…but above all, don’t look at the red monkey climbing up its trunk…

For some time now, people in Romania have started talking about something called “neuro-linguistic programming” (abbreviated as NLP), and if we are to believe the rumors from the “well-informed,” it would seem we are facing a mental technology worthy of a science fiction novel:
I have heard talk of “diabolical manipulation techniques using NLP,” about the possibility of hypnotizing the other person without them realizing it,” about miraculous solutions to increase learning capacity a thousandfold, to achieve Superman-like athletic performance, to develop spectacular sales and negotiation skills, to cure psychoses and neuroses in a matter of minutes, etc.
Moreover, it is claimed that it is possible to remotely alter an individual’s physiological reactions, even through writing.

Of course, these are gross exaggerations. The actual possibility of creating images in the interlocutor’s mind and thereby causing them to behave in a certain way is absolutely overestimated: it is said that, using a series of questions, an expert NLP salesperson would be able to uncover the client’s weaknesses and would therefore know where to act in order to manipulate them at will.
Absurd: what results would an insurance salesman achieve if he told customers something like: “Think about your beautiful villa destroyed by flames and the fact that you wake up in the middle of the street, penniless, looking with your family at the charred remains—and all because you wanted to save the little money I’m asking for.”

Not to mention how these techniques would be applied in the realm of politics: one of the truths underlying the PNL is that the secret of persuasion lies in keeping the logical part of the brain occupied, so that one can gain direct access to the emotional part, which is sensitive to suggestion.
It may be that one of the most common and basic rhetorical techniques available to politicians is one of the following: first, a series of rhetorical questions is posed, the answer to which is automatically affirmative (the so-called YES SET) to generate a flow of approval; then move on to the TRUISM, which consists of a series of highly debatable statements, but which the audience, carried along by a wave of sentiment felt earlier, continues to approve of by sheer inertia; finally, the true suggestion appears, which is precisely the behavior the politician expects from us.
Here is an example: “Ladies and gentlemen, are you frightened by the continuous rise in food prices? Are you fed up to the brim with the exorbitant price of gasoline? Can you no longer stand the audacity of the corrupt? Are you tired of the low standard of living and the uncertainty of the future? (YES SET) In fact, you know very well that the other party has allowed inflation to reach 40%, has no serious plan for retirees and healthcare, and intends to continue raising fuel prices, which I can tell you will lead to further price increases (TRUISM). The correct answer to these problems is to elect me, XXX YYY, as president of the nation. Vote accordingly!”

If you’re already tired of this sort of thing, here’s another example: “Roberto has a more-than-pretty sister, whose fiancé said he has a cousin who, every time he walks into his kitchen and opens the fridge, picks the biggest, juiciest lemon he can find, cuts it in half, and squeezes the juice directly onto his tongue until his mouth is full of cold lemon juice…”

What is neuro-linguistic programming?

Rather than bore you with theoretical explanations about the new psychological “technologies,” I’ve chosen to give you a few examples of their applications, which I consider more illustrative than any treatise (almost certainly, the title made you think of a yellow elephant, and the lemon example got your salivary glands going).
But let’s first see exactly what NLP is all about.
The official definition of neuro-linguistic programming is “the study of the structure of subjective experience and everything it entails.”
In less cryptic language, this means that, based on recent discoveries in neurobiology, cognitive psychology, and linguistics, an effective and comprehensive way has been found to describe certain behaviors and their underlying psychological motivations.
What is the connection to what was presented earlier? One of the greatest difficulties in acquiring a particular skill lies in understanding exactly which mental processes underlie it.
In the 1970s, Richard Bandler, a mathematician, and John Grinder, a linguist, decided to study the world’s best psychotherapists to discover exactly what they were doing for their patients.

They realized that the results achieved during therapy sessions had nothing to do with theory, but depended on certain mental strategies that were used instinctively.
These strategies could therefore be discovered through specific study techniques and observed, but the key insight that led to the success of NLP was that these skills could be “installed” (hence the name “programming”) in other therapists who were not as gifted.
Once the mechanism for studying and installing the mental strategies underlying each skill was perfected, it was inevitable that the two would apply the same system to other fields as well, studying, for example, the best managers, politicians, parents, actors, etc., with the conviction that if a person achieves better results than most, it means they are doing something special; if this can be discovered and studied (“the difference that makes the difference”), it can also be learned.
The result of these studies is a series of extraordinarily effective techniques which, beyond the strictly psychotherapeutic aspect, address:

– improving communication skills;
– “covert hypnosis” techniques;
– techniques for “reading the interlocutor”;
– high-performance sales and negotiation techniques;
– a series of mental techniques for improving one’s own performance;
– motivation and self-motivation techniques;
– techniques for achieving personal and professional goals;
– techniques for improving athletic performance.

This is not the right place to analyze the techniques in detail: even if we refer to them in the future, they can only be “taught” by a specialist in the field through direct contact with the audience, as a series of concrete examples is absolutely necessary. I therefore prefer to present a few basic principles that have enabled the construction of this extraordinary edifice:

1) “The map is not the territory.” This famous statement by the linguist Kozybsky forms the basis of all NLP research. We cannot store all the information received from the outside world, so we must necessarily create a “map” of reality that helps us navigate within it. When a problem arises, the solution should not be sought in the external world, but in correcting an error on our “map.”

2) Our image of reality is formed through sensory inputs, and each of us has a predominant sensory channel (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.) that can be identified and utilized.

3) To communicate effectively with others, we must identify the content and dominant features of their “map” and their preferred sensory channel.

4) Most individuals already possess all the resources they need. The only challenge lies in bringing them into play at the right time and in the right place.

5) From the perspective of logical coherence, every behavior can be considered effective and useful within the context in which it occurs, and there is always a motivation behind it: every person acts in the best way they know how to achieve their goals (which may be unconscious), using the information contained in their “map of the world.” Naturally, if the information is incorrect, the results will not be as desired.

6) Every behavior is determined by a mental state: so, rather than insisting with ourselves or others to elicit a certain behavior, it is far more effective to focus on creating the mental state that determines that behavior.

7) Every behavior communicates something, so, regardless of our will, we are constantly sending messages to the outside world.

8) The meaning of communication must be sought in the response received, not in our intention.

9) If we do not get the desired response, it is clear that we need to change something in our “map” or in our communication strategy.

10) There is no such thing as failure; there is only “feedback” (or results); what we call failure is simply a result that differs from our expectations, but which, however hard it may be for us to admit, is nothing more than the product of our strategy.

11) In any system, the element with the greatest flexibility is the one that exerts the greatest influence.

12) Generally, if someone knows how to do something within a reasonable amount of time, that thing can be modeled and learned by others.

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This article is merely an introduction to the field of a new science: neuro-linguistic programming. If you read it carefully, you will realize that it contains more information than might appear upon a superficial reading. In future issues of the magazine, we will move on to a more concrete and detailed analysis of the techniques we have discussed, and you will likely be amazed at what our brain is capable of if we use it correctly.