Therapeutic Metaphors
David Gordon
META Publications   ISBN 0-916990-04-4
This is one of the books I have been meaning to read since a long time ago.  And I'm very glad I finally got round to it.

Describing the basic contents of the book is easy.  It's a guide to how to devise your own metaphors, with special attention paid to the inclusion of elements of the NLP representational systems, the Satir categories, and the various sub-modalities, with a number of asides on subjects such as analogue marking, embedded commands, and so on.
As the title suggests, the information is presented with an eye to the use of metaphors in therapy and counseling, but for all practical purposes it is useful as a guide to designing metaphors for any context.

As well as the sheer usefulness of the book as a guide to constructing metaphors, it is also interesting as a window on what was happening in NLP in the late 1970's (the book was actually published in 1978).  For example the amount of attention given to the Satir categories is seldom matched by any more recent books, which is (IMO) a loss to all concerned.

On the downside, the writing is a little awkward in places, and some of the ideas are a little eccentric, to say the least.  Like this comment on page 111:

"This representation is associated with a 'behavior' of some kind, which can also be called an 'emotion' (e.g. rage, sadness, elation, fear, curiosity, and so on)."

A "behaviour" can be called an "emotion"?  How come?
The reasoning seems to be that we don't simply experience emotions, we "emote", which (I'm guessing) the author classifies as behaviour.
Personally I don't buy this, because I think that emotions are things we experience, not things that we do.

On the other hand, the author presents a range of interesting material, including the following highly quotable observation which certain NLPers I've come across could benefit from having pinned up on their wall:

"When a person seeks you out as a people helper he is seeking someone who can assist him in expanding and enriching his model of the world."

Which has got to be a whole lot more constructive, motivating and appropriately client-centered than something like, "When someone comes to me for help he wants me to analyse and solve his problems."

Overall, the book is so straightforward that there's not a lot more to say - other than a comment on the rather lengthy appendix entitled "Research into sub-modalities" (pages 213-243).

To be frank, I have no idea why this material is included.  It doesn't seem to amount to anything more than a very lengthy way of saying that it is probably worth doing more detailed work on studying the relationships between sub-modalities from different modal systems - for example, how do various noises affect what we see and feel? There are a few interesting examples, but too much of the material consists of reeling off the names of various researchers together with wholly inadequate descriptions of their work.

Considering how long the book has been in print, surely this section could have been refined to concentrate on a more detailed description of a few relevant studies? It might also have been brought up to date, given that most of what we now know about how the brain works was discovered after this book was published.  For example, Pibram may well have offered "a lucid argument favoring holographic storage [in the brain]" - in 1971!  Since then, however, through the use of increasingly sophisticated brain scanning equipment we've learnt a great deal about this subject, and it doesn't favour the idea of holographic storage in the brain but rather fragmentation→storage (according to sensory mode)→recombination on recall.  In fact something much more like, say, the basic functions of a relational database.  Though the ability to access any particular memory from a variety of cues (a sound, a smell, etc.) may give the impression that we are accessing a holographic entity.

Leaving this appendix in its original form also tends to defeat the author's apparent purpose.  In fact it turns out that the research he advocates is going on, right now, in mainstream institutions such as Oxford University.  How much more compelling would the text be if it were to show that the book was indeed on the right track by advocating further research in this area.
(For more details you might want to start by looking at the details on Professor Charles Spence here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/perfection/experimental_kitchen_biography.shtml#charles_spence)

So, a few niggles, but nothing serious except possibly the price, which seems unrealistically high for a paperback of around 274 pages (including a lengthy "Reference List", in which most entries date to the 1950s and first half of the 1970s, but some books/publications on the list are from the 1950s, '40s, '30s, '20s and even, in one case, to 1910).
I'd say the book is well worth reading, whether you want to understand how metaphors work, or how to create your own metaphors - or both - as long as you aren't bothered by the price.
Recommended:   *   *   *   *

The Rainbow Machine
Andrew T. Austin
Real People Press   ISBN 978-0-911226-44-7
The full title of Andrew Austin's book is: The Rainbow Machine : Tales from a Neurolinguist's Journal.  And that is about as accurate a description as one could ask for.

