Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19980902103213.00d55eb4@popmail.mcs.net>
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 10:32:13 -0500
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net>
Subject: RE: To Stephen Springette from Edryce
In-Reply-To: <v03102803b212f9c5f1d4@[194.109.13.153]>
At 03:36 PM 9/2/98 +0200, Ton Maas wrote:
>>At 06:46 PM 9/1/98 -0600, Mark Mills wrote:
>
>>Indeed, a term like "neuro-linguistic programming" may have simply sounded
>>too impressive to die out commercially, regardless of what it even referred
>>to.
>
>That's odd. In my personal experience most laymen respond rather negatively
>to the term, which (or so they report) has all the wrong connotations. The
>few people I know who ended up taking courses and practicing NLP, told me
>they had to overcome some "disgust" with the name. Therefore it has always
>seemed to me NLP's success has been _despite_ its name rather than thanks
>to it.
>
>Ton
When I say it sounds impressive, I don't mean that it sounds poetic.
Rather, I mean that the name is good for making commercial appeals to
fantasies of power. There is often a departure between what looks powerful
and what is aesthetically pleasing. Darth Vader's mask, for instance. Or
the demonic faces of gargoyles.
In saying that his customers can not only seduce but also control women,
Mr. Jeffries is clearly appealing to fantasies of power. The pitch probably
works well with power-starved males.
--Aaron Lynch
http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/thoughtcontagion.html
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