ABSTRACT

In this chapter the author talks in more detail about his PhD research where he asked 15 NLP experts from around the world, ‘what is NLP?’ In order to ensure the answer that emerged from the analysis was not too skewed towards NLP, he also made use of a 44,000-word LinkedIn conversation between 19 NLP informed psychologists. The chapter talks about why NLP is so difficult to research when different experts seem to have different definitions of what it is. The chapter suggests and explores that NLP works more along the lines of an action researcher than a positivist scientist and these different epistemologies take the professional in different directions. For the NLP practitioner utility and having useful tools with which to further explore and develop useful meanings is seen as purposeful. This is contrasted with the positivist who is keen to discover a concrete reality consisting of identifiable interacting variables which can then be tested through replication of research and then generalised to a wider population.