[Neurons] Neurons #24 "DOING" PERSONALITY

Sun May 24 22:00:18 EDT 2020

From: L. Michael Hall 

2020 Neurons #24

May 25, 2020

**

DOING PERSONALITY

A Review of "The Structure of Personality"

Some years ago Te Ruru of New Zealand wrote a book review of The Structure
of Personality: Personality Ordering and Disordering with NLP and
Neuro-Semantics, which was published by Crown House Publications, UK, in
2001.  The book continues to sell and is frequently purchased by
psychologists and Universities for studies in Personality.  What follows is
what he wrote which was published in Trancescript, The New Zealand Journal
of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.  

Book Review

Occasionally a book is published in the field of therapy that has the
potential to radically altering the way those working in the helping
professions think about certain types of challenges their clients are
experiencing.  The Structure of Personality could well be such a book.  On
the basis of their extensive casework, research, training, and modeling, the
four co-authors of this book presents a fresh understanding of the theory
and treatment of personality disorders, from an NLP perspective.  Their
central premise is that personality is something people do, rather than
something they have (or are).

This handsome hardback challenges the current paradigm for the assessment of
personality disorders, which tends to view such conditions as negative,
crippling, and resistant to change.  Rather than engage in useless
inter-disciplinary polemic, the authors demonstrating that people already
have the ability to reorder personality in ways that will allow them to
function well.  The book also reframes personality "disorders" as
expressions of personal strengths utilized ineffectively.

In his introduction, Professor Carl Lloyd introduces this theme by quoting
research conducted by the US Navy in the 1990s, which suggested that the
submariners best qualified for crewing nuclear submarines evidenced three
distinction DSM-IV personality disorders: Obsessive-Compulsive (OCPD),
Schizoid (SPD), and Avoidant (APD).  In other words, these "disorders" were
personal strengths in the context of safely harnessing the awesome energy of
nuclear powered and armed submarines, because crew members needed to be
"preoccupied with orderliness, perfectionism, and control," "socially
independent," and able to "fully function even in total isolation."  In
other words, personality was ordered in that context, in a way that actually
reflected crew members' strengths.

In their enthusiasm, some highflying proponents of Neuro-Linguistic
Programming have tended to nudge NLP into the pop-psychology category in
people's perception.  The Structure of Personality places NLP where it best
fits- at the leading edge of serious psychological research.  NLP
practitioners will be familiar with some of the material presented in this
book, as both sets of authors have been developing models, publishing
articles and books, and offering trainings that include processes based on
the material presented in this new book.

However, The Structure of Personality pulls together in a comprehensive and
integrated text, perhaps for the first time, the most useful contributions
of NLP for addressing the personality disorders.  Part I presents the theory
and research supporting the authors' position, as well as outlining
processes for ordering personality.  Part II details how twelve DSM-I
involves both conscious and unconscious defined personality disorders can be
reordered, based on the material presented in Part I.  This structure means
the book is eminently usable because it is both an authoritative
presentation of theory and research, and a manual for the practical
application of that theory.  The book is also part of a wonderful legacy
left by Margot Hamblett.  She died in 2005, and her co-authors have
fittingly dedicated the book to Margot.

The name of the book is well chosen, for it echoes another title, The
Structure of Magic, a book many will associate with the original developers
of NLP.  By this means the authors have set up a resonance that places them
firmly in the continuum of NLP developers.  Perhaps a slight change to
Structuring Personality may have reflected the focus of the book more
accurately.

The style of presentation is worth noticing.  Rather than provide a
collection of articles, two sets of experts with slightly different maps in
the field of NLP have collaborated to produce an integrated and
groundbreaking text.  This elegantly models the practice of discussing,
exploring, and discovering the enriching differences and commonalities in
maps for the same territory.  

Chapters alternate between authors.  L. Michael Hall and Bob Bodenhamer
achieve a fairly technical and conceptual register, while Richard Bolstad
and Margot Hamblett's voice is softer, and they continually enliven their
theory with case examples, including some from their work in the war-torn
Balkans.  Despite these stylistic difference, the text is woven together in
a relatively seamless manner, although certain ownership sensitivities are
evident.  This is probably just a reflection of the penchant some NLP
developers have for designing processes, coining or resurrecting significant
labels, registering them and marketing them as discrete models.  The
constant use of the terms Neuro-Semantics and NLP gives the impression that
the two sets of authors are working out of separate models.  This fictional
distinction tends to fudge the fact that both sets of authors are actually
using the same approach, only differently.

The Structure of Personality is both an advanced and a readable text.
Although over editing has produced awkward syntax in one or two sentences,
readers will recognize the authors' practice of converting nouns into verbs.
This gives the language energy and movement, as well as keeping the focus on
personality as something people do.  A rather minimalist index is a bit of a
surprise for a book of this caliber.  If readers wanted to look up anxiety,
or anchor, they might be disappointed to find the index actually starts with
the letter "B."  However, the detailed contents, frequent headings, bullet
points, and extensive bibliography are excellent features.  

Both its ground breaking content, and its user-friendly format, make The
Structure of Personality "a text to have" for NLP practitioners, students,
and practitioners in the mental health field, as well as for supervisors and
training institutions.  Carl Lloyd's view seem accurate enough when he
concludes that this new book "is impressive both in scope and depth,
staggering in its implications for treating personality disorders, giving
the clinical world an utterly new way of looking at the etiology and
treatment of personality disorders."

To purpose the book: contact Crown House Publications, UK

 <http://www.crownhouse.co.uk/> www.crownhouse.co.uk          

              Or  <http://www.neurosemantics.com/products/>
www.neurosemantics.com/products/    

              For a description,
<http://www.neurosemantics.com/products/the-structure-of-personality/>
www.neurosemantics.com/products/the-structure-of-personality/  

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

International Society of Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

    cid:261CED33-4408-4124-862B-B9A4B37A367A

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