Neurolinguistic programming

Neurolinguistic programming is a pseudoscientific way of communicating, created in the 1970s. It is often shortened to NLP. The discipline assumes there is a link between neurological processes, language and behavior. According to NLP, it is possible to achieve certain goals in life by changing one's behaviour.Tosey, P. & Mathison, J., (2006) "Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming  Centre for Management Learning & Development, School of Management, University of Surrey. 
Certain neuroscientists psychologists and linguists, believe that NLP is unsupported by current scientific evidence and that it uses incorrect and misleading terms and concepts.

NLP was invented by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. According to these people,  NLP can help solve problems such as phobias, depression, habit disorder, psychosomatic illnesses, and learning disorders.

Reviews of empirical research on NLP show that NLP contains many factual errors.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)  It did not produce reliable results for the claims for effectiveness made by NLP’ developers and proponents.  According to Devilly, NLP is no longer as common as it was in the 1970s and 1980s. Criticisms go beyond the lack of empirical evidence for effectiveness; critics say that NLP has pseudoscientific characteristics, title,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.  (pp. 25–41) see page p.41 concepts and terminology.  One example where NLP is used as pseudoscience is to make the teaching of scientific literacy at the professional and university level easier.   NLP also appears on peer reviewed expert-consensus based lists of discredited interventions. In research designed to identify the “quack factor” in modern mental health practice, Norcross | display-authors = etal (2006) Norcross | display-authors = etal (2006) Discredited Psychological Treatments and Tests: A Delphi Poll. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, American Psychological Association.  list NLP as possibly or probably discredited, and in papers reviewing discredited interventions for substance and alcohol abuse, Norcross | display-authors = etal (2010)Norcross, J.C., Koocher, G.P., Fala, N.C., & Wexler, K.W. (2010) "What Does Not Work? Expert Consensus on Discredited
Treatments in the Addictions", Journal of Addiction Medicine, vol. 4, no. 3, (September 2010), pp 176-177 list NLP in the top ten most discredited, and Glasner-Edwards and Rawson (2010) list NLP as “certainly discredited”.

References

Category:Pseudoscience