[Neurons] 2010 Meta Reflections #59

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2010 - #59

December 2, 2010

History of NLP Series #14

 

 

WHAT ABOUT FRANK PUCELIK?

 

                                                

In J. Grinder's impossible-to-read mismatching book criticizing almost
everything happening in the field of NLP that didn't come from him (!)
called Whispering in the Wind, John described Frank Pucelik as one of the
co-founders of NLP.  

Frank Pucelik was "third man in the initial modeling and testing of
patterning in NLP." (p. 126)

"Richard Bandler and Frank Pucelik, were doing a Gestalt therapy group
nearby and he [Frank] was inviting me to come along." (p. 143)

"Pucelik, Bandler, and Grinder had sorted out unconsciously the most
effective of the verbal patterns used by Perls and Satir through the process
of unconscious editing during imitation.  Grinder a professional
syntactician.  The patterns were already very familiar to him." (p. 151)

 

When I first read this in 2002 about Frank Pucelik, I was shocked.  First I
hardly even had heard about Frank and second, this was now 30 years after
the very beginnings of NLP and this was the first time that a "third"
co-founder had ever been presented.  So lots of questions assaulted my mind:




.                     Was there a third co-founder of NLP?

.                     Was Frank Pucelik one of the founders of NLP?

.                     Was John writing to reduce the position and role of
Richard Bandler by making him "just one of two persons" who were doing the
original Gestalt processes thereby exalting his position?

.                     How come no one else ever spoke of Frank in these
terms?

 

Several more years passed and in 2010, Frank Pucelik responded to these
questions on an NLP blog site and wrote saying that yes he was a co-founder.
A few months later at the NLP Conference in London (Nov. 13-14, 2010) I meet
Frank for the first time and we spent a delightful evening talking as I
interviewed him about the early days of NLP and his role in its formation.
I found him a charming and gracious man, intelligent, well informed about
NLP, and that he could easily be provoked into making some very reactive
judgments against some of the other NLP founders and developers.  The next
day I had the opportunity to sit in his presentation and see him present to
a group, he was not only knowledgeable and skilled in NLP but he was an
entertaining and engaging speaker.

 

So what is the scoop?   Frank dated "NLP" back to 1971, rather than 1972 as
Terry McClendon (Wild Days of NLP: 1972-1975).  He claims that the first
group of people - before Terry McClendon, Robert Dilts, David Gordon, Judith
DeLozier, Leslie Cameron, etc., there was a group of 7 others:

"The 'real' originators never get the credit for what they have done. Their
names are; Marilyn Moskowitz, Ilene McCloud, Trevelyan Houck, Patrick
Rooney, Terry Rooney, Jeff Paris, Lisa Kiarra [not sure of last name here],
Devra Canter, myself, and a couple more I will remember soon, I hope.  None
of the people know as originators are among this group.  If you doubt my
memory, ask John.  Richard's memories serve his intentions a bit more
creatively than John or myself.  John has no concern or personal agendas
about the facts and is perfectly comfortable with the truth.  If he can
remember, he will tell you."



When I asked about these people and what happened to them, Frank said that
they were students and after the "classes" with him and Richard, and later
John, they just moved out with their lives and never got involved with NLP.
Strange.  They just moved on?!   So I asked, "Did they not know what they
had; what was going on?"  Apparently not.  What this original Meta-Model
group found and experienced before the Mission Street Group somehow didn't
make enough of an impression so that most of them never became part of what
was later called NLP.  Of course, they were just working things out at that
time, doing Gestalt (not NLP) and didn't have any of the models.  So those
who could have become leaders in the movement did not, they just moved on
and apparently didn't get involved later when NLP did emerge.

 

By contrast, the Mission Street group, which was the second group, did
continue on and did become the Leaders to this day of the movement that we
call NLP.  And that is pretty obviously why we look to the second group,
rather than the first, as the true source of NLP today.  That group groomed
the leaders who gave NLP its form and structure and who, to this very day,
remain leaders.

 

Now Frank gets pretty animated when people talk about who was part of the
original group and really dislikes it when members of the second group
(Dilts, Gordon, etc.) are described as part of the original group.  But
"NLP" didn't exist when the first ones were doing Gestalt practices and
didn't continue.  The term "NLP" came about in 1977 or 1978.

