Richard Bandler, who studied psychology at the University of California in the early 1970s, was also taking courses in mathematics and computers. Bandler, who became interested in psychology under the influence of a family friend, researched the leading psychiatrists of the time. While dealing with the transcription of the lecture tapes of the famous family therapist Virginia Satir, she discovered certain patterns. Even Row didn’t know this, he thought he was doing it intuitively. This practice of Bandler was also the beginning of what we call “Modelling of Human Excellence” or simply Modeling in NLP.
Richard Bandler met John Grinder, an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the same university. Grinder had worked for the US Secret Service and US Army Special Forces Unit in Europe in the 1960s. While working here, he became a linguist and became interested in anthropology and psychology.
In 1972, Bandler was practicing Gestalt therapy on Tuesday evenings (in 1972). He went so far in modeling Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy, that, like him, he grew a beard and learned enough German to speak English with a German accent. On Thursday evenings, John Grinder lectured on Perls’ verbal and nonverbal language patterns. Together, Bandler and Grinder did a systematic review of the behaviors that set Perls apart.
Then came the modeling of Satır and the famous British Anthropologist Gregory Bateson. It was Richard’s master’s thesis that he wrote at the time, “The Structure of Magic”, which is considered NLP’s first book. (Moreover, his teacher did not accept the thesis). This book shook the whole world of psychology and psychiatry.
Bandler and Grinder then began investigating the secrets of behavior change and began to study people with various problems. For example, they noticed that people with phobias thought that the thing they were afraid of was happening to them at that moment. When they examined people who had recovered from their phobias, they found that they thought the event they feared was happening to someone else (associate-dissociate). This simple discovery allowed them to heal people with phobias.
Meanwhile, NLP had taken another turn: “People’s differences in thinking made a difference in how they experienced things”. First, they questioned what they would change. For this, they had a good example before them. Milton Erickson, the world’s doctor who works wonders in hypnosis. Erickson, born in 1901, was more interesting than Bandler and Grinder. After suffering a stroke at the age of 18, he lived on his farm in Wisconsin for a year, tied to a steel liver. He could see, hear and think. But he certainly couldn’t move. He was studying people’s verbal and nonverbal behavior to pass the time. Especially the differences between what is said and what is not said, but implied. He also learned about human nature. He learned to walk all over again by observing babies. This information would make him the most successful therapist in the world.
In 1975, Bandler and Grinder wrote volume 1 of Erickson’s related book, which puts language patterns under the microscope
Bandler and Grinder, who retreated to a chalet in Santa Cruz in 1976, did not leave for 3 days and tried to find a name for this system. The name NLP was revealed at the end of the 3rd day.
In 1977 came the second volume of Erickson’s book.
In 1979 the first best-selling NLP book “Frogsinto Princess” was published and sold over 1,000,000 copies.
In 1980, the books “Reframing” and “Transformations” were written and the interest in NLP increased.
After the writing of the book “NLP Volume 1” in 1981, Bandler and Grinder parted ways. While teaching NLP to individuals by following the path of Bandler Metamodel and Milton H. Erickson; Grinder followed the footsteps of Carlos Castenada and Gregory Bateson and studied anthropology and epistemology. He lived with African natives, modeled the greatest mountaineers, trained the business world.
Today, there are over 100 NLP institutes and 2 NLP universities in the USA. The number of NLP institutes in Europe is over 50.
In 1986, Anthony Robbins’ book “Unlimited Power” was published, which made NLP popular. Robbins today has a wide client portfolio, including Bill Clinton.
In 1997, Bandler and Grinder’s friendship completely ended. He sued Bandler Grinder for NLP’s naming rights. He didn’t get the 18 million USD compensation, but he got the naming rights of NLP.
NLP continues to evolve. It is currently the fastest method of human exchange. Despite all kinds of obstacles, this development seems to continue.