Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Most of this discussion of NLP is taken from a Usenet posting by Steven Robbins.
Go to http://www.nlp.com/nlp/whats-nlp.html for the complete text.
The name Neuro-Linguistic Programming comes from the disciplines: neurology, linguistics,
and observable patterns ("programs") of behavior.
NLP, as most people use the term today, is a set of models of how communication impacts and is impacted by subjective experience. NLP was developed in the mid-70s by John Grinder, a Professor at UC Santa Cruz and Richard Bandler, a graduate student.
NLP has several techniques, based on these models, for diagnosing and intervening in certain situations. They have a phobia cure, a way to detraumatize past traumas, and ways to identify and integrate conflicting belief systems that keep you from doing things you want, etc.
The addition of specific NLP technology makes it possible to discover much of what the human
model does that he or she is not aware of. To do this well means to actually study the structure of
people's thought processes and internal experience, as well as their observable behavior.