Andrew, previously a male nurse in psychiatric units and the like, now teaches, runs his own consultancy business, and heads up a very successful NLP practice group in Chichester, West Sussex (south coast of the UK).  Having recently attended one of his courses on IEMT I can say with some confidence that Andy not only has the diversity and length of experience that is ideal for writing a book like this, he also walks the talk.

The body of the book - which overall runs to a total of 213 pages (plus Preface, Bibliography, Index and a useful Appendix on submodalities) - consists of about 55 "tales" with titles like "The Rainbow Machine", "Are NLPers Scared of Schizophrenics?", "The Tinfoil Helmet", "Hubert the Hairless" and "A Small Case of Murder."
The content. likewise, covers quite a range, from personal anecdotes, through general observations to pages "From The Hypnosis Training Manual," with quite as much space given over to hypnosis as to NLP - and in many places a constructive combination of the two.

As I started reading the book I quickly thought I understood why Bill O'Hanlon (quoted on the back cover) had commented: "He [i.e. Austin] is the British Milton Erickson."  Reading on, however, I had the growing feeling that(if this book is anything to go by), Andy is more like a British Richard Bandler, complete with a Bandleresque proclivity for generating shock and confusion to get his message across.
At one point, for example, Austin writes:

"Many schools of thought say that colluding with a delusion or reinforcing it is a very bad thing to do, and that arguing with them, or correcting them is a good thing to do.  If you have ever tried arguing with a devout religious follower that his religion is wrong, you know that the chance that you will succeed in that is very close to zero."
(page 150)

About the same as the chances of convincing a non-religious therapist that a person with religious beliefs is not necessarily delusional, I'd guess ;-)

If I have any definite thumbs downs about the book it would be in regard to the criticisms of modern psychology/psychiatry.  This starts as early as the Introduction, where Steve Andreas writes:

"I have to tell you that overall, the wider field of psychotherapy , psychiatry and personal change - and not a little of the field of NLP - is a shameless shambles"
(page iv)

After which Austin picks up the motif (starting on page 2), and carries it, at intervals, right through to the last "tale" in the book (page 200).

Now I have a little experience of working within the UK mental health service myself, and I've known a few friends/relatives/acquaintances who found themselves at the receiving end of the kind of "care" that Steve criticizes and Andrew lampoons.  And in consequence of those experiences I share many of their misgivings.
By the time I reached the middle of the book, however, I was left wondering what on earth the point was of flogging the horse so long after it had commenced its thoroughly convincing imitation of a Norwegian Blue parrot.  This reaction was all the stronger since there didn't seem to be any useful analysis to accompany the criticisms.

For example, it certainly coincides with my own firsthand observations that a majority of psychiatrists tend to diagnose nearly all "mental illness" in a way that leads to some kind of physiological intervention (drugs, electro-convulsive "therapy", etc.).  But it would, in my opinion, be a mistake to imagine that this is due to either laziness or incompetence.  The simple fact is that psychiatrists rule the mental health roost simply because they alone have the authority to prescribe physical treatments.  To admit that many patients would often benefit more from non-physical interventions than from being drugged up to the eyeballs or whatever is the day they voluntarily renounce their superior status.
And call me cynical, but I really don't see that happening any time soon.

I would have liked to give this book a really high rating, because I know a number of people think it's possibly the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Unfortunately, however, I think Andrew has chosen to write in a style which will either "boil the reader's water", or will leave them at best tepid, at worst stone cold.  For that reason alone, I give it an "average" recommendation:  *  *  *  *

Cracking the Code
Thom Hartmann
BK (Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.)   ISBN 978-1-57675-458-0
The good thing about this book is that it gives some idea about the ways in which politicians are learning to use NLP-style communication techniques to make their message more effective - and mainly for their own benefit and the benefit of their party and party supporters rather than for the people they represent.

It is also extremely well-written, in the sense that it flows eaily and coherently.  Indeed, it held my attention so effectively that it took me only a little over one day to polish off the 202 pages of the main text (plus another 22 pages of Notes and the Index).  Which must make it the easiest read I've come across in the last year or two.

The bad thing about the book is that although the author announces literally "up front" that:

"The tools of communication revealed herein are also used in its writing."
(A Note to the Reader)

throughout the body of the book he writes as though only the evil Republicans use the techniques to acheive their aims.  Being an outsider to the American political scene I found myself moving steadily towards the attitude "A plague on both their houses."  Though having said that, I imagine Hartmann is - rather shortsightedly? - basically preaching to the liberal choir, many of whom are likely to lap up these claims with fairly uncritical glee.
(I gather the author is the kind of "liberal" media personality that "right wingers" hate and despise.)

