User:Action potential/Epistemology of NLP

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[edit] Epistemology

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Main article: Principles of NLP

For some NLP is really a way of thinking, an epistemology. "In considering NLP as a science however, it is important to recognize that the epistemology of NLP is more 'subjective' and 'systematically' oriented than many 'hard' sciences, which tend to be more 'objective' and 'deterministic'. 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 'qualitative' than 'quantitative' and more 'structuralist' than 'materialistic'"[1]

Gregory Bateson and his book, Steps to an Ecology of Mind[2] and to a lesser extent Alfred Korzybski and his book, Science and Sanity[3], are often credited as providing the intellectual underpinnings and ethical framework for NLP.[4] [5] Bandler and Grinder drew from disciplines such as cybernetics, systems theory and communication theory. Perhaps Bateson and Korzybski's influence can be summed up by these core presuppositions:

  • The map is not the territory — Alfred Korzybski[3] Individuals do not in general have access to absolute knowledge of reality, but only have access to a set of beliefs (filters) they have built up over time about reality. So it is considered important to be aware that people's beliefs about reality and their awareness of things (their "map") are not reality itself or everything they could be aware of ("the territory").
  • Life and mind are systemic processes — Gregory Bateson's influence can be seen in the way NLP treats each client's relationship with self as a system and relationship with others as subsystems that interact. When someone considers a change it is important therefore to take into account the consequences on the system as a whole.[6]

There are a operational presuppositions claimed to be close to the Batesonian epistemology:

  • Behind every behavior there is a positive intention. Even a seemingly negative thought or behavior has a positive function at some level or in some other context.[7] (presupposition)
  • A person is not his or her behaviour
  • There is no failure, only feedback. (presupposition)
  • The meaning of the communication is the response it produces, not the intended communication. (presupposition)
  • One cannot not communicate: Every behaviour is a kind of communication. Because behaviour does not have a counterpart (there is no anti-behaviour), it is not possible not to communicate.[2][8]
  • Choice is better than no choice. An idea from cybernetics that holds the most flexible element in a system will have the most influence or choice in that system.[6]
  • People already have all the internal resources they need to succeed. (presupposition)
  • Multiple descriptions are better than one[2]