grinder's Frogs into Princes (1979). The six directions represent "visual construct", "visual recall", "auditory construct", "auditory recall", "kinesthetic" and "auditory internal dialogue".

According to one study by Steinbach, a classic interaction in NLP can be understood in terms of several major stages including establishing rapport, gleaning information about a problem mental state and desired goals, using specific tools and techniques to make interventions, and integrating proposed changes into the client's life. The entire process is guided by the non-verbal responses of the client. The first is the act of establishing and maintaining rapport between the practitioner and the client which is achieved through pacing and leading the verbal (e.g., sensory predicates and keywords) and non-verbal behavior (e.g., matching and mirroring non-verbal behavior, or responding to eye movements) of the client.

Once rapport is established, the practitioner may gather information about the client's present state as well as help the client define a desired state or goal for the interaction. The practitioner pays attention to the verbal and non-verbal responses as the client defines the present state and desired state and any resources that may be required to bridge the gap. The client is typically encouraged to consider the consequences of the desired outcome, and how they may affect his or her personal or professional life and relationships, taking into account any positive intentions of any problems that may arise. The practitioner thereafter assists the client in achieving the desired outcomes by using certain tools and techniques to change internal representations and responses to stimuli in the world. Finally, the practitioner helps the client to mentally rehearse and integrate the changes into his or her life. For example, the client may be asked to envision what it is like having already achieved the outcome.

According to Stollznow, "NLP also involves fringe discourse analysis and 'practical' guidelines for 'improved' communication. For example, one text asserts 'when you adopt the "but" word, people will remember what you said afterwards. With the "and" word, people remember what you said before and after.'"

Applications

Alternative medicine

NLP has been promoted as being able to treat a variety of diseases including Parkinson's disease, HIV/AIDS and cancer. Such claims have no supporting medical evidence. People who use NLP as a form of treatment risk serious adverse health consequences as it can delay the provision of effective medical care.

Psychotherapeutic

Early books about NLP had a psychotherapeutic focus given that the early models were psychotherapists. As an approach to psychotherapy, NLP shares similar core assumptions and foundations in common with some contemporary brief and systemic practices, such as solution focused brief therapy. NLP has also been acknowledged as having influenced these practices with its reframing techniques which seeks to achieve behavior change by shifting its context or meaning, for example, by finding the positive connotation of a thought or behavior.

The two main therapeutic uses of NLP are, firstly, as an adjunct by therapists practicing in other therapeutic disciplines and, secondly, as a specific therapy called Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy.

According to Stollznow, "Bandler and Grinder's infamous Frogs into Princes and their other books boast that NLP is a cure-all that treats a broad range of physical and mental conditions and learning difficulties, including epilepsy, myopia and dyslexia. With its promises to cure schizophrenia, depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and its dismissal of psychiatric illnesses as psychosomatic, NLP shares similarities with Scientology and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)." A systematic review of experimental studies by Sturt et al. (2012) concluded that "there is little evidence that NLP interventions improve health-related outcomes." In his review of NLP, Stephen Briers writes, "NLP is not really a cohesive therapy but a ragbag of different techniques without a particularly clear theoretical basis ... evidence base is virtually non-existent." Eisner writes, "NLP appears to be a superficial and gimmicky approach to dealing with mental health problems. Unfortunately, NLP appears to be the first in a long line of mass marketing seminars that purport to virtually cure any mental disorder ... it appears that NLP has no empirical or scientific support as to the underlying tenets of its theory or clinical effectiveness. What remains is a mass-marketed serving of psychopablum."

André Muller Weitzenhoffer—a friend and peer of Milton Erickson—wrote, "Has NLP really abstracted and explicated the essence of successful therapy and provided everyone with the means to be another Whittaker, Virginia Satir, or Erickson? ... failure to do this is evident because today there is no multitude of their equals, not even another Whittaker, Virginia Satir, or Erickson. Ten years should have been sufficient time for this to happen. In this light, I cannot take NLP seriously ... contributions to our understanding and use of Ericksonian techniques are equally dubious. Patterns I and II are poorly written works that were an overambitious, pretentious effort to reduce hypnotism to a magic of words."

