HONEST ABE'S
NLP BOOK REVIEWS
 

Written and Produced
by Andy Bradbury
 
(author of "Develop Your NLP Skills", "Successful Presentation Skills", etc.)


Reviews: Part 5  
 
 

All pages on this site were prepared using WinHTML


The Title
Name(s) of the Author(s)
ISBN Number [this will be for the paperback version except where the number ends with (Hb)]

Selling with NLP
Kerry Johnson
1-85788-047-1
The author is an ex-tennis star turned keynote speaker and salesman - which gives this book its clear focus. The text isn't outstandingly original but it reads well, has plenty of useful information, and ends with a 21 Day Plan for developing the skills covered in the rest of the book.
If you're put off by the word "selling", remember that we're all selling something (even if only ourselves) in every interaction with other people.
Recommended - especially for sales people, and for anyone who wants a wider view of NLP after you've exhausted O'Connor & Seymour, Genie Laborde, etc. * * * * *

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen Covey
0-671-70863-5
One of the worst (chaotic, ineffectual, unfocused) interpersonal skills courses I have ever been on was based on this book.
Now you might say that Covey can't be blamed for what other people do with his writing. Which is quite true. Only in this case the book seems to me to be a perfect foundation for a bad course. Indeed, I wouldn't have bothered to review it had it not appeared in so many NLP-related bibliographies.
So why is it so often connected with NLP?  The answer, strange but apparently true answer is that the authors in question didn't bother to read the first section of the book.  Thus one writer, having declared the need for more modelling in NLP, goes on: "Thus, a book such as Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Successful People (sic) would be a broader, and perhaps better, example of NLP than would be the further development of a timeline process."

What a pity that author, and those like him, didn't read the Acknowledgement section of "7 Habits", where Covey quite clearly and openly states that his book is based on work done as part of "a doctoral program" in the mid seventies.  Not modelling work, by the way, but a review of "the success literature published in the United States since 1776".  They might have gone on to read that Covey doesn't think much of "the success literature of the past 50 years" which he regards as "superficial ... social band-aids and aspirin". So, this supposed example of modelling in action is actually nothing of the kind.  On the contrary, it is, if we take Covey at his word, an extended book review - a réchauffé of American success literature c.1776-1926.

But can we be entirely sure that Covey is giving us the full monty?  In theory it would seem that we will find nothing here later than 50 years ago (i.e. dating back from the original dissertation - or at least from the book's date of publication in the late 1980's.
But hang on a mo' - what are these references to Peter Drucker, Marilyn Ferguson, Viktor Frankl, Abraham Maslow, Alvin Toffler, et al?  And what's all this stuff about left brain/right brain?

More intriguing still, who are the highly effective people the title refers to?
We aren't given a single name of an allegedly "highly successful person" - so how can we tell by what standards they are being measured?  Or whether they ever existed!  Indeed, it is more than a little puzzling that Covey doesn't name his sources,either.  After all, careful attribution of all quotations, ideas, etc. is a vital part of any academic dissertation.  So why didn't Covey include a bibliography in this book?  Strikes me there's some real bovine intestinal throughput going on here.
By the way, if you think I'm just being pedantic, let me finish by highlighting just two of the messages I found in this book:

  • Proactivity is better than anything. If your boss is an ignorant tyrant, be proactive in sucking up to him before anyone else gets in as No. 1" yes" man (pp.86-88)
  • Practise emotional blackmail wherever you can. Treat other people nicely so that they "owe you one" (Covey calls this creating an "emotional bank account"!) (pp.188-202).

According to Scott DeGarmo, Editor-in-Chief of Success magazine: this book is "Destined to be the personal leadership handbook of the decade."
Personally I think it should have a warning "This book can seriously damage your mental health" stamped on every page.

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The Structure of Delight
Nelson Zink
0-9629621-0-4
Whilst it is not my normal practice to let authors supply their own reviews, these comments from Nelson Zink are so close to what I got from his book that it seemed an appropriate time to make an exception to the rule:

Q. Is it intended to illustrate NLP ideas, or is the NLP connection only in other people's minds?

A. I never intended a NLP connection.  The degree to which it has been perceived as such took me by surprise.

Q. Your biography at the back of the book is pretty "minimalist".  Is there anything else you can tell me that might give me a fuller understanding of what you wanted to do when you wrote this book?