 

Now it is obvious from the history of NLP that Frank did play a significant
role.  Terry McClentock indicated this in the book, The Wild Days.  Frank,
having served in Vietnam as a corpsman, returned and was studying Gestalt
Therapy when he somehow got connected with Richard Bandler.  That's when
they began "teaching" those unofficial Gestalt Classes.  Frank says he was
able to make that happen because he was a student at Southern California
University at Santa Cruz and Richard was not.  So Frank could get access so
the classrooms to use whereas Richard could not.  Now in McClentock's
history, John came in because Richard he needed a faculty supervisor, but
Frank says that was not so due to the nature of the avant garde experiment
called Kresge College.

 

So Frank says this group of 7 people with him and Richard learned the Gesalt
patterns.  Then later John started coming in, sitting in the back and
noticing some of the linguistic patterns that were being demonstrated.  That
must have been late 1971 and/or early 1972.  Then someone else strange
happened.  As Frank puts it, "Richard started to slowly favoring John over
me and so I took more and more of a backseat and became the third man."

 

But he did not take a backseat entirely.  He got connected with Judith
DeLozier and married her, they having a son together, Eric.  Then he got
connected with Leslie Cameron and they lived together before she and Richard
got met and married for one year (1977-78).   Frank also said during 1973
and 1974 Bateson would begin coming around, popping into the Meta-Model
groups and observing.

 

The Meta-Model became a two-volume book in 1975 and 1976, The Structure of
Magic.  John and Richard's names are on the book, but not Frank's, nor is
his on Hypnotic Patterns of Milton H. Erickson (1976, 1977).  Then Frank
said that in 1977 Richard "asked" him to leave.  In the blog, he wrote the
following:

"I was forced out of the 'group' in late 1976, but actually left in 1978, by
Richard for his own personal reasons.  At that time I took several of the
'meta' guys to San Diego with me and we formed 'Meta Institute'.  This
organization continued with the development and training in NLP for several
years until 1983, when I moved to Oklahoma.  I then opened 'Meta
International' and continued the work with NLP.  I was also a professor at
the University of Oklahoma for 4 years and supervised 2 treatment centers
for young drug addicts and alcoholics.  In 1987 I was invited to visit
Moscow, went several times over the next 4 years, and by 1991 I was living
and working in Russia.  Now I live in Odessa, Ukraine, work all over the CIS
and love it here.  I do mostly business consulting here but keep my hand in
the NLP market a bit as well."

 

So what about Frank Pucelik?  Well, here is another chapter in the history
of NLP, and one not well known.  I was pleased that David Bowman invited
Frank to the NLP Conference at London, that Frank came from the Ukraine to
make an appearance and that I got a chance to speak with him about all of
this.  For a long time Frank has been out of the field and community and
doing really significant work with drug addicts and alcoholics.  He spoke
about the centers that he has in the Ukraine and Russia and is obviously a
tremendous contribution that he is making to the field.  And, I don't think
we have heard the last from him!




 

 

HELP NEEDED ---- FOR THE HISTORY OF NLP AROUND THE WORLD

 

One of the missing parts of the History of NLP is when and who brought NLP
to various countries.  I have heard of some of that --- who took NLP to Hong
Kong and when; to England, to France, etc.  So if you know some of this, I'd
like to hear what you know and then put together what I hear.  By putting it
into writing, then those who know some more can contribute to that thereby
expanding what all of us know.

 

So --- if you are outside the USA and know at least some about your country,
when, where, and who brought NLP to your country . please write to me
privately (see below).  As I receive this, I'll make this some of the future
Meta Reflections on the History of NLP.

 

I have received information on France --- awaiting to hear from people about
other Countries.  Send to me private at  meta  @   acsol.net 

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Neuro-Semantics Executive Director  ----   <http://www.neurosemantics.com/>
www.neurosemantics.com

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA                             ----
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

1 970-523-7877                                               ----
<http://www.meta-coaching.org/> www.meta-coaching.org

 

 

 

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