On Mon, 13 Nov 2000, DAP Louw (Sielkunde) wrote:
>
> Can anybody refer me to a good CRITICAL article or website on
> Neuro-Linguistic Programming? I've read the other side but would
> like to get a balanced view.
>
Well, this stuff is just one more in the great tradition
of crackpot psychology (also known as psychoceramics), long on
grandiose claims, short on believable theory or anything even
vaguely resembling evidence.
I've discovered a website at http://www.skepdic.com/neurolin.html
(Skeptic's dictionary) which provides history and background to
this whatever it is (system, therapy?) but the essay isn't nearly
critical enough for my taste.
You might try the book "Crazy" Therapies by Margaret Thaler
Singer and Janja Lalich, Jossey-Bass, 1996. I don't recall
specifically what they said about it, but I'd be willing to bet
it wasn't positive.
However, the National Academy of Science (USA) convened a
high-powered panel to look at this and other similarly flakey
propositions, apparently because the US Army wondered whether the
psychobabble might have some military value (yes, in making the
enemy fall over weak with laughter). The reference is:
Druckman, D. & Swets, J. (1988). Enhancing Human Performance.
National Academy Press, Washington.
Some tidbits from the review:
"In brief, the NLP system of eye, posture, tone, and language
patterns as indexing representational patterns is not derived or
derivable from known scientific work. Furthermore, there is no
internal evidence or documentation to support the system".
"Overall, there is little or no empirical evidence to date to
support either NLP assumptions or NLP effectiveness. ...none
supports the effectiveness of NLP in improving influence or
skilled motor performance".
"To recapitulate, the evidence for a scientific basis of NLP or
validation for its construct is generally weak and negative"
"In sum, then, the absence of any evaluation of the effectiveness
of NLP and the lack of any scientific basis for it constitute
serious reservations against using it for expert modeling
purposes...The committee cannot recommend the employment of such
an unvalidated technique".
-Stephen
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Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7
Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at:
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