Just how far liberals can go in the subtle art of manipulation is well illustrated by the author's comments on the "Pro-Life" lobbyists, who seem to be one of his favourite bugbears.

Thus at one point he makes the statement

"Abortion opponants took that 'pro-life' frame [i.e. from the anti-capital punishment movement] and repurposed it as a 'forced pregnancy' frame."
((page 143))

Note how, at this point in his discussion, the author puts the highly contentious "forced pregnancy" label in inverted commas.  Apart from the ambiguity of this label - do today's pro-lifers really go round forcing women to become pregnant? - in common usage that marks the term as being open to question.  But it doesn't stay like that.  Less than ten pages later we read how:

"I did my radio program live from the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004.  A leading proponant of forced pregnancy sat in front of me and said that abortion at any time, under any circumstances, was murder."
((page 151))

This time there are no quote marks, just the label on its own.  The pretense is that the pro-life=forced pregnancy.  No ifs, buts or room for debate.  And of course, in the author just can't help but imply that Republicans = the "forced pregnancy" brigade, or vice versa - or both.

As an outsider, it seems to me that this is nothing less than the author taking a howitzer to his own foot.  If I were a Republican/pro-lifer/whatever I would be offering up thanks for such a crude use of propaganda techniques by a self-acknowledged "liberal" who is trying to present himself as one of "the good guys."
I can only wonder what lead the author to resort to such blatant misrepresentation of opinion as fact.

It would be nice to say that wasn't the only "downside" aspect of this book, but unfortunately it isn't.

The comments on aspects of British history as it allegedly relates to American history are somewhat dubious (in researching my Scopes "Monkey Trial" website I discovered that Americans - even university professors - have a hard time getting the hang of their own history, let alone anyone else's).  Likewise the section on MacLean's "triune brain" theory (pp.56 onwards) is mainly misinformation, this time because the author apparently doesn't known that the whole thing is long past its "sell by" date.  Mind you, by the time I reached the author's claim that:

"Our five senses transmit sensory data directly to the reptilian brain [sic], which translates the data into our most primitive forms of emotion."
(page 59)

I was beginning to wonder if he knew anything about the brain at all that wasn't way out of date, or inaccurate, or both.
FWIW, only four senses transmit sensory data to the brain via the brain stem (McLean's so-called "reptillian" brain).  The receptors in the nose connect directly to the "olfactory bulb" which is located at the front of the brain.  Moreover it is, as far as we know at this time, the amydalae (there are two amygdala's) which are responsible for generating emotions.  McLean identified the amygdalae as being parts of the limbic system or "mammilian brain" as he called it (sometimes referred to in later versions of McLean's theory as the "limbic brain"), NOT the "reptillian" brain.

Nor is it true, as is claimed on the next page, that:

"We attach emotional tags to ideas and events that we need to store.  We store information by emotion."
(page 60)

We store memories by breaking the information down by sensory sysyem and storing the different elements in the appropriate parts of the neocortex.  We also appear to have a capacity for emotional memory, though this is by no means universally agreed.  Nor is there any common agreement as to where the emotional memories, if there are any (it's possible the memory itself might re-trigger a fresh example of the emotion), are stored.  One suggestion is that they could be stored in the amygdalae.

Unfortunately, this pattern of heavy bias and basic errors may seriously undermine the credibility of the work as a whole for some readers.  Which is a great pity, since the book has a lot of interesting things to say.

For example, after reading Hartmann's book on NLP and ADD (Healing ADD, also reviewed on this site) I expressed my opinion that the author had introduced NLP ideas in a somewhat muddled fashion.  This time round the introduction of the NLP elements is far more expertly handled and unambiguous, which makes the book, in my opinion, a very effective insight into how the techniques can be used in a manipulative way - regardless of which sector of the political arena you occupy.

Overall, then, if you can bring yourself to ignore the all-pervasive bias, and the factual inaccuracies (of which there are comparatively few) I imagine that this easy-to-read offering will appeal to, and be usefully instructive for, readers who are interested in the ideas that Hartmann covers.  Though maybe not nearly so much if they already have a good working knowledge of NLP.