Clinical psychologist Stephen Briers questions the value of the NLP maxim—a presupposition in NLP jargon—"there is no failure, only feedback". Briers argues that the denial of the existence of failure diminishes its instructive value. He offers Walt Disney, Isaac Newton and J.K. Rowling as three examples of unambiguous acknowledged personal failure that served as an impetus to great success. According to Briers, it was "the crash-and-burn type of failure, not the sanitised NLP Failure Lite, i.e. the failure-that-isn't really-failure sort of failure" that propelled these individuals to success. Briers contends that adherence to the maxim leads to self-deprecation. According to Briers, personal endeavour is a product of invested values and aspirations and the dismissal of personally significant failure as mere feedback effectively denigrates what one values. Briers writes, "Sometimes we need to accept and mourn the death of our dreams, not just casually dismiss them as inconsequential." Briers also contends that the NLP maxim is narcissistic, self-centered and divorced from notions of moral responsibility.

Other uses

Although the original core techniques of NLP were therapeutic in orientation their generic nature enabled them to be applied to other fields. These applications include persuasion, sales, negotiation, management training, sports, teaching, coaching, team building, public speaking, and in the process of hiring employees.

Scientific criticism

In the early 1980s, NLP was advertised as an important advance in psychotherapy and counseling, and attracted some interest in counseling research and clinical psychology. However, as controlled trials failed to show any benefit from NLP and its advocates made increasingly dubious claims, scientific interest in NLP faded.

Numerous literature reviews and meta-analyses have failed to show evidence for NLP's assumptions or effectiveness as a therapeutic method. While some NLP practitioners have argued that the lack of empirical support is due to insufficient research which tests NLP, the consensus scientific opinion is that NLP is pseudoscience and that attempts to dismiss the research findings based on these arguments "s an admission that NLP does not have an evidence base and that NLP practitioners are seeking a post-hoc credibility."

Surveys in the academic community have shown NLP to be widely discredited among scientists. Among the reasons for considering NLP a pseudoscience are that evidence in favor of it is limited to anecdotes and personal testimony that it is not informed by scientific understanding of neuroscience and linguistics, and that the name "neuro-linguistic programming" uses jargon words to impress readers and obfuscate ideas, whereas NLP itself does not relate any phenomena to neural structures and has nothing in common with linguistics or programming. In education, NLP has been used as a key example of pseudoscience.

As a quasi-religion

Sociologists and anthropologists have categorized NLP as a quasi-religion belonging to the New Age and/or Human Potential Movements.

Medical anthropologist Jean M. Langford categorizes NLP as a form of folk magic; that is to say, a practice with symbolic efficacy—as opposed to physical efficacy—that is able to effect change through nonspecific effects (e.g., placebo). To Langford, NLP is akin to a syncretic folk religion "that attempts to wed the magic of folk practice to the science of professional medicine".

Bandler and Grinder were influenced by the shamanism described in the books of Carlos Castaneda. Concepts like "double induction" and "stopping the world", central to NLP modeling, were incorporated from these influences.

Some theorists characterize NLP as a type of "psycho-shamanism", and its focus on modeling has been compared to ritual practices in certain syncretic religions. The emphasis on lineage from an NLP guru has also been likened to similar concepts in some Eastern religions. Aupers, Houtman, and Bovbjerg identify NLP as a New Age "psycho-religion". Bovbjerg argues that New Age movements center on a transcendent "other". While monotheistic religions seek communion with a divine being, this focus shifts inward in these movements, with the "other" becoming the unconscious self. Bovbjerg posits that this emphasis on the unconscious and its hidden potential underlies NLP techniques promoting self-perfection through ongoing transformation.

Bovbjerg's secular critique echoes the conservative Christian perspective, as exemplified by David Jeremiah. He argues that NLP's emphasis on self-transformation and internal power conflicts with the Christian belief in salvation through divine grace.

