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Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy.

According to the US National Library of Medicine, NLP is "A set of models of how communication impacts and is impacted by subjective experience. Techniques are generated from these models by sequencing of various aspects of the models in order to change someone's internal representations. Neurolinguistic programming is concerned with the patterns or programming created by the interactions among the brain, language, and the body, that produce both effective and ineffective behavior."[1]

NLP co-originated by Richard Bandler, who had an interest in Gestalt therapy[1][2], and John Grinder, then a professor of linguistics, at University of University of California, Santa Cruz. Bandler and Grinder produced several books and run seminars based on their observation and imitation of gestalt therapist Fritz Perls, family systems therapist Virginia Satir, and medical hypnotist Milton H. Erickson.[2]


There is no single definitive version or definition of NLP. The title refers to a stated connection between the neurological processes ("neuro"), language ("linguistic") and behavioral patterns that have been learned through experience ("programming") and can be organized to achieve specific goals in life.[3][4] In the promotional literature NLP has been defined, for example, as the "science of excellence". Other practitioners define the fields as "the study of the structure of subjective experience" which as the subtitle of one of the earliest books on NLP.[4] Some authors tend to emphasis NLP as a modelling technology. For example, Grinder and Bostic St Clair (2001) state that “NLP is a modeling technology whose specific subject matter is the set of differences that make the difference between the performance of geniuses and that of average performers in the same field or activity.”[5]



According to certain neuroscientists,[6] psychologists[7][8] and linguists[9][10], NLP is unsupported by current scientific evidence, and uses incorrect and misleading terms and concepts.

Criticisms go beyond the lack of empirical evidence for effectiveness; critics say that NLP exhibits pseudoscientific characteristics,[11] title,[6] concepts and terminology.[9] NLP is used as an example of pseudoscience for facilitating the teaching of scientific literacy at the professional and university level.[10][12][13]



The research into NLP is thin and spread across multiple fields. Reviews of empirical research on NLP showed that NLP contains numerous factual errors,[14][15] and failed to produce reliable results for the claims for effectiveness made by NLP’s originators and proponents.[16][8] According to Devilly,[11]


Heap (1988) states, "How widespread or popular NLP has become in practice is difficult to say with precision, though. As an indication the number of people to have been trained to 'Practitioner' level in the UK since NLP's inception seems likely to number at least 50,000. Trainings in NLP are found across the world, principally in countries where English is the first language, but including Norway, Spain and Brazil. There is no unified structure to the NLP practitioner community. Probably in common with other emergent fields, there is diversity in both practice and organisation, and there are resulting tensions".[17]


NLP is recognized as an intervention by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy[18] with accreditation governed at first by the Association for Neuro Linguistic Programming[19] and more recently by its daughter organization the Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy and Counselling Association.[20]

NLP also appears on peer reviewed expert-consensus based lists of discredited interventions.[8] In research designed to identify the “quack factor” in modern mental health practice, Norcross et al. (2006) [21] list NLP as possibly or probably discredited, and Glasner-Edwards and Rawson (2010) list NLP as “certainly discredited”.[22]

  1. ^ According to Robert Spitzer (1992), Bandler was to select portions of Perls transcripts to be published in The Gestalt Approach and Eye Witness to Therapy (1973)
  2. ^ a b Spitzer, R. (1992) Virginia Satir and the Origins of NLP, Anchor Point, 6(7)
  3. ^ Tosey, P. & Mathison, J., (2006) "Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming Centre for Management Learning & Development, School of Management, University of Surrey.
  4. ^ a b Dilts, R., Grinder, J., Delozier, J., and Bandler, R. (1980). Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Volume I: The Study of the Structure of Subjective Experience. Cupertino, CA: Meta Publications. p. 2. ISBN 0916990079.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Grinder, John & Carmen Bostic St Clair (2001). Whispering in the Wind. CA: J & C Enterprises. ISBN 0-9717223-0-7.
  6. ^ a b Corballis, MC., "Are we in our right minds?" In Sala, S., (ed.) (1999), Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons. ISBN 0-471-98303-9 (pp. 25–41) see page p.41
  7. ^ Drenth P J D: (1999). "Prometheus chained: Social and ethical constraints on psychology". European Psychologist. 4 (4): 233–239.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  8. ^ a b c Witkowski (2010). "Thirty-Five Years of Research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP Research Data Base. State of the Art or Pseudoscientific Decoration?". Polish Psychological Bulletin. 41 (2): 58–66.
  9. ^ a b Stollznow.K (2010). "Not-so Linguistic Programming". Skeptic. 15 (4): 7.
  10. ^ a b Lum.C (2001). Scientific Thinking in Speech and Language Therapy. Psychology Press. p. 16. ISBN 080584029X.
  11. ^ a b Devilly GJ (2005). "Power therapies and possible threats to the science of psychology and psychiatry" (PDF). Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 39: 437–45. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1614.2005.01601.x. PMID 15943644.
  12. ^ Lilienfeld.S, Mohr.J., Morier.D.. (2001). "The Teaching of Courses in the Science and Pseudoscience of Psychology: Useful Resources". Teaching of Psychology. 28 (3): 182–191.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Dunn.D., Halonen.J,Smith.R., (2008). Wiley-Blackwell. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4051-7402-2. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ Bergen Von; et al. (1997). "Selected alternative training techniques in HRD". Human Resource Development Quarterly. 8: 281–294. doi:10.1002/hrdq.3920080403. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)
  15. ^ Druckman, Daniel (2004) "Be All That You Can Be: Enhancing Human Performance" Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Volume 34, Number 11, November 2004, pp. 2234–2260(27) doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb01975.x
  16. ^ Sharpley C.F. (1987). "Research Findings on Neuro-linguistic Programming: Non supportive Data or an Untestable Theory". Journal of Counseling Psychology. 34 (1): 103–107, 105. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.34.1.103.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Heap 1988 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ UKCP. "United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy – List of Recognized Experimental Constructivist forms of therapies". Psychotherapy.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2008-06-12. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  19. ^ "The road to recognition: NLP in Psychotherapy and Counselling". Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  20. ^ "Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy Counselling Association NLPtCA". Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  21. ^ Norcross et. al. (2006) Discredited Psychological Treatments and Tests: A Delphi Poll. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.37.5.515
  22. ^ Glasner-Edwards.S.,Rawson.R. (June 2010). "Evidence-based practices in addiction treatment: review and recommendations for public policy". Health Policy. 97 (2–3): 93–104.

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