A. The book was begun over a dozen years ago when clients began asking for copies of stories which I spontaneously created and told, so I began writing them down.  One thing led to another and soon the book began to take on a life of its own.  I ended up including many things for which I have affection-- the Southwest and its prehistoric inhabitants, admiration for the natural mind, the structure of just-so stories, advocates of unadorned thought, geometry, states of attention, landscape, people's incredible ingenuity, rural sensibilities, attempts at wisdom, etc.  These are some of the things which I find moving and amazing so in the end the book ended up being a kind of account about that in which I find delight and significance.  I published it in the hope that others would also.

What more can I say?  All stories are metaphors, and this story is better than most.  Read it and enjoy, and enjoy, and enjoy.
(If you can't find a copy right now, please be patient - Meta Publications are issuing a new edition in September.)
Very highly recommended * * * * * * *

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The Structure of Magic
Bandler & Grinder
08314-0044-7
If this book had a secondary title it would surely be: An Introduction to the Meta Model.
Well, it does have a secondary title: A Book about Language and Therapy.  I mention this fact because, unfortunately, this kind of passionless phrasing is characteristic of most of the text.  Despite chapter titles like Incantations for Growth and Potential this isn't exactly an entertaining or inspiring read unless you're a linguist.
But perhaps that isn't entirely surprising if, as rumour has it, this is actually Richard Bandler's Ph.D. thesis.

On the positive side, from Chapter 5 onwards there are some hefty pieces of transcribed material from therapy sessions, with valuable running commentary.  Likewise Appendix B, formidably entitled Syntactic Environments for Identifying Natural Language Pressupositions in English is actually a very straightforward guide to the way we use Simple and Complex Pressupositions in everyday speech.
The book ends with a short but useful glossary and a substantial annotated bibliography (which has become increasingly relevant in the last year or so!).
Qualified recommendation * * * * *

Note: Although this book is consistently referred to in The Structure of Magic II as Magic I there is no numerical value in its published title.

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The Structure of Magic 2
Bandler & Grinder
08314-0049-8
If you thought that Structure I was hard going, Structure II is like wading through thigh-high black strap molasses!  What a very great pity Bandler and Grinder didn't start by modelling a skilled writer or two!  (See, also, the comments on Turtles All the Way Down, below.)

With the best will in the world, there few ideas in this book which haven't been subsequently set out more clearly and more elegantly in later publications.  I cannot see any reason to read this book other than for its curiosity value.
And speaking of curiosities, who invented "meta-states"? None other than the ubiquitous Gregory Bateson, it seems, based on work by Bertrand Russell (from Magic II, page 35):

"A client says:
I feel angry about my job.
The therapist responds by asking:
How do you feel about feeling angry?
The client responds:
I feel frightened about feeling angry about my job.
Look familiar?
Very qualified recommendation (for history of NLP buffs) * * * *

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Successful Selling with NLP
O'Connor and Prior
0-7225-2978-3
If you're looking for a good introduction to the use of NLP in the selling situation, this isn't it.
Given the book's title, I was somewhat surprised to find the following statements in the Introduction (p. xii):

Much of this book applies the skills of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, to the process of selling. It is not an NLP course and assumes no prior knowledge of NLP.

Great, now we know what it isn't, what is it?

This is a practical book. It is designed to be used as a workbook ... if you apply and practice the skills we cover, you will make a difference to your personal and professional life.

Seems to me like someone isn't sure what audience the book is aimed at!
Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that the subject of presentations - a skill sadly lacking at many sales events - is covered in just 7 pages, of which less than a full page is given over to negotiation (this key element obviously didn't deserve its own chapter!).
Meta programs do at least get their own chapter - Motivation and Working Styles - but it is little more than a set of superficial descriptions of seven programs.
Sorry guys, this has all the hallmarks of a Grade A 'lemon'.
Recommendation - don't waste your money.

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Super-Teaching
Eric Jensen
0-8403-4592-5
Where Michael Grinder's book (see above) is heavily NLP oriented, Jensen discusses techniques and ideas from a range of disciplines, including NLP, Accelerated Learning, Mind Mapping and so on. This makes for an interesting read and neatly complements "Righting the ... Conveyor Belt".
To my mind, two elements of the cover blurb tell you just where this book is aimed:

"Educators: this is the book that can make the difference"
"Master strategies for building student success" (nice touch of Bandleresque ambiguity there!)

This isn't a cheap book, and at 263 approx. A4-sized pages packed with good ideas, tips and techniques I'd say it was worth every penny.
Very highly recommended (in addition to "Righting the ... Conveyer Belt") * * * * * * *

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Taproots
William H. O'Hanlon
0-393-70031-3
I imagine that most people involved in NLP are aware that a great deal of Bandler and Grinder's early work consisted of the study of books, tapes, transcripts, etc. related to the work of leading hypnotherapist Milton H. Erickson in order to model what they considered to be the essential elements of Erickson's techniques.

