Influences on NLP – Teaching Stories

Richard Bandler and John Grinder are generally credited with creating NLP, but they freely admit that they were influenced by a large number of other thinkers, and since the beginnings of NLP in the early 1970s, NLP has been further developed, taken in new directions, and enriched by many others. This article attempts to summarize some of the major early contributions. I will leave it to History to act as the judge of the relative importance of the later contributors! This article can be considered as a work in progress and suggestions are welcomed.

Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950)

Korzybski developed the theory of General Semantics which set the epistemological groundwork for NLP by suggesting that human beings are limited in what they know by the structure of both their nervous systems, and the structure of human languages. As a result, human beings cannot experience the world directly, but only through what he called their “abstractions.” Korzybski’s most famous quote, “The map is not the territory”, is the fundamental presupposition of NLP.

Paul Watzlawick (1921 – 2007)

Paul Watzlawick was an Austrian-American psychologist and philosopher, particularly in communication theory and radical constructivism. His work in family therapy and brief therapy was directly relevant for the early work in NLP. He also developed many of Gregory Bateson’s ideas and his work underlies several of the NLP presuppositions. One of his memorable quotations is: “You cannot not communicate.”

Milton Erickson (1901 – 1980)

Milton Erickson was one of the biggest influences on NLP and his work and metaphors can still be found directly and indirectly in every NLP training program around the world. Erickson was a psychiatrist who specialized in medical hypnosis. Grinder and Bandler met Erickson through Gregory Bateson and they modelled some of his hypnotic patterning in two books. Erickson conceptualized the unconscious mind as being highly separate from the conscious mind, with its own awareness, interests, responses, and learnings, and he taught that the unconscious mind was creative, solution-generating, and often positive. He often carried out his hypnotic inductions and suggestions in the form of conversation and stories which he considered to be a powerful way to communicate with the unconscious.

Gregory Bateson (1904 – 1980)

Gregory Bateson was a British researcher and writer in many different fields including anthropology, linguistics, semiotics and cybernetics. He was married to the well-known anthropologist, Margaret Meade. Richard Bandler was Bateson’s landlord, and Bateson introduced him to Milton Erickson. In addition to personal contacts, Bateson’s writings have been and continue to be an enormous influence on NLP, particularly on the underlying epistemology and the NLP presuppositions which draw on cybernetics:

Life and mind are systemic processes
Choice is better than no choice
There is no failure, only feedback

Bateson also described information as “a difference that makes a difference”. In NLP, it is often said that we are looking for “the difference that makes the difference.” In other words, what is the change in behaviour or beliefs or something else that will produce the optimal movement towards a goal?

Jay Haley (1923 – 2007)

Jay Haley was very involved in the family therapy movement and helped to spread the ideas of Gregory Bateson.

Fritz Perls (1893 – 1970)

Fritz Perls was the founder of Gestalt therapy. He was the first person to be modelled by NLP, and in combination with transformational grammar, this led to the development of the Meta Model–the key model within NLP for moving from words and labels back to specific sensory experiences. Other influences on NLP include “parts”, the importance of physiology, spatial sorting, and an emphasis on what/how someone is doing something rather than why.

Virginia Satir (1916 – 1988)

Virginia Satir was one of the leaders in the Family Therapy movement. She was modelled by Bandler and Grinder in the early days and her work strongly influenced NLP tools including representational systems, reframing, nonverbal communication, and parts negotiation.

David Gordon

David Gordon was largely responsible for the widespread use of therapeutic metaphors in NLP, inspired greatly by his work with Milton Erickson.

Ivan Pavlov (1849 – 1936)

Ivan Pavlov is probably the best known behavioural scientist for his work with dogs, and most people have heard of his experiments in which a dog was conditioned to associate the sound of a bell with being fed. This is known as the conditioned reflex. In NLP, this type of stimulus-response is called an anchor or a trigger and it is a fundamental tool for entering a useful state.

Robert Dilts

Robert Dilts has developed many influential models of NLP including Neurological Levels, Sleight of Mouth, and Reimprinting. He also authored the Encyclopedia of Systemic NLP with Judith DeLozier. He is best known for his work on beliefs and strategies.

Richard Bolstad

Richard Bolstad has developed several influential communication and therapy models including the Resolve Model and the Personal Strengths Model.

George Miller, Eugene Galanter, and Karl Pribram

In their 1960 book, Plans and the Structure of Behavior, they described the TOTE Model which became a major influence on NLP strategies.

Noam Chomsky

Chomsky is a well-known linguist and political commentator who developed transformational grammar. John Grinder brought his knowledge of transformational grammar to NLP where it became the basis of the Meta Model in conjunction with the modelling of Fritz Perls.

Tad James

Tad James is an influential NLP trainer and developer who is best known for his development of Time Line Therapy and his use of Hawaiian Huna.

Useful Links

Tranceworks offers a great list of books which created the trail of NLP
Pegasus NLP provides a brief well-written history of NLP which emphasizes its present lack of overall coherence.
A good description of the history of NLP with links to all the major players is available at Wikipedia.

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