Legal disputes

Founding, initial disputes, and settlement (1979–1981)

In 1979, Richard Bandler and John Grinder established the Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to manage commercial applications of NLP, including training, materials, and certification. The founding agreement conferred exclusive rights to profit from NLP training and certification upon Bandler's corporate entity, Not Ltd. Around November 1980, Bandler and Grinder had ceased collaboration for undisclosed reasons.

On September 25, 1981, Bandler filed suit against Grinder's corporate entity, Unlimited Ltd., in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Cruz seeking injunctive relief and damages arising from Grinder's NLP-related commercial activities; the Court issued a judgment in Bandler's favor on October 29, 1981. The subsequent settlement agreement granted Grinder a 10-year license to conduct NLP seminars, offer NLP certification, and utilize the NLP name, subject to royalty payments to Bandler.

Further litigation and consequences (1996–2000)

Bandler commenced further civil actions against Unlimited Ltd., various figures within the NLP community, and 200 initially unnamed defendants in July 1996 and January 1997. Bandler alleged violations of the initial settlement terms by Grinder and sought damages of no less than US$10,000,000.00 from each defendant.

In February 2000, the Court ruled against Bandler. The judgment asserted that Bandler had misrepresented his exclusive ownership of NLP intellectual property and sole authority over Society of NLP membership and certification.

Trademark revocation (1997)

In December 1997, a separate civil proceeding initiated by Tony Clarkson resulted in the revocation of Bandler's UK trademark of NLP. The Court ruled in Clarkson's favor.

Resolution and legacy (2000)

Bandler and Grinder reached a settlement in late 2000, acknowledging their status as co-creators and co-founders of NLP and committing to refrain from disparaging one another's NLP-related endeavors.

Due to these disputes and settlements, the terms 'NLP' and 'Neuro-Linguistic Programming' remain in the public domain. No single party holds exclusive rights, and there are no restrictions on offering NLP certifications.

The designations "NLP" and "Neuro-linguistic Programming" are not owned, trademarked, or subject to centralized regulation. Consequently, there are no restrictions on individuals self-identifying as "NLP Master Practitioners" or "NLP Master Trainers." This decentralization has led to numerous certifying associations.

Decentralization and criticism

This lack of centralized control means there's no single standard for NLP practice or training. Practitioners can market their own methodologies, leading to inconsistencies within the field. This has been a source of criticism, highlighted by an incident in 2009 where a British television presenter registered his cat with the British Board of Neuro Linguistic Programming (BBNLP), demonstrating the organization's lax credentialing. Critics like Karen Stollznow find irony in the initial legal battles between Bandler and Grinder, considering their failure to apply their own NLP principles to resolve their conflict. Others, such as Grant Devilly, characterize NLP associations as "granfalloons"—a term implying a lack of unifying principles or a shared sense of purpose.

