NLP Made Easy, New Edition

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Product Description

In this book, Carol Harris shows how NLP can work to improve the way readers feel and behave in their business, social, emotional, physical and spiritual lives…. More >>

NLP Made Easy, New Edition

Ed Andriessen
Ed Andriessen
Ed currently holds two certifications as a Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, one from the NLP Center of New York and one from NLP University at the University of California at Santa Cruz.He is also Co-director of the Princeton Center for NLP and is a Dilts/NLP University Distance Learning Affiliate. Ed has dedicated himself to understanding human communication in its many forms, and works as a trainer, coach, consultant and professional speaker.For twelve years, Ed has designed and led trainings and seminars in NLP, Management Development, Professional Development and Selling skills.Ed has studied with some of the best trainers in the world including Steven Leeds, Rachel Hott, Joseph Yeager, Susan Sommers, Richard Bandler, Robert Dilts, Judith DeLozier, Suzi Smith, Sid Jacobson, Michael Colgrass, Shelle Rose Charvet and Steve Andreas.

2 Comments

  1. Thanks to Ms. Harris I am unfortunately completely turned off to the whole NLP concept. As the previous reviewer mentioned, this book is poorly written, has very unimaginative examples (when EVEN PRESENTED), some of the most irrelevant information ever, ETC. And yeah, where was the editor? Skip this PLEASE.
    Rating: 1 / 5

  2. Recently I’ve encountered more and more references to Neuro-Linguistic Programming – probably because I’ve been on a magick and self-help reading binge, and both of those genres have much in common with NLP. It made sense for me to eventually read an introduction to this influential discipline, and so I purchased Carol Harris’s NLP Made Easy.

    Unfortunately, Harris has turned “a powerful technique for maximizing your potential” into a jargon-larded snooze-fest. Chapter One, “What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming,” introduces a few key concepts and shows some promise. Chapter Two, dealing with the history of NLP, is a mire of names, dates, locations and associations that have no significance to the neophyte and contributes nothing to an understanding of the subject matter. The NLP hagiography could have been shunted into an appendix, and the recitals of who was married to whom and for how long could not possibly interest anyone but an insider. Things brighten up again in the third chapter, where “frameworks,” “models” and “techniques” are introduced and distinguished. While merely definitional, this discussion at least hints at something more substantial to come. Alas, the remainder of the text, while purporting to describe applications of NLP in the areas of personal growth, social relationships and business situations, is really a parade of more jargon, excruciatingly banal illustrations, and – I hate to say it – poor writing.

    Here are some examples: In the chapter on personal development, we read about Jenny, who “gets out of breath running for a bus, tends to lack energy by early afternoon and thinks her muscle tone is rather soft.” We learn that Jenny goes to the gym, but has trouble keeping up her motivation, especially when using monotonous equipment like the treadmill. NLP’s solution for Jenny is for her to vividly imagine herself taking a walk in another location, away from the gym, “perhaps even somewhere as simple as the local shops.” “In much less time than usual,” we are told, “she will have completed her exercise and also had the mental stimulation of the imaginary walk.” No kidding. It actually says all that, but not much else, except for the imporant safety caveat that “Jenny still needs to pay conscious attention to her exercise technique” while taking imaginary walks and having imaginary discussions with friends. Examples like this make NLP look ridiculous, and the second half of Harris’s book is full of them.

    As for jargon, NLP apparently has more than its share. Here are a few of my favorites, culled from the glossary: “Representational systems” are sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell – in other words, the five senses. But I guess “five senses” wasn’t available for copyright protection. Oh, and the perfectly useful terms sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell are apparently too ordinary for admission into the NLP lexicon, which instead talks about the visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, gustatory and olfactory senses. Aside from these linguistic excrescences, “analogue marking” is a fancy way of saying “emphasizing,” either through gesture or tone, and “perceptual positions” are basically the same things as perspectives. As a lawyer, I hear and use jargon every day. But if I were writing a book for a lay audience, I would avoid jargon like chlamydia. Harris does us the favor of providing a glossary, but she would have done better to purge the main text of any word or phrase, not immediately recognizable to the layperson, for which an acceptable substitute exists.

    My next couple of critiques have to do with the style of the writing itself, apart from the uninspired examples and terms of art. A section on planning begins, “All of us need to plan at some time in our lives.” The next section, on negotiation, begins, “There are many situations where negotiation is necessary.” The chapter on social relationships begins, “There are many occasions when we need to come into contact with other people.” I could go on, but the point is that Harris’s weary repetition of the obvious is almost farcical.

    One of my greatest pet peaves, and one that appears on nearly every other page of this book, is pronoun/antecedent disagreement. Opening the book at random, I find, “Ask a person you know if they will help you with an exercise.” “A person” is singular; “they” is plural. Way back a long time ago, before elegance was sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, we would write, “Ask a person you know if he will help you with an exercise.” Today, so as not to offend anyone by writing in a manner that fails to take into account the shape of his or her genitals, we may write, “Ask a person you know if she or he will help you with an exercise.” This is awkward, but grammatically accurate. As a man, my feelings would not have been hurt had Harris used a hypothetical “she” throughout the text. In my own writing, I pay homage to gender neutrality by alternating hypothetical “he’s” with hypothetical “she’s.” But I digress. WHERE WAS THE EDITOR?

    My final critique is on the level of philosophy rather than content or style. On page 17, and again on page 83, Harris warns that certain techniques are too “powerful,” are “open to misuse,” and should only be used after “sufficient training” or “under supervision” of an advanced practitioner and then she clams up. I believe Harris may be sincere in her concern that certain techniques may be abused, but let’s face it – in the age of Google and Amazon, anyone who wants to can find out just about anything. The same sort of coyness shows up all the time in magick, martial arts and, lately, press releases from government funded research facilities. If the author is not being condescending, then she must be incredibly naive, or else she is employing some reverse-psychology marketing technique in order to sell more advanced NLP manuals. At any rate, I’ve always found this sort of paternalistic self-censorship a little irritating.

    I hope this review hasn’t been too negative. I really do mean it to be constructive. Regardless of the labels used (magick, cognitive behavioral therapy, NLP or whatever), we all wish we could do a better job winning friends and influencing people, yet we resent it when politicians, media figures, religious leaders and other types of salesmen manipulate us (that is, those of us who’ve figured out we’re being manipulated resent it, and wonder why nobody else seems to notice or care). Aside from that, most of us could use an occasional tune-up of our cognitive, interpersonal and “spiritual” faculties, and if someone out there has developed some useful techniques, let’s hear them! For these reasons, an easy-to-follow introduction to NLP is to be desired. To the author and the publisher: please do a better job next time. To the prospective reader: keep browsing titles before purchasing your first book on NLP. There must be a better one out there.
    Rating: 1 / 5

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