Myth 20
NLP, or neurolinguistic programming, is a bona fide approach to coaching or therapy As the following statement applies to NLP-practitioners as well, I am happy to repeat it here: “Unfortunately the field of self-styled ‘corporate image consultants’ or ‘leadership consultants’ has numerous practitioners with very little psychological expertise” (personal communication between Albert Mehrabian and Max Atkinson, published in his book on p. 34).
Even Wikipedia includes NLP in its list of topics that are characterized as pseudoscience. Let’s dive into this myth! Key words PRS, VAK, sensory preference, eye movements, eye direction, matching, tracking, anchoring, National Research Council. What is NLP about? NLP was ‘developed’ by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970s. According to the information I was able to trace, Richard Bandler was a mathematics student when he and John Grinder (a linguist) developed their model. Bandler later completed a master’s degree in psychology. They were the ‘founding fathers’ of NLP and published their first book The Structure of Magic on the subject in 1975. They described their method as ‘revolutionary,’ and claimed they had observed three psychotherapists who were ‘highly effective.’ They described the method as a combination of “art and technique,” positioning it as a commercial product. They started teaching NLP in a workshop format. To preserve intellectual property rights, a centralized certification method was established. This certification program consists of several levels such as Practitioner, Master Practitioner, or NLP Trainer. NLP claims to be able to influence and change individual’s behaviors and beliefs, or to enhance advertising, management, and education. NLP practitioners (or adepts) often claim NLP is only a synthesis of models and techniques used by trained psychologists. It is said that NLP is pragmatic: if a method works, they will use it, even if no theory exists to explain why it works. The methods used are (1) tracking the PRS (Primary Representational System, see later) by listening to the language used or observing eye-movements or body posture, (2) matching the preferred style of the other person, (3) anchoring,205 and (4) Visual-Kinesthetic Dissociation (VKD),206 which also became popular as a stand-alone therapy. In their opinion, this blending of powerful models and techniques has made NLP revolutionary:
The term ‘anchor’ is used by NLP practitioners to describe what happens if they ‘pin down’ an internal response as auditory, visual, kinesthetic, or olfactory. For example, one of the fingers can be pressed to evoke positive feelings. 206 VKD requires that the patient imagine a trauma as if they were watching a videotape of the event from different perspectives, coupled with temporary dissociation and directed re-association of beliefs regarding the event (Devilly, 2005, p. 439). It is not to be confused with gradual exposure or gradual extinction therapies used for treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. 205
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A skeptic’s HR Dictionary