THE STRUCTURE of MAGIC 2: Communication and change book

Book Synopsis: The Magic pairing of 1 and 2 are said to be "the first books on creative and generative therapy." (ever?...mmmm…I wonder if Jung got there first?) and "never was there an intention of starting a new school rather a new way of talking about therapy.” A certain familiarisation with a systematic explanatory style of communication is required to get to grips with these key 1970s seminal texts which opened up the field of NLP 40 years ago. Half jokingly aside, I kind of hoped, like Magic 1, the last section would be a technical appendix that could be skimmed over at my leisure since an initial cursory glance suggested at first a mathematical basis; but in actual fact the chapter turned out to be the denouement of the book, though delivered with a certain amount of logic verbiage. For instance, a typical snippet states: "...the specific outcome or client's next state restricted to the set of well-formed in therapy six-tuples which are the result of the operation of each of the members of f = function specified as appropriate for the initial state the client presented." It is my observation that Grinder's style of discourse (in videos at least) resembles Satir's stance of super-reasonableness that may also partly explain the proof-like logicality that much of the tenor of this book holds. The co-author's version of what is now familiarly known as a growth mindset (Dweck) termed 'morphogenesis' describes a person with an open system responsive to the environment, and able to readily adapt to any stressful disturbances using appropriate and unrestricted choices. Bandler not unabashedly credits himself with inventing the positive psychology movement and one can, if pushed, see his point and legacy in describing "closed systems created by people making the 'best' choices in their model of the world using the principles of modelling in the 'best' way they know how." The rigid patterns held between members of a family in difficult relationships are euphemistically turned into ‘calibrations’ to partial analogue communications, or the gap between unexpressed wants/needs and cultural rules etc. A series of fascinating discoveries about how the senses operate in biofeedback reveal the highly valued input/output channels of the body along with the mind's representational system (i.e. as visual, auditory, kino or digital). There then follows an explanation of fuzzy functions (cf. synesthesia or see-feeling), Incongruities (parts or sub personalities) and how to make instant descriptions (IDs) using the curiously named six-tuple (IROSFM). This diagnostic tool is intended as a kind of short-hand intuitive blink report to denote the client's set of paramessages, meta-violations (deletions) and semantic distortions. These are then used to determine the type of metatactics or manoeuvres that should be selected "as viable ways of knowing", for example playing polarity and sorting simultaneous incongruities into sequential polarities that for the client ultimately leads to an end goal of metaposition - an important moment of observing 'contact' between the incongruous parts. Certainly Psychosynthesis and Gestalt have similar integration based techniques, but the optimal speed-to-utility value of NLP is remarkable in taking less time than to solve a crossword puzzle in many instances - and in some very difficult situations too! Be prepared to wow .. and .. wow out loud.. this is the kind of book without any limitations of application as far as I can tell, see, touch, smell or taste - which has of course proven to be true over time beyond NLP's original therapeutic slant. To finish off in repeating one of my favourite quotes :"people are not bad, sick, crazy or evil but are making the best choices available in their model of the world." Classic.