Reframing: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Transformation of Meaning

Richard Bandler and John Grinder

Real People Press 1982, 208 pages.

I borrowed this from the library and read up to page 138.

The interesting idea I remember is about adding a new “part” to the self. The idea is that we are made up of various “parts” each of which have a certain function. The function itself is always positive but its behaviour may not be. For example we may have a part that causes insomnia, its function is to remind us of important issues, but it does so as we are about to go to sleep, and just as we are going to sleep it wakes us up to start thinking about this issue. Another example is we might have a part that comforts us when we feel depressed, but it might do so by eating junk food.

Another example might be a part that stops us making a fool of ourselves, and does so by making us too scared to do a public presentation, or stops us writing a magazine article. So in each of these cases the part has a positive purpose, but its behaviour is something we want to change. Note we don’t want to change the positive purpose of the part, just its behaviour. So reframing is a sort of reprogramming of these parts to get them to produce more beneficial behaviour.

There are interesting accounts of individuals or therapists talking to these parts, asking them questions and getting answers, they actually have negotiations with the parts to understand them better and persuade them to change. You must always address your parts very graciously, and not insult them.

Note that it doesn’t matter if these “parts” really exist, the point is that by acting as if they do exist you can change your behaviour, and to that extent – in a practical sense – they are real.

One interesting section in the middle is about creating a new part. It may be that you don’t even have a part that does what you want - for example is creative and expressive. In this case you have to follow as particular sequence.

1. Decide the new part you want; note you need to be clear that you don’t already have a part trying to do this or you will cause problems with this existing part.
2. Access any experiences you have of doing X , go through each memory and think about the experience very carefully, using all representational systems.
3. Imagine very clearly what it will look like when you have this part. Identify what you will see, hear or feel that is different if you have this new part.
4. Listen to any objections from the existing parts about this new part. Each time you hear an objection, do the following: first ask what the function of the part is that has the objection. Sometimes you do not even need to know the objection from that part, it is enough to know the function of the part that has the objection. If you do actually need to know the objection, then listen to what it is, but only after first listening to the function of the part that has the objection. This is known as the ecological check.
5. Negotiate with the parts that have objections and come to some agreement with them all, you can’t add a new part if the other parts still object to it, you need to meet the objections of the other parts and make the necessary changes.
6. Ask your unconscious to build the new part, to make it into an entity.
7. Test the part is now there – go inside and ask, think of future situations and consider how you will now act, test the behaviour to ensure it is there.

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