But what did Erickson really say and do?
How much of what now goes under the umbrella title of NLP is actually Erickson, and how much of it is a significant development of Erickson's ideas?
Is the NLP interpretation of Erickson's methodology the only valid description?
Is it even the most accurate or authoritative description?

Designed to be an introductory text, Taproots refers out to many of the basic texts to create as objective a view as possible of Erickson's work.
This inevitably means that readers already familiar with the subject are likely to experience flashes of deja vu.  Having said that, the book includes a number of useful features, such as a comprehensive, annotated list of Erickson resources - books, video and audio tapes - and details of the best known frameworks (including the 'Milton Model') designed to encapsulate the 'secret' of Erickson's success.

Despite the comparative brevity of this book - it is a little under 200 pages in length - O'Hanlon has done an excellent job of capturing the principle features of Erickson's approach to psychotherapy, both with and without the use of hypnosis.
Just occasionally I felt I would have liked one or two longer descriptions rather than the numerous brief case studies O'Hanlon uses to illustrate key points, but I certainly wouldn't want to moderate my enthusiasm for the book as a whole on that account.
Strongly recommended as an introduction to Erickson's ideas and techniques * * * * * *

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The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
Carlos Castaneda
0-14-019238-7
Carlos Castaneda died this year.  It made brief headlines, but only a couple of months later, because it took that long for people to find out that he'd gone!

What I'm saying is that Castaneda was an enigma when he wrote this book, over thirty years ago, and if anything the enigma had deepened by the time he died.

The Teachings ... was followed, over the years, by a further five books allegedly relating Castaneda's apprenticeship to don Juan.  What started out as an academic dissertation became a bestselling text that achieved 'cult' status.  But was any of it true?  Is that even a useful question to ask?

From an NLP point of view the big attraction of this book must be the fact that it is actually a massive modelling project.  As Castaneda explains in the Introduction:

"... I was forced to the conclusion that any attempt to classify my field data in my own terms would be futile.
"Thus it became obvious to me that don Juan's knowledge had to be examined in terms of how he himself understood it; only in such terms could it be made evident and convincing.  In trying to reconcile my own views with don Juan's, however, I realized that whenever he tried to explain his knowledge to me, he used concepts that would render it 'intelligible' to him."
So what do you actually get for your money?
Back to Castaneda again:
"I have ... divided the book into two parts.  In the first part [155 pages] I present selections from my field notes dealing with the states of non-ordinary reality I underwent during my apprenticeship. ...
In the second part ... I present a structural analysis [63 pages] drawn exclusively from the data reported in the first part.  Through my analysis I seek to support the following contentions: (1) don Juan presented his teachings as a system of logical thought; (2) the system made sense only if examined in the light of its structural units; and (3) the system was devised to guide an apprentice to a level of conceptualization which explained the order of the phenomena he had experienced."
If you fancy reading a somewhat confused account of Castaneda's experiments with the hallucinogenics: peyote, datura and humito mushrooms - plus Castaneda's perceptions of the exploits of the alleged Yaqui Indian sorcerer do Juan - then buy this book.

If you're interested in Castaneda's meticulous structural analysis of the internal coherence of the ideas presented in the first part of the book, and you aren't too bothered about whether the surface level account is fact or fiction, then buy this book.

If you don't belong to that select band who know what 'ethnography' is without looking it up in a dictionary then I suspect you'll find this very hard going indeed.
Recommendation: Quoth the Raven: "Nevermore".

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Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality
James & Woodsmall
0-916990-21-4 (Hb)
This is actually two (maybe even three) books sharing a single cover:

The first part of the book gives a very useful introduction to Time Lines, with some practical examples and exercises.  Time Lining can seem very strange first time out - and it really does work!
This is followed by an introduction to meta programs, their relationship to the 4 Myers-Briggs factors, and a relatively superficial, yet interesting and useful, tour of some 20+ meta programs.  This alone, to my mind, makes the book worth its vcover price.
The last part of the book looks at values and beliefs and their significance, with some backward reference to the meta programs.

There are all kinds of positive things I could say about this book, not least the fact that - especially for an NLP text - it is well-written and thoroughly readable.  But perhaps the best I can say of this book is that I've gone back to it more times than any other.
Recommended, given some familiarity with NLP jargon and presuppositions * * * * * *

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Andy Bradbury can be contacted at: bradburyac@mistral.co.uk