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Charles Staats
Professor Michael Brittain
English 1301
17 November 2009
NLP in Psychology
Psychology as we know it didn’t suddenly appear on the intellectual scene. It’s
impossible to say when it showed up, or who was responsible for it. Instead, we can only point
to a number of currents that take us from philosophy and the natural sciences into something
recognizably psychological (Boeree). Over the last one hundred and forty years, a variety of
theories have evolved with different theoretical views and techniques on human behavior change.
Today the psychology field is inundated with a plethora of techniques, approaches, and
philosophies on how to institute change. Throughout its development, Psychology struggled for
acceptance by the “hard” sciences (Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc...), yet now, psychology
communities are having a difficult time accepting new theories or approaches into their academic
programs. One innovative approach based on “modeling” drawn from the Linguistic field, Neuro-
Linguistic Programming (NLP), is an approach to human behavior change which has met criticism
and rejection by psychologists and social science groups for its unconventional approach, yet
continues to thrive outside these communities and into professional fields.
In the early 1970’s the co-creators of NLP (Nuero-Linguistic Programming), Dr. Richard
Bandler and Dr. John Grinder, developed NLP as a sound alternative therapy which sought to
educate people in self-awareness and effective communication, and to change their patterns of
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mental and emotional behavior (1.1). They coined the title to denote a supposed theoretical
connection between neurological processes (‘neuro’), language (‘linguistic’) and behavioral
patterns that have been learned through experience (‘programming’) and that can be organized to
achieve specific goals in life (1)(2)(3). NLP falls under the broadest heading of psychology,
and is perhaps most closely related to cognitive psychology. While Grinder held a bachelo