Assuming that readers can discern and take what's genuinely useful and ignore the rest:
Recommended:   *   *   *   *

Effective Presentation Skills
Robert Dilts
Meta Publications  ISBN 0-916990-31-1
I'd like to start by saying something nice about this book, so here it is:

There are nearly half-a-dozen pages in the book which feature comments that are useful and relevant to the title on the front cover.

And? ...

And nothing.

At least part of the problems in this book result from the author's apparent confusion as to what the book is about and therefore what audience it is aimed at.  Thus on the first page of the Preface he writes:

"The material for this book is derived from one of a system of seminars ... [which] is made up of a path of four courses which form a complete trainer's training program:

1. "Communications and Relational Skills for Presenters
2. "Communications and Relational Skills for Instructors
3. "Communications and Relational Skills for Trainers
4. "Assessment Skills and Strategies for Trainers

"The material for this book is taken from the support material for the first of these courses which focused on the communication and relational skills required to be an effective presenter."
((page xi))

Here we immediately have a basis for confusion and misunderstanding - because, as on the cover of the book, the author fails to make it clear that he is ONLY talking about NLP-related techniques.  Anyone looking for an all round guide to effective presentation can safely ignore this book entirely.

The second stumbling block emerges just three pages later, when the author explains that, in order to accomplish the goals he has set for the book "it will be necessary to":

1. Establish a framework for the process of learning, from the point of view of the learner as well as the instructor.
2. Explore some principles and strategies related to the learning process and instructional methodology.
3. Develop strategies to manage the mix of tasks and relational features that arise in teaching contexts.

And this isn't a lone example.  Throughout the book the author refers to presenters, instructors and trainers as though these terms were interchangeable.  But if he does think that, why create three separate courses?  Or does this give us a clue as to why, fourteen years later, we still haven't seen a book based on any of the other three "courses" in the hypotherical "system"?

A third problem arises from the fact that, in my opinion, most of the book has only a very tenuous relationship to the title on the front cover.

What we actually get here is not a book on presentation skills but on s collection of techniques in which the author presumably specialises.  That is to say, there is, of course, a generous helping of references to various incarnations of Dilts' so-called "neurological levels" models, quite a lot on the T.O.T.E. model (which Dilts claimed to have introduced into NLP, until he had a run-in with John Grinder on the subject, some years after this book came out).  We are also introduced to various other authentic NLP-related techniques such as anchoring, representational systems and so on.  Unfortunately even the opportunity to write an Introduction to NLP is missed, which brings us to my final reasons for giving this book the lowest possible rating.

Although this book appears to be some 255 pages long (plus the Preface), I would estimate that in practical terms it is, at most, only a third of that length.  In brief, every section of the book comes in three parts.  The first part is an explanation of some point; the second is a mock up of an OHP foil, and the third is a summary of the contents of the foil.

So what's the problem?

The problem is that this turns out to be nothing more than three versions of the same information.  Which is perfectly OK in a presentation, but is neck deep in redundancy in a book, (because a reader can re-read a passage as many times as they chose - they don't need to have passages physically repeated over and over again).  And just to nail the coffin firmly shut, the explanations are mainly "What" rather than "How", whilst most of the mocked up OHP foils are seriously overpopulated (the foil on page 66 is an example of a well-formed foil, the "Death by PowerPoint" example on page 208 is far closer to the average layout in this book).

In short, if we remove all of the redundant, unnecessarily repetitive material I'd guess we'd be left with about a third of the existing text, and possibly rather less, given the amouunt of material which turns up not in just one section but in two or more.

Bottom line, no matter how good a presenter the author may be in person, it seems that he was unable to syuccessfully model what a genuinely effective presenter.  Thus this book is unlikely to be of much use to anyone looking to develop their own presenting skills.  And on that basis:
Recommendation: Avoid this grossly overpriced book like the plague and help to save some trees.

Get the Life You want
Richard Bandler
Health Communications Inc.   ISBN 0-7573-0776-0
Heralded by Bandler himself as his first book in 10 years, I'm pleased to be able to say that it is also, in my opinion, one of his best.  Though having said that, it appears to be primarily aimed at readers who have little or no prior knowledge of NLP.

This is not because, as one front-of-book recommendation claims, because the book is "the cutting edge ... sharper than ever," because it isn't.  On the contrary, the contents are basically 37 good, authentically NLP-oriented techniques (based on first-hand observation and modeling rather than guesswork), amongst which many NLPers will find a number of "old" (in a purely relative sense) favourites.

