[Neurons] 2016 Neurons #39 Korzybski's Contributions to NLP

Sun Aug 21 23:22:43 EDT 2016

From: L. Michael Hall

2016 "Neurons" Meta Reflections - #39

August 8, 2016

Reflections about NLP #5

KORZYBSKI'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO NLP

As Bateson was one of the "grandfathers" of NLP, Alfred Korzybski was
another.  And the two were related.  In the early 1950s Bateson published
many articles in "ETC." the General Semantics Journal, articles that today
are incorporated in Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972).  Bateson even worked
on Korzybski's formulation, "The map is not the territory."   In his 1969
Presentation to the International Conference of General Semantics, he
extended the work on it by asking "what gets onto the map?" and answered
that question by talking about "the difference that makes a difference."

What Richard and John took from Korzybski and put in The Structure of Magic
was that famous quotation, "The map is not the territory."  Given that our
mental maps (our model of the world in our heads) is not the territory, but
a map of it, it is at best a facsimile of that external reality.  We then
use the model that we create to guide us in the world.

"...important characteristics of maps should be noted.  A map is not the
territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the
territory, which accounts for its usefulness." (Science and Sanity, p.
58-60)

Now in spite of the 830 pages of Science and Sanity, that is the one and
only quote that they ever took from Korzybski.  Did they take other
terminology from Korzybski?  For example, did they take "Neuro-Linguistics"
from him?  He used that phrase over and over again and in the 1940s he
traveled the United States doing "Neuro-Linguistic Trainings."  If so, they
never gave credit to him.  And what about "human design engineering?"  After
all, as an engineer, Korzybski filled his book about patterns and
structures, even mathematics, about how to design or engineer aspects of
human experience.

One of the distinctions Korzybski made was about humans as time-binders.  He
contrasted the kind of life characteristic by plants, animals, and humans.
Plants bind chemicals into themselves, animals bind space by movement, and
humans bind time-we can incorporate into ourselves the learnings of people
in previous times.   He then went on to create a Theory of Time-Binding.  In
fact, he later said that he originally intended to title his system
Time-Binding.  On second thought, he decided to name it "The Science and Art
of Human Engineering."  Eventually he called it General Semantics.

What is not so well known, because most people do not read original sources,
is the rest of the quotation about the map and the territory.  Notice the
fourth sentence in the quotation that I have put in italics:

"A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar
structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness. ... If we
reflect upon our languages, we find that at best they must be considered
only as maps.  A word is not the object it represents; and languages exhibit
also this peculiar self-reflexiveness, that we can analyse languages by
linguistic means.  This self-reflexiveness of languages introduces serious
complexities, which can only be solved by the theory of multi-ordinality.
The disregard of these complexities is tragically disastrous in daily life
and science." (p. 58, italics added)

Now in the beginning, they quoted Korzybski on the first part ("A map is not
the territory"), but did not go further.  Over the years I wondered if
either Richard or John ever even read Korzybski's original work.  If so, why
did they not pick up on the importance of self-reflexivity or
multi-ordinality?  My guess is that they picked up that quote form other
writers and never directly studied Korzybski.

Twenty years later it was my privilege to do that.  So in 1991-1992 I began
writing articles on the unknown Meta-Model distinctions of Korzybski and
published in Anchor Point as a series of articles (1991-1993).  Using
Korzybski's distinction of self-reflexivity, in 1994 I created the
Meta-States Model.

Precisely because Korzybski founded General Semantics in linguistics, he
focused on how language works, on how the human nervous system operates, and
on how language operates as a psycho-physiological function in our lives.
That's why Science and Sanity contains a great many linguistic
patterns-patterns that make for both unsanity and unsanity.  Not
surprisingly, while many correspond to the Meta-Model distinctions, there
were many new Meta-Model distinctions.  And like the linguistic distinctions
in the Meta-Model, these indicate deleted, generalized and distort
information which create limitations in mental mapping processes and result
in leaving us impoverished. 

