The User's Manual for the Brain: v.2: Mastering Systemic NLP: Vol 2

"User's Manual for the Brain
Volume 2

Having a background in psychology and (more importantly here) philosophy, I liked this book yet I suspect the masses will find it a little arid.

Whilst volume 1 (I would say a prerequisite read for this book) dealt with the practice of NLP in it's on-the-ground form, volume 2 seeks to deal with the spirit of NLP, leading to "NLP Mastery" (not entirely sure I appreciate the hegemony of this internal nomenclature*). Volume 1 encourages us to ask and answer the `journalists questions'; "what, how, who, when, where". Volume 2 asks the question the novice and the `NLP Master' will seek quite different answers to; "why?"

Why do some techniques work only some of the time?
Why do some techniques work at all?
Why practice NLP?

In my review of volume 1, I likened the book to the owner's manual for a car, and as any fellow car enthusiast will tell you when it comes to car manuals, there is the owner's (user's) manual then there is the workshop (engineer's / mechanic's) manual. So perhaps volume 2 is the workshop manual, and likewise it also follows that this book will not have the (relatively) popular appeal of the first volume. Much as the home mechanic may take little account of how changes in one system can affect the whole vehicle because it already built, but the engineer / designer must view the vehicle as a whole gestalt, so this book deals with all the NLP systems (models) concurrently.
The concept of `ecology' (opportunity cost / fit) has been something I had been thinking about a lot recently in response to personal change challenges my clients face in my practices in Wilmslow, Romiley and New Mills, Stockport, Greater Manchester doing hypnotherapy and NLP work on slimming, phobias, smoking, confidence, and all other aspects of the human condition.
Sure the `ecology' of a goal is simple practitioner's stuff, but the real ecology of the gestalt, of the real changes made using the techniques and how the techniques interact upon one another, this had got me thinking.
The User's Manual for the Brain
Volume 2 was offering some answers, allowing me to delve deeper in my practice, if a particular technique or pattern was not operating as I had hoped, why? And just as importantly, how could I go about improving the dynamic?
One over-arching theme the authors work towards is a `unified theory of NLP', and plentiful use of the concept of `meta'. It was a revelation, to find that the;
1 Meta-States,
2 Meta-Programs,
3 Meta-Model distinctions and the
4 Sub- Modalities (re-designated `meta-modalities' for good reasons you will find out)
- all relate to the same underlying processes.
Redundancy and simplification in the methods, great! Had I not learnt this, I would still have been carrying around, in my head, an unwieldy and disconnected mental model of these different (yet same) facets of the NLP method. Suddenly instead of using rote descriptions and applications of these facets, my mind is developing a compact, flexible, algorithmic perception of this knowledge. When you read the book and the same happens, you'll reap the benefits of the vast applicability of instantly generated techniques.
Another element I enjoyed whilst reading this c.450 page book is that the concept of `meta' is so prominent. During my time studying psychology at university I became very interested in the concepts of paradox, and self reference (reflexivity). Consistent-inconsistency, the rejection of the grand narrative as a grand narrative itself and that sort of thing, all very post modern. Although at this time my interest was purely academic, I always had a niggling feeling that this area of though must have some profound and practical implications - upon reading this book I found I was right.
Language, meta programmes and meta states create paradox and conflict, not the world at large -in-and-of-it's-self. I knew this yet had not perceived the practical implications before, but in the world there is no paradox, no axiomatic authority, prominence, or hierarchy of levels of meaning. With due respect to the primacy of Bertrand Russel's `sets of categories', Albert Ellis's `compound emotions' and Sartre, but here is a true revelation, an epiphany even, about the position and imposition of meaning in a cold and category-less world.
Wow! People's perceived problems are not absolute or even ones of subjective assessment, but are problems of category and hierarchy alone.
Suddenly sitting before me in my practice were not people with a set problem in and of itself. Instead I found before me people whose arbitrary assignment of pre-eminence of one category (whose delineations are just as arbitrary) over another was operating as a problem within their perceived world. It was as if I was suddenly watching a steam of green numbers cascading downwards against a black background.
"
~ Written on 2006-08-08

"Volume 1 is my favourite NLP reference book, so I was disappointed to say volume 2 was hard work to read.

There is good content within, such as the Cinema Of The Mind metaphor and the idea of Meta-States. Also, I'm glad I read about the authors' alternative model for belief change work. However, I think a book a third as long could have expressed this content more easily and succinctly. (The authors are verbose and repetitive. I think the book needs some extra rounds of editing, perhaps using a professional editor, to crop extraneous repetition and make key points more plainly.)

I don't know much about the authors but I get the idea they've developed their own revisionist model of NLP and they want to sell it. In their model there are 6 rep systems not 5; sub-modalities are actually meta-modalities; they've developed a more complicated Meta-Model; and they pitch their own unique, unified model of NLP.

Reframing sub-modalities as Meta-modalities was empowering in that it opened up new ideas and insights. I think they're on to something here, though I felt they made too much beef out of how (NLP originator) Bandler was "wrong". That seemed one-upmanish.

As for other revisions: Despite reading it with a curious and explorative frame I didn't get convinced that the 6th rep system (vestibular) was really distinct from kinaesthetic and I didn't get convinced that the more complex Meta-Modal was better. (This may be because I have a tendency to prefer chunking-up when I learn whereas the auhors seem to prefer chunking-down; and because I have a belief that the simplification of models is more useful than complication.)

To conclude, there is empowering material in this book. I found some of the authors' revisionist ideas useful, others less so. However, my overall impression is that the book is too long and unnecessarily difficult to wade through."
~ Written on 2006-05-14

"I loved Volume 1 of the User's Manual for the Brain. It is one of the best "pure" NLP books I have read. Unfortunately, for me, Volume 2 does not meet up to the expectations set by the first book. In Volume 2 the authors seem determined to make NLP an academic subject and advance their own "unifying theory" (with something of an obsession for "meta-states"). The result is a turgid and repetitive text. There is good stuff in there - the material on language models is excellent; the discussion on sub-modalities is enlightening (though slightly overcooked by the authors); and the work on reframing is stimulating. Sadly though, it is wrapped in treacle-like text which is very heavy going in many places. If your interest in NLP is scholarly then you may like this book. Personally I much prefer Michael Hall's other "Master" level book - "The Spirit of NLP"."
~ Written on 2004-06-14