So why do I rate the book so highly?

Firstly, because Bandler and his editor (Conversations co-author Owen Fitzpatrick) have produced an exceedingly well-structured, concise text.

This text is not only easy to read, even for comparative newcomers to NLP, it also shows to great advantage the wit, the wisdom and the compassion of Richard Bandler.  The wit is comparatively mild on this occasion, but no less effective because of that:

There really isn't anything between you and your exercise machine that's stopping you.  There aren't two big thugs beating you up every time you try to get on the exercise machine or do something.  There are places in the world where such things go on, but most of us don't live in them.  So who's beating you up and stopping you from getting on the machine?  It must be you!
(page 187)

The wisdom is found as much as anywhere in the little observations that can only come from years of practical experience and observation.  In the chapter entitled Getting to be More Organized, for example, Bandler puts a lot of emphasis on planning - something that isn't always given enough attention in NLP training on goal setting.  The fact is, as described in surveys such as that carried out by the British Psychological Society, that poor or non-existent planning seems to be the number one reason why people fail to achieve their goals.  But did Bandler wait for the BPS' report, or discover it himself?  I could be wrong, but given the amount of trail blazing he and Grinder have done over the years I'm betting Bandler got it from first-hand observation.

The compassion, whilst not new to Bandler, is something I don't think has come across so strongly in his other written materials.  It contrasts strongly with some of the stories he has told about himself in previous books and presentations, and gives a much more rounded, and welcome, impression of "The Father and Cocreator [sic] of NLP" (as he is referred to on the front cover).

The majority of the text itself, as I've already indicated, concerns a total of 37 exercises that the reader can use to get themselves, or clients, "to know [their] own brain," "Over it [unhelpful 'programming']," "Through it [difficult situations], and "To it [whatever it is you want for yourself]."  From which it may seem like the book is basically therapy-oriented.  And it is, to a certain extent.  Except that Bandler is really more concerned with helping people to develop their abilities and enhance their enjoyment of life rather than raking over past events as in most conventional therapies.  Indeed, as he says in the Introduction:

This approach is about being able to teach people as opposed to therapize them."
(Page xxx.  Italics as in the original)

For each technique there is some discussion (this varies in length from one technique to the next), followed by a concise, step-by-step description of how to carry out the technique.  This might sound like the kind of "laundry list" approach that I've ascribed to a couple of other well-known authors whose books I've reviewed, but it most certainly isn't that.  On the contrary, it is again a credit to Bandler and Fitzgerald that they have given us a book that flows so smoothly.

(Having said that, I personally found it useful, first time round, to read the text only, ignoring the sets of instructions; and then went back and worked through the entire thing in a much more leisurely fashion, including reading and experimenting with the instructions.)

Just a couple of other observations:

• I've seen it suggested on a couple of NLP discussion groups that this book includes material on DHE^(TM) and NHR^(TM).  It does, but it is extremely minimal.  There is a mention of both technologies on pages 4-5, and instructions on how to carry out the Reversing Anxiety Exercise (NHR^(TM)) can be found on pages 57-8.  And that's it.
   
• For some reason I cannot fathom, Bandler says, in the Introduction:
  

  In this book [The Structure of Magic: Volume One] we discovered some of the secrets of the most successful therapists of the time and created a model of their skills.  This was known as the Meta Model."
  (page xxv)

  According to Steve Andreas, who has an article on his website about this, the Meta Model was adapted from Noam Chomsky's "transformational grammar," and was not, in fact, modeled from any of the well-known exemplars - Perls, Satir, Erickson or Farrally - though a careful analysis would almost certainly show that most or all elements of the Meta Model can be found somewhere or other in their work.

Anyway, these points have no effect on the quality and usefulness of the book as a whole, and certainly didn't influence the rating I've given it.
Overall I think Get the Life You Want does an excellent job of presenting a substantial collection of techniques which readers, whether they are familiar with NLP or not, can apply to improve the quality of their life and and experiences in a wide range of day-to-day situationss.  For readers who already have some knowledge/experience of NLP, this will serve as a useful refresher and reference book.  So despite the fact that this is all established material, I'm happy to give it a rating of Strongly Recommended:   *   *   *   *   *   *