See also

Notable practitioners

Notes

  1. ^ Note that, in a seminar, Bandler & Grinder 1982, p. 166, said that a single session of NLP combined with hypnosis could eliminate certain eyesight problems such as myopia and cure the common cold (op.cit., pp. 169, 174).
  2. Bandler 1993, p. vii: "In single sessions, they can accelerate learning, neutralize phobias, enhance creativity, improve relationships, eliminate allergies, and lead firewalks without roasting toes. NLP achieves the goal of its inception. We have ways to do what only a genius could have done a decade ago."
  3. Weitzenhoffer 1989, pp. 304–305: "I have chosen nominalization to explain what some of the problems are in Bandler and Grinder's linguistic approach to Ericksonian hypnotism. Almost any other linguistic concept used by these authors could have served equally well for the purpose of showing some of the inherent weaknesses in their treatment."
  4. Weitzenhoffer 1989, p. 307: "As I have mentioned in the last chapter, any references made to left and right brain functions in relation to hypnotic phenomena must be considered as poorly founded. They do not add to our understanding of nor our ability to utilize hypnotic phenomena in the style of Erickson. Indeed, references such as Bandler and Grinder make to these functions give their subject matter a false appearance of having a more scientific status than it has."
  5. Weitzenhoffer 1989, p. 306: "This work , incidentally, contains some glaring misstatements of facts. For example, Freud and Mesmer were depicted as contemporaries!"
  6. Weitzenhoffer 1989, p. 306: One of the most striking features of the Bandler/Grinder interpretation is that it somehow ignores the issue of the existence and function of suggestion, which even in Erickson's own writings and those done with Rossi, is a central idea."
  7. Dilts et al. 1980, pp. 13–14: "There are three characteristics of effective patterning in NLP which sharply distinguish it from behavioural science as it is commonly practiced today. First, for a pattern or generalization regarding human communication to be acceptable or well–formed in NLP, it must include in the description the human agents who are initiating and responding to the pattern being described, their actions, their possible responses. Secondly, the description of the pattern must be represented in sensory grounded terms which are available to the user. This user–oriented constraint on NLP ensures usefulness. We have been continually struck by the tremendous gap between theory and practice in the behavioural sciences—this requirement closes that gap. Notice that since patterns must be represented in sensory grounded terms, available through practice to the user, a pattern will typically have multiple representation—each tailored for the differing sensory capabilities of individual users Thirdly, NLP includes within its descriptive vocabulary terms which are not directly observable ."
  8. Dilts et al. (1980), p. 36: "The basic elements from which the patterns of human behaviour are formed are the perceptual systems through which the members of the species operate on their environment: vision (sight), audition (hearing), kinesthesis (body sensations) and olfaction/gustation (smell/taste). The neurolinguistic programming model presupposes that all of the distinctions we as human beings are able to make concerning our environment (internal and external) and our behaviour can be usefully represented in terms of these systems. These perceptual classes constitute the structural parameters of human knowledge. We postulate that all of our ongoing experience can usefully be coded as consisting of some combination of these sensory classes."
  9. Dilts et al. (1980), p. 7: "NLP presents specific tools which can be applied effectively in any human interaction. It offers specific techniques by which a practitioner may usefully organize and re–organize his or her subjective experience or the experiences of a client in order to define and subsequently secure any behavioural outcome."
  10. Dilts et al. 1980, pp. 77–80: "Strategies and representations which typically occur below an individual's level of awareness make up what is often called or referred to as the 'unconscious mind'."
  11. See, for instance, the following:
    • Sharpley, 1984 and 1987
    • Druckman and Swets, 1988
    • Heap, 1988
    • von Bergen et al., 1997
    • Druckman, 2004
    • Witkowski, 2010
  12. See the following:
    • Einspruch and Forman, 1985
    • Murray, 2013
    • Sturt et al., 2012
    • Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Research
    • Tosey and Mathison, 2010
  13. See the following:
    • Witkowsi, 2010
    • The Skeptic's Dictionary, 2009
    • Beyerstein, 1990
    • Corballis, in Della Sala and Anderson, 2012
    • Singer and Lalich
    • Lilienfeld, Lynn and Lohr, 2004
    • Della Sala, 2007
    • Williams, 2000
    • Lum, 2001
    • Lilienfeld, Lohr and Morier, 2001
    • Dunn, Halonen and Smith, 2008
    • Molfese, Segalowitz and Harris, 1988
  14. For a description of the social influence tactics used by NLP and similar pseudoscientific therapies, see Devilly, 2005
  15. In 2006, Norcross and colleagues found NLP to be given similar ratings as dolphin-assisted therapy, equine-assisted therapy, psychosynthesis, scared straight programmes, and emotional freedom technique. In 2010, Norcross and colleagues listed it as seventh out of their list of ten most discredited drug and alcohol interventions. Glasner-Edwards and colleagues also identified it as discredited in 2010.
  16. For more information on the use of neuroscience terms to lend the appearance of credibility to arguments, see Weisburg et al., 2008

References

Citations

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