Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Does it do anything?

[reddragdiva]

... No.

The theory doesn't hold, so if you want to build further theory on it you're out of luck. (Wikipedia summarises the problems pretty well: the models are provably incorrect, it appears oddly hard to teach and communicate, and advocates even try claiming science is inadequate to analysing it.)

The master hack for getting people to do what you want is confidence: simply, to confidently tell them to do what you want. NLP works insofar as having a theory at all, even an erroneous one, increases your confidence. And what NLP actually sells is getting people to do what you want. So NLP delivers what it's selling. Sort of.

(I said "simple," not "easy." But that is the actual answer.)

Many other such marketed mental hacks work the same way, including ones that sell themselves as therapies rather than control techniques. They pretty much all work by applied confidence. Some with an admixture of exploiting cognitive biases.

If you don't buy that and think I'm just mired in pseudosceptic negativity, you could always try using NLP for weight loss, psoriasis or to cure cancer.

Comments

[mouseworks]

The idea of jumping without a helmet -- shudder.

One of the gotchas with horses is the traits that make horses instant reactors to aids tend to make them instant reactors to scary hats, too. Donkeys and onager have a more aggressive style in dealing with problems than horses do. (Onagers so aggressive that when humans tried to use them to pull chariots, the onager had to be muzzled). Mules tend to be much less skittish than horses, and not quite so quick to pay attention to the bit and the heel.

My grandfather, who had worked with horses and mules since he was a child, said that you can't break a horse to a book and would turn me loose in the summer on a mule, not a horse.

[quiet000001]

But don't you know, if you're in tune enough with your horse, it'll never ever jump wrong! (There is not an icon in existence to convey how absurd I find that idea.) Luckily, the majority of the equestrian folks online (even some of the Western folks, who are getting in on the 'hey, maybe brains are useful and we should protect them' notion) reacted by going '... Did you seriously just say that? SCREENCAP!' and 'hey, lawyer types, if a Parellite falls and gets brain damage from not wearing a helmet because they said their followers didn't need to, can they sue?' (Alas, I think the conclusion was 'probably not' but that's one lawsuit that might be a service to mankind.)

Someone who owns mules once told me that one of the big differences between horses and mules (and presumably donkeys) when trail riding and that sort of thing is that mules have a much better developed sense of self-preservation, and have no problem whatsoever looking at a situation and going 'you are NUTS, I am not going there' - like crossing a flooded stream or an old bridge or something like that - whereas most horses are more willing to follow the rider's guidance, even if the rider is an idiot.

(I suspect people with Appaloosas would argue that their horses are more like mules, but properly bred Appys - not the ones that are just spotted Quarter Horses - do tend to have a lot of attitude and intelligence, so I could believe it.)

I think some ponies can be more like mules in that regard, also, which is what makes some of them really excellent babysitter types. Of course, some of them are nasty little things because it's hard to train a pony properly in the first place if you don't have access to a good kid or a small adult, but if you get one of the good ones, they tend to be REALLY good. They'll respond perfectly happily during a lesson or something, but as soon as the kid wants to do something dumb - nope, not happening. (Said ponies are also very good at the "I can't HEAR you" game where you can poke, pull, tug, swear, and otherwise drive yourself nuts trying to get it to do what you want, and if it's not convinced it's a good idea, it's just Not. Happening.) (One of my friends has a rare breed pony who's like that - he's good as gold in most situations, but has no problems conveying quite clearly when he thinks you're being dumb.)

Horses are awesome when people aren't being stupid on and with them. :)

[mouseworks]

Yeah, mules don't trust or obey humans completely. They're also a bit naturally more sure footed (oval hooves possibly help). The only thing Rhodie was afraid of was lightning -- she'd been struck once. Putting her under cover was sufficient to calm her down, though.

A friend in rural Virginia had a work pony who liked pulling logs but hated being ridden. They could trust the pony to drag logs from the forest to the truck and come back for a new log (hippies heating with wood). Riding? Not happening. "I'm your partner, not your bitch" seemed to be the attitude.

I'm in a country, Nicaragua, that still uses horses (and some mules) for transportation and for working cattle. The average daily use horses are small, often gaited. I'm tempted, but probably too out of practice for riding again, and a bit too old to recover from getting thrown quickly. The hipico (horse parade) show horses are quite a bit larger.

[quiet000001]

I want to get back into riding again - I took lessons seriously as a teenager and then Life Happened and it's been a while - and that's one issue I have to get over. My body keeps going 'but we're probably much more BREAKABLE now, are you SURE?'

Feh. I miss horses, I will triumph! :)

But yes, I know what you mean about ponies/mules/donkeys often having that attitude. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. (Actually, I think it's a good thing for a lot of kids because kids are not known for their judgment skills and sometimes, having a pony who'll go 'are you NUTS? I'm not doing that!' will save their bacon. :) )

Oddly, to some extent, that is also an attitude that, as I understand it, people who do Three Day Eventing or hunting look for in their horses - maybe a little less so (because they do want the horses to trust them to jump something that might look odd but is actually safe, since course designers like to make odd-looking jumps as a test) but they definitely want a degree of self-preservation because when you're jumping mostly fixed jumps and fences and that sort of thing that won't fall down easily, you REALLY want your horse to be willing to go 'you know, we're not going to clear this, I am going to stop/run out' instead of trying, chesting the jump, and flipping over and squishing you flat. Though apparently this is a trait that seems to be getting harder to find.

[mouseworks]

Ponies in the US are notorious for deciding that having children on their backs at all is an imposition.

[quiet000001]

We have a shortage of decent pony riders in the US who are old enough but still small enough to actually train the smaller ponies. Add that to a general climate which tends towards 'bubble wrap your child' parenting, and you have issues getting ponies trained properly.

(Not that I think that a novice kid should be tossed up on a green or rank pony, but there does seem to be much more of an attitude in the UK where once you've got the basics, it's expected that you'll just learn to deal with training issues and if you fall off, unless you're seriously hurt - which is pretty unlikely if you're wearing proper safety equipment and on small ponies - you just get back on and carry on with what you were trying to do.)

So basically in the US, we teach ponies that if they get the rider off then they get a break while everyone fusses over the rider's bruise and debates if it needs an hospital visit, and in the UK they teach ponies that if they get the rider off the rider is more than likely to just get right back on. (And if that particular rider is too injured to do so, there's probably someone else who can fill in just long enough to put the pony through the paces so it doesn't think it's gotten out of working.)

[mouseworks]

The code from my mother, who learned to ride in Kentucky, was get back on a horse that threw you. I'd always thought that was about making sure the rider didn't lose nerve, hadn't thought of it from the perspective of the horse before.