Product Description

NLP has a simple premise: take someone who′s good at something, model how they do it and learn from them. This way it is possible to understand the thought processes common to excellence in any field and weed out negative or habitual thinking.  Neuro–Linguistic Programming techniques extremely popular in many areas including business, education, sports, coaching, counselling, personal development and relationships. Neuro–linguistic Programming for Dummies avoids the jargon of many other books and provides both the basic essentials for the beginner and advanced theory for experienced NLP readers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4818 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 354 pages

Review
“…well written…will undoubtedly interest and delight many people…” (Resource Magazine, August 04)

“…thankfully avoids the jargon of many other books and provides basic essentials..” (Campus.ie September 2004)

“...If you buy a book with “For Dummies” in the title then I guess there isn’t much room for complaint…” (Honest ABE’s NLP Emporium, 3^rd December 2004)

"…aims to give you the skills to think clearly about your own actions and understand the motivations for other people′s..." (Independent on Sunday, 2^nd January 2005) 

“an excellent and straightforward guide that is worth every penny”. (Candis, March 2007)

“It is friendly and accessible, written by enthusiasts who have an obvious love of their subject.” (First Voice For Business, May 2007)

Review
“…well written…will undoubtedly interest and delight many people…” (Resource Magazine, August 04)

“…thankfully avoids the jargon of many other books and provides basic essentials..” (Campus.ie September 2004)

"…aims to give you the skills to think clearly about your own actions and understand the motivations for other people′s..." (Independent on Sunday, 2^nd January 2005) 

“an excellent and straightforward guide that is worth every penny”. (Candis, March 2007)

“It is friendly and accessible, written by enthusiasts who have an obvious love of their subject.” (First Voice For Business, May 2007)

Independent on Sunday, 2nd January 2005
"...aims to give you the skills to think clearly about your own actions and understand the motivations for other people's..."

Customer Reviews

read the title... it is quite clear who this book is aimed at
This book has been harshly reviewed by people who have knowledge of NLP: "don't read this book if you know anything about NLP" is apparently the take home message. Fine. But that is kind of like telling a rocket scientist not to bother reading a pre-school chemistry book!

For those who know nothing about NLP, i.e. the intended demographic, this is a great book with plenty of examples relating the theory to real life. Sure, it isn't advanced NLP but you can't run before you can walk.

I am a complete beginner and this book captured my imagination and made me think more analytically about my actions, thoughts and communication skills. My advice is go to a book store and read a chapter or two before making your mind up.

More than an introduction!
Okay, this is a "For Dummies" book, but that doesn't mean it is basic by any means. Every tool in NLP is explained, with anecdotes, exercises and much more besides.

NLP, when used by a skilled practitioner, is a very powerful method of changing the beliefs of yourself and others. That it hasn't been abused as much as it can be is quite astonishing to me after reading this book.

But if you think this or any other book will simply hand you the keys to someone's mind in a quick technique, you're sadly mistaken. NLP is a complex model of the unconscious and it requires a bit of study. It's what you make of it. Like anything worthwhile, you'll need to study it, but I read this book in a weekend and was practicing NLP successfully soon after.

There are some interesting side effects, too. You'll be able to spot a liar and from that tell whether they're left-handed or not!

One star is two too many
I have absolutely no idea how well-versed in NLP the authors of this book may be, but whatever the level of their knowledge, what comes across in this book is so confused, and in many places so downright inaccurate, anyone genuinely knowledgable on the subject could be forgiving for thinking it was written by a couple of complete novices.
(Please note - this is a comment on the contents of the book, not about the authors.)

Apart from anything else, as a reviewer in another place quite rightly noted, much of what is in the book isn't actually about NLP at all. On top of which the description of things neurological - such as the quite baffling description of the hippocampus - is largely pure gobbledegook:

'the hippocampus is made up of banks and banks of pyramid-like structures that get filled up during the day and emptied out at night? This means that you are able to make connections more quickly when you first wake up, so do your hardest thinking before the pyramids fill up.'

Before the "pyramids fill up"? You cannot be serious!

Apparently the authors have no idea whatsoever that what they are talking about are "pyramidal neurons" - the real "pyramids" in the brain are something else entirely. Moreover pyramidal cells aren't only found in the hippocampus, about 70 (seventy) per cent of the neurons in the neo-cortex are pyramidal.

On the same topic, what passes through neurons are minute electrical pulses which are transmitted to other neurons many times per second. So what the authors think the "pyramids" are "filling up" with, and why they are allegedly only "emptied out at night", is anyone's guess.

There are many other mistakes in the book, of varying substance, and I won't waste your time by trying to list them all here. The point is already made, I think, that whatever research went into preparing the text was totally inadequate. And contrary to the claims made in previous reviews this is probably one of the worst introductions to NLP on the market today.

For a introduction to NLP that really does cover all the important information, accurately, O'Connor and Seymour's 'Introducing NLP' is still the one to watch.