As I began writing about Korzybski's original neuro-linguistics, I began
wondering why these linguistic patterns were not included in the first NLP
Meta-Model.   "Why were these not picked up and used?"  Bandler and Grinder
started with Korzybski's premise, "The map is not the territory," and yet
they did not follow-up with the ill-formed linguistic structures that
Korzybski identified or nd how to question them.  Strange.  At first I
guessed that they had their hands-full with the linguistic distinctions from
Transformational Grammar, but today I think that they didn't even know about
them.

Then in 1997 Richard Bandler asked me to co-author a new book on the
Meta-Model to celebrate 25 years of the Meta-Model.  He suggested a title
for the book-Magic Revisited.  The book would update the original Meta-Model
with the discoveries made in those 25 years.  Actually, this is what Richard
and John predicted would happen to the Meta-Model.  In speaking about those
in Generative Semantics they wrote that these "will be particularly useful
in expanding the Meta-Model further." (p. 109, also p. 38, The Structure of
Magic, Volume I, 1972).

In 1992 I had suggested in numerous articles in NLP journals both in the US
and in Europe seven new patterns from Korzybski to the Meta-Model.  In the
1997 book which we were to co-author (now titled Communication Magic, Crown
House Publications), I added a total of nine.  Two additional ones from
Cognitive psychology.   All of these patterns continues the original design
of enabling a person to re-connect one's language to the original experience
so that you can develop a richer and more effective map for navigating life.
(The reason why we didn't put both names on the book was that after Richard
signed the contract, he got upset with me for something and so refused!
Such is life with geniuses!)     By the way, when Frank Pucelik and Byron
Lewis updated their original book, Magic of NLP Demystified (1990) based on
Lewis' 1980 work, they included the 9 additional distinctions, Second
Edition, 2012.  Not surprisingly, John was very upset about the second
edition!

Did Korzybski contribute to some of the other NLP presuppositions beyond
"the map is not the territory?"  I don't know, there's no evidence for or
against it.  Yet in Science and Sanity there are statements that could have
been the origin of some of the presuppositions:

People communicate from their model of the world (p. 419).

              The human nervous system works perfectly well (p. 466).

People have all the resources they need.   "His [the average man] nervous
system works continually, as does that of a genius.  The difference consists
in that its working is not productive or efficient." (p. 485).

You can learn to solve your own problems (p. 529).

There's a structure in every experience, so search for that structure;
structure is the only source of knowledge (p. 544).

Alfred Korzybski certainly contributed much to NLP, he established the basic
language of NLP- neuro-linguistics, neuro-semantics, human engineering,
states, etc., and the central NLP Presupposition. And he did that forty
years prior to the birth of NLP- in 1933-1941.  His work then, as it does
today, continues to inspire new discoveries.

Neuro-Semantic News

.        Trainers' Training begins in Hong Kong Sept. 25.  We only do this
international training once a year and this year it is in Hong Kong.  We
have flyers about the training and lots of articles on
www.neurosemantics.com about how we have taken the training of trainers to a
whole new level.  Contact Sherran  sherran at apti.com.hk for the flyer and
information.  It is an intense boot-camp training, not for the faint of
heart.  It is excellent for professional trainers who are looking for the
next step in their own professional development. 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

               Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

               Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

                    Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net

    ISNS new logo

What is Neuro-Semantic NLP?

Neurons:  Get your free subscription to the weekly International \Post on
Neuro-Semantics by Dr. L. Michael Hall. Subscribe at:
wwww.neurosemantics.com

    Coaching: For world-class Coach Training - The Meta-Coaching System,
www.neurosemantics.com/metacoaching   Meta-Coach Reflections sent every
Wednesday to the group of Licensed Meta-Coaches.
www.metacoachfoundation.org  

Self-Actualization: Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential
Movement in 2007, for information about this, see
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org  

NSP --- Neuro-Semantic Publications: Order books from Neuro-Semantic
website,  <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com  click on
Products and Services and then the Catalogue of books.  Order via paypal.  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20160821/73c01953/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 10627 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20160821/73c01953/attachment-0001.jpg>