Methods of Neuro-linguistic Programming - Representational Systems

Representational Systems

The notion that experience is processed by the sensory systems or representational systems, was incorporated into NLP from psychology and gestalt therapy shortly after its creation. This teaches that people perceive the world through the senses and store the information from the senses in the mind. Memories are closely linked to sensory experience. When people are processing information they see images and hear sounds and voices and process this with internally created feelings. Some representations are within conscious awareness but information is largely processed at the unconscious level. When involved in any task, such as making conversation, describing a problem in therapy, reading a book, kicking a ball or riding a horse, their representational systems, consisting of images, sounds, feelings (and possibly smell and taste) are being activated at the same time. Moreover, the way representational systems are organised and the links between them impact on behavioral performance. Many NLP techniques rely on interrupting maladaptive patterns and replacing them with more positive and creative thought patterns which will in turn impact on behavior.

Preferred representational systems

Originally NLP taught that most people had an internal preferred representational system (PRS) and preferred to process information primarily in one sensory modality. The practitioner could ascertain this from external cues such as the direction of eye movements, posture, breathing, voice tone and the use of sensory-based predicates. If a person repeatedly used predicates such as "I can see a bright future for myself", the words "see" and "bright" would be considered visual predicates. In contrast "I can feel that we will be comfortable" would be considered primarily kinesthetic because of the predicates "feel" and "comfortable". These verbal cues could also be coupled with posture changes, skin color or breathing shifts. The theory was that the practitioner by matching and working within the preferred representational system could achieve better communication with the client and hence swifter and more effective results. Many trainings and standard works still teach PRS whilst other proponents have de-emphasized the existence and relevance of PRS and instead emphasize working within all representational systems. In particular, New Code emphasizes individual calibration and sensory acuity, precluding such a rigidly specified model as the one described above. Responding directly to sensory experience requires an immediacy which respects the importance of context. Grinder has stated that a representational system diagnosis lasts about 30 seconds.

Although there is some research that supports the notion that eye movements can indicate visual and auditory (but not kinesthetic) components of thought in that moment, the existence of a preferred representational system ascertainable from external cues (an important part of original NLP theory) was discounted by research in the 1980s.

Submodalities

Submodalities are the fine details of representational systems. In the late 1970s the developers of NLP started playing around with the submodalities of representational systems involving the enhancement of visualisation techniques (common in sports psychology and meditation), by including other sensory systems. Submodalities involve the relative size, location, brightness of internal images, the volume and direction of internal voices and sounds, and the location, texture, and movement of internally created sensations. Submodalities and hypnosis became the focus of Richard Bandler's later work. A typical change process may involve manipulating the submodalities of internal representations. For example, someone may see their future as 'dark and cloudy' with associated emotions, but would seek through NLP to perceive, and feel it, as 'light and clear'. Other training exercises develop a person's ability to move around internal images, change the quality of sounds and find out how these effect the intensity of internal feelings or other submodalities. Although NLP did not discover submodalities, it appears that the proponents of NLP may have been the first to systematically use manipulation of submodalities for therapeutic or personal development purposes, particularly phobias, compulsions and addictions.